Transatlantic Slave Trade - Middle Passage Monuments
Dublin Core
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Description
This collection focuses on monuments and memorials dedicated to the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Middle Passage. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, between 10 million and 12 million enslaved Africans were forcibly taken across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. The Middle Passage refers to the Atlantic sea route between Africa and the Americas that was part of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Historians believe that between 15 and 25 percent of the enslaved Africans perished aboard the overcrowded, unsanitary slave ships.
The works in this collection address the violence and trauma of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in various ways. Some monuments such as The Ark of Return include the human figure, while others such as The Middle Passage Monument use geometric forms (abstraction) to commemorate the victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.