$5
The Gulf Stream
4 total files included (2 tiktok sized zoom in and details, original art front and back)
Here are some details of a chilling painting of the reality of our Haulocaust.
In the course of the Middle Passage and the brutalities of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1.8 million black bodies were thrown alive aboard to be torn apart by sharks. This number could be as much as 1/6 of all the African people ripped from their homeland.
This became such an emblematic vision of the slave trade that it permanently changed sharks mirgation patterns to follow the slave ships. This in turn permanently evolved the species into a sick symbiotic relationship with the colonial forces.
If possible i would also like to add the enslavers had insurance policies that paid out well for slaves thrown overboard. This insurance companies still exist today with the same wealth and new names including New York Life, Aetna and AIG.
There was so much incentive to do it that one ship called the Zong one tried throwing over the entire cargo of humans alive into a watery death and then they filled a claim. It was a famous court case they won where they saw nothing wrong with their actions and fought for full payout.
And then I got hot af and wrote this spicy ass letter to the MET.
SOURCES
1. The Spanish Slave Ship Carlotta “Denounced” By a Shark
https://www.aaihs.org/the-spanish-slave-ship-carlotta-denounced-by-a-shark-1894/
2. The Gulf Stream on view at the MET
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/11122
3. GROUP URGES ATLANTIC SEAFLOOR BE LABELED A MEMORIAL TO SLAVE TRADING
https://today.duke.edu/2020/11/group-urges-atlantic-seafloor-be-labeled-memorial-slave-trading
4. Zong Massacre on wikipedia
5. Life Insurance On Slaves Helped Build New York Life Insurance
6. Slave Insurance Records by Name
https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/150-other-prog/10-seir/slave-names.cfm
7. SLAVERY ERA INSURANCE REGISTRY LAWS
https://www.cga.ct.gov/2012/rpt/2012-R-0072.htm