Traite des Nègres Contributor: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

European abolitionists used commodities such as this printed textile to expose the inhumanity of the slave trade. The textile contrasts the cruel treatment of the slave traders with the hospitality of Africans who befriended a white shipwrecked family. It is based on George Morland’s 1791 paintings of “The Slave Trade” and “African Hospitality.” The textile was probably originally used as a curtain.