"Passage uses images and texts from two historical books that were important for building opposition to the slave trade: An Essay on the Impolicy of the African Slave Trade by Thomas Clarkson, 1788, and Biographical Sketches and Interesting Anecdotes of Person of Color by A.Mott, 1837. Both books presented stark evidence of the cruelty of the slave trade. The Clarkson diagrams showing the conditions of how people were transported for the middle passage was a particularly important visual symbol for the abolition movement. Passage combines the diagram images with archival photographs of people who lived part of their lives as slaves."--Artist's statement.
