I think the main statement the artist attempted to convey through the piece is that blacks were worth nothing in the eyes of whites. Many of the white slave owners are standing around talking to each other and not paying any attention to the people who are being auctioned off. Even though the slave owners need the black slaves for their farms to function the way they want them to, they still don't seem to value the slaves at all, even just as an investment or an ownable item. I think this is mainly what the artist wanted people to grasp. Often we look back at slavery and see how the whites held such disdain for the slaves, but in actuality, a lot of them probably didn't even care about the slaves enough to hate them. I think that is almost worse. I would rather be hated for being myself than be ignored and regarded as insignificant because people couldn’t (or wouldn’t) see who I really was.
Part 2—Symbolic elements present in the piece:
I think the man on the podium’s pose is symbolic. He is standing straight up with his arm in the air as if he is showing off his slaves. It looks like he is trying really hard to sell the slaves. Usually you only have to work that hard to sell something if you believe the product isn't very good. I think his pose is symbolic of someone who doesn't have much pride in what he is selling and is trying to get as much money as he can for it. That really reflect what how people thought of slaves. I also think that the slave woman holding the child is symbolic. For many people, the most innocent thing they can think of is a child, specifically an infant. This symbol of the infant goes to show how cruel the slave owners really were, to buy and sell a mother, and possibly separate her from her child, is one of the worst things I can think of that the slave owners could've done, and yet they did it many times.
Part 3—Themes that arise from the piece:
I think the hats and clothing that all of the white people are wearing are representative of wealth. Those are probably pretty expensive clothes, and it looks as if they serve a function as a uniform of sorts. All of the white people are wearing the same hats and clothing, so I would guess that that attire is supposed to represent wealth and prestige. This is a very common theme when people think about slavery. They think of all white people being wealthy and all black slaves being poor. I definitely think that those two themes are both shown in this work of art.
Part 4—Artistic and/or historical importance of the piece:
This piece of art was printed in a newspaper, The Illustrated London News, in Virginia during the time of slavery. The article that accompanies this piece is about a white person who visits a slave auction, just to see what happens at one. She ends up talking a lot about how smart and strong the slaves are. She even ends the article with “It would be as safe to cram the cellars of their houses with gunpowder and continue to live over them as to fill the State with men like these, for certainly they will strike for liberty when they have a chance.” There is much historical significance to this piece. It shows how some people obviously saw the slaves for what they were, instead of just for what they could do, and for what color they were. I think this work of art is significant because it shows the truth of slave auctions. It shows how awful they were. I also think this is significant because of the article it is meant to accompany. The article was clearly written by someone who didn't believe in slavery, and it was those white people who really mattered, because it was those white people who ended up ending slavery.
This is the link to the article that originally accompanied the piece:
http://beck.library.emory.edu/iln/browse.php?id=iln38.1075.038