What can I do in COVE Groups?

Group members

"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.

Timelines, Galleries, and Maps

The Crystal Palace (London, 1851) | Place

13th public exhibition of the Greek Slave: 1 May 1851 through 15 October 1851

The Greek Slave, along with Fisher Boy, returned to London in 1851 as part of the Great Exhibition's United States section. Powers himself was initially unaware of either statue's inclusion, as the…

more
Posted by Emily Crider on

Apollo Hall (Cincinnati, 1848-1849) | Place

7th public exhibition of the Greek Slave: 26 October 1848 through 3 January 1849

Apollo Hall, which housed the substitute Greek Slave while it was in Cincinnati, was less a gallery than a multi-purpose building containing "a range of stores on the ground floor; Wood's Museum, Gundry's…

more
Posted by Emily Crider on

Establishment of Messrs. Henry Graves and Company (London, 1845) | Place

1st public exhibition of the Greek Slave: May through December 1845

The Greek Slave made an auspicious debut, as "Her Majesty's paintsellers, located at number 6, Pall Mall...offered one of the finest-designed art galleries to be found anywhere in London in that day" (Wunder 214). The…

more
Posted by Emily Crider on

First Exhibitions of Hiram Powers's "Greek Slave" | Map

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…

more
Posted by Emily Crider on

"The Greek Slave" at the Great Exhibition of 1851 | Gallery Image

John Absolon, View in the East Nave; The Greek Slave, by Power [sic], from "Recollections of the Great Exhibition, 1851"

 

Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Posted by Emily Crider on

Hiram Powers's "The Greek Slave" (1866) | Gallery Image

This version of the Greek Slave differs from previous versions in one crucial way: the alteration of the woman's constraints. Though some scholars argue for ideological or historical motivations behind "swapping out the link chain associated with American slavery for more historically accurate rectangular manacles" (Miller 646), Powers explained the reason as a matter of… more

Posted by Emily Crider on

John Tenniel's "The Virginian Slave" (1851) | Gallery Image

On June 7, 1851, Punch, a satirical London-based magazine, published a series of critiques of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Though these various cartoons and written criticisms ranged from class disparities to the exportation of cultural and economic production, this image by John Tenniel,… more

Posted by Emily Crider on

Hiram Powers's "Greek Slave" (1846) | Gallery Image

Based on the original 1841-1843 model, this particular iteration of the statue was carved by Powers in 1846. Though the woman's figure and form would remain essentially the same in each successive version, this statue includes the smaller chain connecting the shackles around her wrists that would later be replaced by longer, thicker links that, in Powers's view, took less time and effort to… more

Posted by Emily Crider on

Hiram Powers's Greek Slave and Related Images | Gallery Exhibit

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,… more

Posted by Emily Crider on

Plymouth (English Colony) | Place

The first Pilgrims, sailing from England on the Mayflower, landed in what would become Plymouth , Massachusetts, on December 22nd, 1620. The Plymouth colony was among the first permanent English settlements in North America, following Newfoundland, located in present-day Canada, and Jamestown, farther south in present-day Virginia. Though the colony would eventually merge with other…

more
Posted by Emily Crider on

Group posts by user

Group posts by type

Group visibility
Public - accessible to all site users
Group register
Show on registration page