A Portrait and the History It Holds: 'Belle’ and Slavery’s End in Britain

[theHandpuppet]

Really interesting article. I would love to see this film but considering I live in the back of beyond West Virginia, I'll probably have to wait forever for it to come out on DVD.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/movies/belle-and-slaverys-end-in-britain.html?hpw&rref=movies&_r=0
A Portrait and the History It Holds: 'Belle’ and Slavery’s End in Britain
By CARRIE RICKEY
APRIL 25, 2014

While she was an undergraduate at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in the 1990s, Misan Sagay visited the nearby Scone Palace, where a rare double portrait caught her eye. Painted in the Gainsborough style of aristocratic figures in an Arcadian landscape, the canvas showed two young women swathed in lustrous satin, gleaming pearls circling their swan necks. The vivacious one on the left is biracial; her unhurried companion is white.

Ms. Sagay, who is Anglo-Nigerian, studied the wall label. It read: “Portrait of Lady Elizabeth Murray, circa 1778.”

Naturally, Ms. Sagay was curious. What of the woman on the left, whose forearm Elizabeth clasps so fondly?

In 2009 Amma Asante, a British-born filmmaker of Ghanaian parentage, received a screenplay written by Ms. Sagay. Attached was a postcard reproduction of the painting. Even before reading the script, Ms. Asante recalled, “I was inspired by the image.” She said that in European paintings of the late 18th century, blacks were often depicted as lower-class figures to affirm the higher status of the white subject. “I knew how unique it was,” she said, “that the black woman was not looking with adoration at the white woman, and that the white woman was tenderly touching her companion.” MORE

[dipsydoodle]

1. A year earlier

In 1772, Lord Mansfield's judgement in the Somersett's Case emancipated a slave in England, which helped launch the movement to abolish slavery.[2] The case ruled that slavery was unsupported by law in England and no authority could be exercised on slaves entering English or Scottish soil.[3] In 1785, English poet William Cowper wrote:

"We have no slaves at home – Then why abroad? Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs receive our air, that moment they are free. They touch our country, and their shackles fall. That's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud. And jealous of the blessing. Spread it then, And let it circulate through every vein."[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833

[freshwest]

4. That is a beautiful sentiment. It's the abroad part that really ruins things, though.

[dipsydoodle]

6. Surely he is saying

[If] We have no slaves at home – Then why [do we have them] abroad ? i.e he is condemning all slavery.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

2. As it happens, I am a direct descendant

Of William Wilberforce, so I am very much interested in this story and in the film.

My daughter-in-law is a Jamaican black, and she would like to believe that her six-greats-grandfather-in-law would be pleased to know that he has descendants whose ancestors were freed from slavery through his efforts.

[freshwest]

3. Always loved Wilberforce. There was a black neighorhood I worked in that named a street after him.

They also named a street after a well-known ancestor of mine in England who worked to alleviate the condtions of the poor. Thanks for the story of his legacy in your family.

[kwassa]

5. Here is the painting the movie is based on

[Number23]

7. Words cannot express how much I am looking forward to this movie

I mean, I am counting the days until it is released. And I can only hope that it will be as heartbreaking and beautiful as I am imagining that it will be.

Hey AAG, I'd love to have a good movie chat about this about this after I've seen it! Anyone interested??

[theHandpuppet]

8. I'd be very interested in your review of the movie

No doubt I'll have to wait for it to come out on DVD so I'll have to depend on what others have to say about the film (and I don't mind spoilers).

[JustAnotherGen]

10. I would

I wasn't sure about this - but my husband soooo wants to see it - thinks it will be up there with Amazing Grace - the movie a few years back about Wilberforce.

[JustAnotherGen]

11. Dang

Closest showing is in Manhattan - I'll have to wait until it gets out to the indie theater in Princeton.

[theHandpuppet]

9. Some additional links

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2614359/How-black-slaves-daughter-mysterious-18th-century-portrait-taken-senior-judge-opened-eyes-evils-slavery.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dido_Elizabeth_Belle

[FreedRadical]

12. I sent this link to a good friend of mine who's mother is Jewish and her father is African American

This is what she replied on Facebook...

The mystery woman in the portrait and focus of the film is Dido Elizabeth Belle, who lived from 1761 to 1804. Dido (as she is called in Ms. Asante’s movie, which stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw) was the daughter of an enslaved African and a British admiral. She and her cousin Elizabeth (played by Sarah Gadon) were raised as sisters by their great-uncle, William Murray, Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson). It is likely that Dido’s relationship with Murray, the Lord Chief Justice of England, influenced his thinking on issues of race and equality."

Thanks for sharing this. The above paragraph captures my aspiration any time I share something about what life is like, for me, as an individual. That, namely, by relating to my direct experience, or by befriending me, someone who held a previous position which was in error, will see the folly of their ways. Familiarity and education work wonders. We need look no further than the current era's fight for marriage equality. When one is touched by an issue, personally, then change quite often follows.