Plan of an African Ship's lower Desk

Plan of an African Ship's lower Desk

Slave trade

This diagram of the slave ship “Brooks,” first published in 1788, became the most widely known and influential image used by abolitionist campaigners. It was redrawn and republished many times in Britain and America in the decades that followed. It helped viewers visualize the cruelty of the enslavement of Africans for labor in the New World and the horrific conditions of the Middle Passage. The Brooks was an actual ship that sailed regularly out of Liverpool.

Engraving published in American Museum, May 1789

1789

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Engraving

13_0953_001 slave ship 1789,jpg