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Activity: Mapping Journeys

A man and a woman with black skin stand in a sage and olive-green boat that comes toward us on a wavy, dripping band of cobalt blue that spans the lower edge of this loosely hanging, square canvas. The word “WANDERER” is written in white capital letters along the bow of the boat. Closer to us, in the boat, a woman is seen from the hips up. An oval, cloud-like form covers her torso, shoulders, and the area behind her head. It is white with rose-pink swirls, and has a few black lines creating scallops around the edge. A black shape at her waist, just over a cobalt-blue skirt, could indicate that at least one arm is bent behind her back. The penis, thighs, and knees of a man are seen between the boat and the triangular, pale lilac-purple sail. The sail is painted with long, curling strokes of violet purple up its center. A long, white pennant with two gold stars flutters from the boat’s burgundy-red mast, which has a crosspiece just below the pennant. The water is painted with strokes of royal blue, which partially drip over a white skull at the lower center. The boat is set against a background layered in washes of white, shell pink, and baby blue, with swirls and thin strokes of brick red scattered across it. A yellow sun outlined in deeper gold peeks above the horizon in the lower left, and is repeated with more orbs that together make an arc that curves to the upper right corner. A few geometric line drawings hover next to the woman, on our left, such as a compass-like cross with a crosshatched oval at each end. A black number "1" floats in the lower left, above the water, and a black number "7" floats near the upper left. Two more black sevens float near the upper right, next to another heart-shaped line drawing. The background transitions from the pale washes to darker orbs of pink and blue, that overlap a band of black that nearly spans the top edge. In that upper zone, a black, gold, and red compass floats near the top of the mast, to our left. A sheet with anatomical illustrations hangs from the left arm of the mast. The drawings show cell clusters and human fetuses, some circled in red. A second drawing of a house circled in lilac purple hangs on the right arm, next to a third drawing of concentric circles.

Kerry James Marshall, Voyager, 1992, acrylic and collage on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Gift of the Women’s Committee of the Corcoran Gallery of Art), 2014.79.52

Observation and Discussion

  1. There are many symbolic details in this painting. Ask students to identify at least four details that stand out. What do these details suggest about this voyage?
  2. Some details, such as the geometric drawing on the sail, and the number 7 floating beside it, are references to symbols in Vodou, a religion practiced in Haitian communities. Discuss as a class: Why might the artist have included these details in this painting? What impact would it have to use symbols only certain groups would understand?

Research

This painting is a reference to the Wanderer, a slave ship that transported individuals from West Africa to the United States in 1858—after the practice of the transatlantic slave trade had been legally banned.

Have students do some research on the itinerary and fate of the Wanderer, using NEH’s Slave Voyages Project database.

  1. Explore the map charting the volume and direction of the transatlantic slave trade from African regions to the Americas. What conclusions can you draw about the development of Black communities in the Americas from looking at this map?
  2. In the People of the Atlantic Slave Trade database, students should enter Wanderer in the ship name field of the Itinerary dropdown. What information can you gather about the individuals aboard the ship?
  3. In the same People of the Atlantic Slave Trade database, students should explore a variety of disembarkation ports in North America, the Caribbean, and Brazil (under the Itinerary dropdown). What observations can you make about captives’ fates based on the locations where they ended up?

Students can extend this exercise to consider:

  • the further relocation of individuals from the original point of disembarkation to other states or countries. Use the Inter-American database.
  • the varying fates of slave voyages. Under the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade dropdown, students can search voyages based on outcomes—successful insurrections, thwarted insurrections, ships attacked from shore, etc.

What new insights can you share about the evolution of the slave trade? How do these new understandings influence your interpretation of Marshall’s painting?

Connections

  • How does this painting compare to Aaron Douglas’s Into Bondage? Consider the historical context of each painting’s creation, in the early 20th century vs. the late 20th century. What feelings does each painting evoke? Which do you find more powerful and why?

Resources

University of North Carolina: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
New York Times: 1858 article on the fate of Wanderer
New York Tribune: 1858 article on the fate of the Wanderer
The Phillips Collection: Map of African American Migration Patterns within the US