Atlantic Worlds is a new permanent gallery in the National Maritime Museum. The gallery explores the interrelationship, connections and exchanges created between Britain, Africa and the Americas from 1600–1850 and looks at the impact of empire on three continents.
Paintings, prints and drawings, decorative arts and ethnographic artefacts are amongst the 220 objects from the Museum’s extensive collections showcased in the new gallery.
Atlantic Worlds replaces the Museum’s former Trade and Empire gallery and is planned as one of a pair of complementary galleries. The partner gallery will examine the world of the Indian Ocean and will replace the current Art and the Sea gallery. The development of this gallery will begin after the completion and opening of Atlantic Worlds and is due to open in 2009.
The gallery presents four main themes:
•Exploration and Cultural Encounters
•Trade and Commerce
•Enslavement and Resistance
•War and Conflict
These themes reveal how geographical exploration and the navigation of the Atlantic opened up new trade routes from the early 17th century onwards and brought Europeans into contact with different cultures, setting in motion a dynamic of conquest and exploitation, as well as trading and cultural exchanges.
Etching entitled 'A Negro Festival, drawn from Nature in the Island of St Vincent/ from an original picture by Agostino Brunais, in the possession of Sir William Young Bart F.R.S'.
In this picture, the artist avoided depicting any sign of harsh plantation conditions. Instead, he has shown enslaved people at leisure and dancing. In the foreground, the display of abundant fruits suggests the fertility of the land. The image is a fiction, devised to appeal to the plantation owners who would read such books as Bryan Edwards’s ‘The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies’ (3rd edition, London, 1801), in which this engraving appeared.
Brunias was a painter and draughtsman from Rome. In 1770 he accompanied Sir William Young (1749–1815), the first British governor of Dominica, to the West Indies. He concentrated on Caribbean subjects for wealthy planters.
The engraving depicts an African woman kneeling beneath a palm tree with broken chains before on the ground; she holds a Bible to her breast. The caption reads: ‘This book tell man not to be cruel; oh that massa would read this book’. The conflict between Christian belief and the slave trade is further developed in the 12 verses of ‘The Negro woman’s lamentation’ that flank the engraving. The verses deal with the woman’s journey from blissful freedom in Africa, through capture at the hands of ‘the fierce man-stealing crew’, separation from her husband and the death of her child during the Middle Passage, to her cruel enslavement by ‘massa hard’. It ends with an appeal: ‘Cease, ye British sons of murder!/ Cease from forging Afric’s chain;/ Mock your Saviour’s name no further;/ Cease your savage lust of gain’.
Slavery existed in many African societies. Rich and powerful rulers demonstrated their status by retaining large numbers of slaves in their households, who performed the roles of servants, craftsmen and even political advisors.
Internal African slavery was often a form of social hierarchy, with slaves permitted to rise up the social ladder and even acquire slaves of their own. This was unlike the slave-holding European colonies in the Americas, where slaves were considered as ‘chattel’, the legal property of their ‘owners’.
The troops for the British attack on Quebec assembled at Louisbourg in May 1759. General Wolfe's men disembarked at the foot of a cliff. The top was secured and the entire army scaled the height to await the French army led by General Montcalm.
Cruikshank’s print relates to the notorious case of Captain John Kimber of the merchant ship Recovery. In the House of Commons on 2 April 1792, William Wilberforce accused Kimber of brutally assaulting and murdering a teenage slave girl, who refused to dance on deck. The incident took place on 22 September 1791, when the ship was bound for Grenada. The girl died following convulsions on 27 September. The Admiralty Court tried Kimber in June 1792. While Wilberforce persisted in his belief that Kimber was essentially guilty, the case was poorly handled and he was honourably acquitted. Once released, Kimber demanded compensation and a public apology.
Cruikshank produced this print only eight days after Wilberforce’s statement in Parliament. The original caption read: ‘The abolition of the slave trade. Or the inhumanity of dealers in human flesh exemplified in Capt’n Kimber’s treatment of a young Negro girl of 15 for her virgin modesty.’ The two prints in the NMM collections have an amended sub-title with Kimber’s name erased and substituted by hand to read ‘exemplified in the cruel treatment’. This was presumably undertaken after the trial to prevent any legal action by Kimber – particularly as Cruikshank’s overtly sexualised version of events was at odds with the official evidence – and thus to allow the remaining stock of prints to be sold.
