Today is the International Day for the Remembrance..

Today is the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, a day when UNESCO invites all member states to commemorate the tragedy of the slave trade. This watercolor is part of a collection drawn by Captain William Buck (ca. 1826-after 1873), an officer of the Birtish Royal Navy assigned to the anti-slavery patrol along the West African coast from 1846 to 1860. Both Great Britain and the United States outlawed the transatlantic slave trade in 1807, but the effectiveness of anti-slavery patrols were undermined by governments unwilling to allocate resources to blockade thousands of miles of coast. Slavers and smugglers also became more determined as the difficulty of transporting enslaved people increased their profits. This watercolor shows the clandestine “slave deck” of the Brazilian schooner Esperança, captured by Buck’s ship Grappler. Buck’s drawing depicts an empty space with a few cooking implements surrounded by casks. This space was intended to hold hundreds of enslaved people, packed as close as possible with inhumane efficiency. Slave traders were often discovered before they landed, but their intentions were known by these hidden decks and the presence of extra provisions needed for a slaving voyage. Image: William Cumming Buck, British (ca. 1826-after 1873) “Plan of the slave deck of the Brazilian slave schooner Espranca” 1846-1849. Gift of Jakob and Patricia Isbrandtsen, South Street Seaport Museum, 1981.042.0005