From a sociological and artistic standpoint, something intriguing was happening in the decades after emancipation. The negro suddenly became interesting. After the degradation of slavery, the concept of the emancipated frame, with its bare feet, ragged clothes and market selling pidgin, became a curious subject for writers, academics and artists.
When the Europeans visited their colonies, what fascinated them most, were the habits, dress and form of the emancipated negro. The negro would become central figures in artistic renderings of life in the colonies. In these sketches from the London broadsheets of 1886, we see the negro as the central subject of the rendering “The Market.”
The second sketch is of the Guy Fawkes celebrations of 1886 in Nassau. In this, the mostly European crowd are undistinguished, and amalgamated as a group in the scene.