The poet Richard Glover (1712–85) penned ‘Hosier’s Ghost’ in 1739. The rhyme was designed to rouse British sympathies against the Spanish. Hosier had been involved in the blockade of the Caribbean port of Porto Bello in 1726, hoping to stop South American silver being shipped to Spain. The blockade was not particularly successful and Hosier and more than 3000 of his men died from tropical disease.
Set of six images detailing the 'Adventures of Johnny Newcome'. The captions are as follows (starting top left): (1) 'Johnny's reception by merry Tonkanes at Negro Ball.' (2) 'Johnny dancing with Rosa - the Planter's beautiful daughter.' (3) 'Johnny's Courtship and professions of love to Rosa.' (4) 'Johnny and the fair Rosa tripping to the Altar of Hymen.' (5) 'Nuptial ceremony of Johnny and the charming Rosa.' (6) 'Johnny and his fair Bride reveling [sic] in jollity and festive mirth.'
The six images in this print are a satirical comment on the life and experiences of a European planter, ‘Johnny Newcombe’, in the Caribbean. The members of this class became notorious back in Britain for heavy eating, alcohol consumption and sexual promiscuity. The images depict Johnny’s life of ease and luxury in the midst of enslavement as he woos the daughter of a fellow planter.
A facetted and engraved powder horn. It is engraved 'BEN* FREEMAN* BORN AT, KREW CETRA IS A Sober Honest Man. has SAILED in HM SHIP THAIS from SIERRA LEONE TO AMBRIZ to the SATISFACTION of the OFFICERS' and is decorated with geometric and floral patterns. It has two suspension holes at the top and one at the base. Ben Freeman was one of four men, shipped as 'Supernumary at 2/3 allowance' from 19 November 1812 to 16 March 1813. The four came on board from and were discharged at Sierra Leone. The names of the other three were Ben Coffee, Prince Will and Jack Savey.
Akan gold weight in the shape of a cannon. The Akan are a group of related peoples who live in central and southern Ghana and the eastern part of the Ivory Coast. From the late 14th century, when they imported the technique of metal casting from North Africa, the Akan people of central and southern Ghana developed a system of weights for measuring gold dust, which was their main currency. By the 17th century the Akan also began producing weights that related to European standards based on the ounce. During the 18th and 19th centuries, gold weights developed as an art form as well as units of measure. They remained in use until the late 1800s. Weights were often made from brass, and represented a wide range of artefacts in use in Akan society.
Akan gold weight in the shape of a cannon. The Akan are a group of related peoples who live in central and southern Ghana and the eastern part of the Ivory Coast. From the late 14th century, when they imported the technique of metal casting from North Africa, the Akan people of central and southern Ghana developed a system of weights for measuring gold dust, which was their main currency. By the 17th century the Akan also began producing weights that related to European standards based on the ounce. During the 18th and 19th centuries, gold weights developed as an art form as well as units of measure. They remained in use until the late 1800s. Weights were often made from brass, and represented a wide range of artefacts in use in Akan society.
Akan gold weight in the shape of a cannon. The Akan are a group of related peoples who live in central and southern Ghana and the eastern part of the Ivory Coast. From the late 14th century, when they imported the technique of metal casting from North Africa, the Akan people of central and southern Ghana developed a system of weights for measuring gold dust, which was their main currency. By the 17th century the Akan also began producing weights that related to European standards based on the ounce. During the 18th and 19th centuries, gold weights developed as an art form as well as units of measure. They remained in use until the late 1800s. Weights were often made from brass, and represented a wide range of artefacts in use in Akan society.
Akan gold weight in the form of a cannon. The Akan are a group of related peoples who live in central and southern Ghana and the eastern part of Côte d’Ivoire. From the late fourteenth century, when they imported the technique of metal casting from North Africa, the Akan developed a system of weights for measuring gold dust, which was their main currency. By the seventeenth century the Akan also began producing weights that related to European standards based on the ounce. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, gold weights developed as an art form as well as units of measure. They remained in use until the late 1800s. Weights were often made from brass, and represented a wide range of artefacts in use in Akan society. These examples, in the form of guns and cannon, depict the weaponry imported by Europeans to West Africa.Part of Michael Graham-Stewart slavery collection.
