Slavery in the Poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Dashboard

Leader

Emily Crider

Participants

Jerome Wynter
Marjorie Stone
Kim Manganelli
Dino Franco Felluga

Description

"Destruction of the Roehampton Estate," Adolphe Duperly (1833); Portrait of Elizabeth Barrett Browning from The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (London,1889-90)

"Destruction of the Roehampton Estate," Adolphe Duperly (1833); Portrait of Elizabeth Barrett Browning from The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (London, 1889-90)

In the scope of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's (hereafter EBB) poetic ouevre, five poems can be identified as addressing, whether overtly or obliquely, the ongoing issue of slavery. Each piece marks a particular moment in EBB's ideological trajectory, moving from her juvenilia, represented in “The African” (early 1820s), to apprenticeship poems like "The Appeal" (1833), to her much-discussed mature works “The Runaway Slave of Pilgrim’s Point” (1848), “Hiram Powers’ Greek Slave” (1850), and “A Curse for a Nation” (1856). By contextualizing these particular pieces both within their respective historical moments and our own contemporary perspectives, this COVE edition seeks to explore the nuances of power relations inherent in ongoing issues of race, gender, and class, seen in both the dynamics inherent in EBB's positionality as a white woman descended from a plantation-owning family, writing about the plight of enslaved people, and the broader system of racial inequity that persists into the present.

Galleries, Timelines, and Maps

Map

First Exhibitions of Hiram Powers's "Greek Slave"

Posted by Emily Crider on Monday, April 14, 2025 - 09:45

Hiram Powers and a Bust of the Greek Slave

In 1843, American sculptor and artist Hiram Powers completed the first rendition of his statue, the Greek Slave. Initially created as a representation of Turkish atrocities committed during the Greek War of Independence (1821-1829), the statue "became one of the most popular, frequently replicated, and widely exhibited works of art in America and Europe" within a decade of its creation (Stone and Taylor, WEBB vol. 2). This was in part due to the statue's appearance in various prominent galleries in London and across the eastern United States during a six-year-long exhibitionary tour managed by Powers's good friend and fellow artist Miner Kellogg. The Greek Slave was met with mixed, though mostly positive reviews, and commentary and...

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Gallery Exhibit

Hiram Powers's Greek Slave and Related Images

Posted by Emily Crider on Saturday, April 5, 2025 - 15:02

In a November 26, 1869, letter to E. W. Stoughton, Hiram Powers recounts the history behind his inspiration for the Greek Slave. He describes the emotional distress caused by Turkish atrocities—namely, genocide and enslavement—enacted during the Greek War of Independence (1821-1829) and configures the Greek Slave as a representation of the innocence, exploitation, and moral strength of the Christian victims of such brutality. The core of this depiction lies in Powers's personal understanding of the ultimate purpose of art: "as there should be a moral in every work of art, I have given to the expression of the Greek Slave what trust there could still be in a Divine Providence for a future state of existence with utter despair for the present mingled with somewhat of scorn for all around her. She is too deeply concerned to be aware of her nakedness. It is not her person, but her spirit that stands exposed, and she bears it all as only Christians can" (26 Nov. 1869,... more

Gallery Exhibit

Richard Barrett's Story of a Runaway Slave (c. 1819)

Posted by Emily Crider on Thursday, February 13, 2025 - 17:20

Richard Barrett (1789-1839) was a cousin of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's father, Edward Barrett Moulton Barrett. Richard Barrett was a prominent political figure for much of his life, speaking in Britain's Parliament on behalf of the Jamaican legislature on matters concerning slavery and emancipation. Though he defended the interests of the slaveholders at the time of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 and was himself the owner of two sugar plantations in St. James, he had a reputation for nonviolence towards the enslaved people who worked on the family's land and called for more humane practices by the masters. This reputation may have contributed to the sparing of at least two of the Barrett family's plantation houses, his own Greenwood Great House and ... more

Gallery Exhibit

"The African" Manuscript (1820s)

Posted by Emily Crider on Tuesday, February 4, 2025 - 00:00

Elizabeth Barrett Browning's original manuscript of "The African" was completed in the early 1820s when EBB was in her early teens. One source of inspiration for the narrative poem came from her cousin, Richard Barrett, who owned sugar plantations in Jamaica. EBB kept Barrett's written account of an escaped slave, originally named Copperbottom, but altered the tone of the story significantly in her version.

Material sourced from Baylor's Armstrong Browning Library.

Map

Key Locations: EBB and the Landmarks of Slavery

Posted by Emily Crider on Monday, January 27, 2025 - 10:25

This map includes paratextual information about significant places that help to illuminate and contextualize Elizabeth Barrett Browning's anti-slavery poetry. Charting these locations situates EBB's work within the larger, globalized framework of her own family history, drawing direct connections to their centuries-long standing as wealthy plantation owners in the West Indies.

Chronology

Key Events: EBB and the Road to Abolition

Posted by Emily Crider on Monday, January 27, 2025 - 10:22

This timeline tracks key events in the life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, her anti-slavery poetry, and the fight for abolition across the British Empire and the United States. In doing so, it contextualizes EBB and her work within the scope of nineteenth-century sociopolitics and culture, charting historical moments of overlap and divergence between the two.

Individual Entries

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"The Greek Slave" at the Great Exhibition of 1851

Posted by Emily Crider on Thursday, April 10, 2025 - 13:25
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Hiram Powers's "The Greek Slave" (1866)

Posted by Emily Crider on Thursday, April 10, 2025 - 10:10
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John Tenniel's "The Virginian Slave" (1851)

Posted by Emily Crider on Thursday, April 10, 2025 - 10:00
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Hiram Powers's "Greek Slave" (1846)

Posted by Emily Crider on Thursday, April 10, 2025 - 09:44
Place

Cinnamon Hill Great House

Posted by Emily Crider on Tuesday, February 18, 2025 - 22:40

Though construction began in 1734, the Cinnamon Hill great house, located in Jamaica's St. James Parish, wasn't completed until half a century later in 1784. Located on the hill behind the Cinnamon Hill sugar works, the house was built to stand against the dual threats of insurrection and hurricanes, its structure featuring an ocean-facing concrete butress called a "cutwind" that not only protected the house against the intense winds of the stormy season but included holes through which muskets could be shot. Economically associated with the Barrett family's Cornwall estate, Cinnamon Hill is consistently noted as producing sugar, rum, coffee, and pimento, with the occasional inclusion of cattle and land rental. The precise number of enslaved people on the estate varies, with some years as low as 230 or as high as 573. Like Greenwood Great House and...

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Manuscript, Page 4

Posted by Emily Crider on Thursday, February 13, 2025 - 17:33
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Manuscript, Page 3

Posted by Emily Crider on Thursday, February 13, 2025 - 17:27
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Manuscript, Page 2

Posted by Emily Crider on Thursday, February 13, 2025 - 17:26
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Manuscript, Page 1

Posted by Emily Crider on Thursday, February 13, 2025 - 17:25
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"The African," Page 26

Posted by Emily Crider on Tuesday, February 4, 2025 - 12:37

Pages

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