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Romare Bearden, Captivity and Resistance, 1976
collage of various fabrics on canvas
African American Museum in Philadelphia
© Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, N.Y.

The central theme is the 1839 Mende rebellion aboard the sailing ship Amistad. Prince Cinque, the hero of the battle, is portrayed at center holding a staff. At right is the ominous apparatus for a lynching, presumably that of John Brown whose spirit shadow hangs over figures representing abolitionists Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman.

Copyright © National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.