What is happening in this photo?Who are the players?
Who is subordinate if anyone, in this photo?
What does this say about race relations during the time period?
How is this different than the typical depiction of race relations?
Why would these two groups be ocming together in this manner?
Comments
ReplyDeleteCaption in Edwards, "Pacification with the Maroon Negroes"; shows a group of men laying down their arms in front of British army officers. The place is not identified on the engraving, but because it was published in Edwards --who discusses the Jamaican Maroon wars at length-- this scene is often associated with 1739 and 1740 treaties signed between the British and Maroons in Jamaica. However, the original painting from which the engraving derives was done by Agostino Brunias and most probably depicts the end in 1773 of the First Carib War on St. Vincent, when a treaty was signed between the British and the Black Caribs, whose major chiefs are shown in the painting/engraving. The engraving has also been used to illustrate Maroon confrontations in Dominica and, as noted above, Jamaica. Brunias (sometimes incorrectly spelled Brunyas, Brunais), a painter born in Italy in 1730, came to England in 1758 where he became acquainted with William Young.