Art & the History of Art 276 - The Visual Culture of Abolition

(Offered as ARHA 276 and BLST 276) Can art achieve political change? This course investigates that question in relation to transatlantic campaigns to end chattel slavery in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We will begin by developing familiarity with critical approaches to slavery, visual culture, and the archive, before tracing abolitionist activism across artistic media. We will consider paintings, sculptures, photographs, and decorative arts, as well as imagery that circulated in newspapers and books. We will place primary texts by self-emancipated people and abolitionists—such as Phillis Wheatley and Sojourner Truth—in dialogue with recent scholarship. Finally, the course will turn to the contemporary legacies of historical antislavery campaigns, in the form of monuments, museums, art, and exhibitions. Along the way, we will study key objects in person and devote particular attention to local histories of abolitionist activity. Prior experience with art history is welcome but not required.

Limited to 20 students. Spring 2026: Prof. Fein.