Chapter 12 Satirical Rebels? Irritating Anticipations in European Visualizations of Black American Insurgents around 1800
In: Revolts and Political Violence in Early Modern Imagery
Author:
Fabian Fechner
Fabian Fechner
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Abstract
Anti-European upheavals and revolutions play a prominent role in Latin American and African history. Surprisingly, there exist few contemporary visual representations of these rebellions, and most of those that do exist were produced in Europe. Seeing them as a threat to the colonial order, Europeans generally visualized the events of overseas rebellions as satires that played with the motif of the “world turned upside down.” People of color in a superior rank or position were presented as anomalies. This chapter explores three of these rare visual representations and discusses how overseas history influenced European pictorial traditions around 1800.