The slave trade, which has been present since ancient times, experienced an unprecedented boom in the 16th century. Europeans transported slaves by boat to huge American plantations. Thirty years after the abolition of slavery in the United Kingdom, William Turner painted a stormy landscape - a portrait of England from 1783, when the captain of a British ship decided to throw sick slaves alive into the sea.
Reason? The above mentioned captain of a slave ship inbound to Jamaica, the Zong had ordered 132 slaves to be thrown overboard when drinking water was running low so that insurance payments could be collected; slaves who died of natural causes were not covered by insurance.
With this painting, Turner invites us to face the abysses of the human soul, the unbearable and inadmissible twilight. Under pressure from abolitionists, Great Britain was the first to ban the slave trade, but traces of their blood on the world map preserve the memory of British diversions ... However, the new white slaves of the industrial revolution, exploited workers, gradually replaced black slaves from the colonial era.