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Seized Control: Heading Home

acrylic and charcoal, 84" x 36"

In this composition, I depict a maritime moment from eighteenth-century Bermuda.   Enslaved seamen manning the Bermuda-built privateer vessel Regulator were captured while in the act of capturing an American ship.  I have chosen to depict these men at a later moment, returning the gaze from their position on the deck of another American ship Duxbury, a ship they had in turn seized from Massachusetts to return to their families and home. 

Despite status inequality, further complicated by the contradictory and convenient regard as both property and citizens, the expertise of this crew of black Bermudian seamen, along with approximately five hundred others, enabled this colony to survive and thrive independently.

Certainly, the descendants of the colonizer and the displaced must be aware of shared histories, seeking ways to minimize tensions, and to function in unity, to achieve prosperity in this tiny, remote home that we share.

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