Came across this excellent article today on U.S. museums that add information about slavery and enslaved people to their exhibits.
Can Art Museums Help Illuminate Early American Connections To Slavery?
Silly but clear headline (the answer is “yes, of course”).
For these particular portraits of people from 1700s Massachusetts, there is presumably whatever info was there before on a placard next to the painting, and there is a new placard outlining the person’s connection to slavery, including the names of the enslaved people whose labor enriched themselves and their family.
I like this approach to history. Who is missing? Who is not seen, heard from? Who has disappeared from the picture and why?
Add in another layer, of the indigenous people of that part of Massachusetts, and their lives at the time of these portraits.
An interesting book is mentioned in the article, The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved from Womb to Grave in the Building of a Nation by Daina Ramey Berry. I may give that a read.
I should consider reading that, as well as “Accounting for Slavery”.