This imaginative book throws new light on the closing years of Caribbean slavery and the lives of enslaved people of African descent before emancipation in Trinidad in 1834. The book centres on the drawings of plantation life by Richard Bridgens, an English-born artist who became a planter and slaveholder in Trinidad, and examines these in […]
via New Book/ The Colour of Shadows: Images of Caribbean Slavery — Repeating Islands
Raymond’s book was launched earlier this year during the Bocas Lit Fest, I missed her launched and readings then. Then the Carnival Institute hosted it’s Emancipation Lecture which featured Raymond talking about Bridgens work as an artist whose drawings of Pre-Emancipation Trinidad are used to illustrate Caribbean Slavery, but how he isn’t respected as an artist, and his work is often used without acknowledging his ownership.
I missed the Carnival Studies lecture, but I sent my cameraman to cover, and was able to watch it after and write a story based on her talk.
I was really taken with Raymond’s belief that we might be able to identify the people in Bridgens drawings, despite his limited skill. He wasn’t drawing imaginary beings, or representations. He was doing portraiture, and a detailed examination of the records may help us identify some of his subjects.
I find that very exciting.
My report on Raymond’s lecture is here.
thiscaribbeanspace 