Akan gold weight in the shape of a cannon. The Akan are a group of related peoples who live in central and southern Ghana and the eastern part of the Ivory Coast. From the late 14th century, when they imported the technique of metal casting from North Africa, the Akan people of central and southern Ghana developed a system of weights for measuring gold dust, which was their main currency. By the 17th century the Akan also began producing weights that related to European standards based on the ounce. During the 18th and 19th centuries, gold weights developed as an art form as well as units of measure. They remained in use until the late 1800s. Weights were often made from brass, and represented a wide range of artefacts in use in Akan society.
Akan gold weight in the shape of a cannon. The Akan are a group of related peoples who live in central and southern Ghana and the eastern part of the Ivory Coast. From the late 14th century, when they imported the technique of metal casting from North Africa, the Akan people of central and southern Ghana developed a system of weights for measuring gold dust, which was their main currency. By the 17th century the Akan also began producing weights that related to European standards based on the ounce. During the 18th and 19th centuries, gold weights developed as an art form as well as units of measure. They remained in use until the late 1800s. Weights were often made from brass, and represented a wide range of artefacts in use in Akan society.
Akan gold weight in the shape of a cannon. The Akan are a group of related peoples who live in central and southern Ghana and the eastern part of the Ivory Coast. From the late 14th century, when they imported the technique of metal casting from North Africa, the Akan people of central and southern Ghana developed a system of weights for measuring gold dust, which was their main currency. By the 17th century the Akan also began producing weights that related to European standards based on the ounce. During the 18th and 19th centuries, gold weights developed as an art form as well as units of measure. They remained in use until the late 1800s. Weights were often made from brass, and represented a wide range of artefacts in use in Akan society.
Akan gold weight in the shape of a cannon. The Akan are a group of related peoples who live in central and southern Ghana and the eastern part of the Ivory Coast. From the late 14th century, when they imported the technique of metal casting from North Africa, the Akan people of central and southern Ghana developed a system of weights for measuring gold dust, which was their main currency. By the 17th century the Akan also began producing weights that related to European standards based on the ounce. During the 18th and 19th centuries, gold weights developed as an art form as well as units of measure. They remained in use until the late 1800s. Weights were often made from brass, and represented a wide range of artefacts in use in Akan society.
Akan gold weight in the shape of a cannon. The Akan are a group of related peoples who live in central and southern Ghana and the eastern part of the Ivory Coast. From the late 14th century, when they imported the technique of metal casting from North Africa, the Akan people of central and southern Ghana developed a system of weights for measuring gold dust, which was their main currency. By the 17th century the Akan also began producing weights that related to European standards based on the ounce. During the 18th and 19th centuries, gold weights developed as an art form as well as units of measure. They remained in use until the late 1800s. Weights were often made from brass, and represented a wide range of artefacts in use in Akan society.
Akan goldweight, cast in the form of a pistol.
The Akan are a group of related peoples who live in central and southern Ghana and the eastern part of Côte d’Ivoire. From the late 14th century, when they imported the technique of metal casting from North Africa, the Akan developed a system of weights for measuring gold dust, which was their main currency. By the 17th century the Akan also began producing weights that related to European standards based on the ounce. During the 18th and 19th centuries, gold weights developed as an art form as well as units of measure. They remained in use until the late 1800s. Weights were often made from brass, and represented a wide range of artefacts in use in Akan society. These examples, in the form of guns and cannon, depict the weaponry imported by Europeans to West Africa.
Akan knife and sheath. The sheath has a shell and a lead model of human teeth attached to it. The red-dyed shell is characteristic of Baule culture (from the Ivory Coast), while the human jaw is more typical of the Akan people (from present-day Ghana) and suggests a trophy attached to the knife to indicate the power of its owner. Before European contact, Akan peoples had migrated into Baule territory and there were extensive trade connections between the Akan and the Baule. It is likely that this knife and sheath are the result of cultural interactions: either the knife was purchased by Akan traders from the Baule who then added the jaw, or the Akan had influenced the Baule in the making of this artefact.
A carved wooden sperm whale probably made by a seaman. The figure is inlaid with a bone blow hole and harpoon with an attached rope carved into the surface of the wood. A small wooden shield is inlaid on the back. This item could be classified as scrimshaw with other handicrafts produced by the crews of whaling ships.