This timely and eloquent book tells a new history of American art: how enslaved people of African origin and descent mobilized portraiture for acts of defiance. Moving from the wharves of colonial Rhode Island to antebellum Louisiana plantations to South Carolina townhouses during the Civil War, Jennifer illuminates how enslaved people’s relationships with portraits provided the grounds for assertions of their selfhood, and ultimately shaped the trajectory of African American art post-emancipation. More from the publisher.
