Copp’s Hill Burying Ground was founded in 1659, before photography was invented. Throughout the colonial period, most people did not have the means to commission professional portraits.
The images we have of American colonists usually do not depict people of color. There are tantalizingly few colonial Black people depicted, usually in the background - in well known paintings, such as “Watson and The Shark” by John Singleton Copley. (below)
"Watson and the shark" (1778) by John SIngleton Copley National Portrait Gallery
I did extensive research into what West Africans and mixed-race people may have looked like in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The likenesses ("Avatars") you see in this project are the result of my educated guesses and text prompts based on paintings, drawings and earliest photography of primarily West African free and enslaved people in colonies of New England, the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe and England.
Elizabeth Freeman ((1811) by Susan Anne Livingston Ridley Sedgwick Image from Massachusetts Historical Society. Information: National Women's History Museum.
One must also be aware that paintings and photographs always reflect the point of view of the dominant culture. For example, a popular 18th century image of the author Phillis Wheatley shows her as westernized, assimilated and non-confrontational.
Her abolitionist promoters held her up as an example of how well Africans could become integrated into Euro-American culture, if given the opportunity and plenty of support.
Phillis Wheatley (1773), attributed to Scipio Moorehead, an enslaved artist. Image: Library of Congress. Information: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
However, as I read some of Wheatley's poetry and worked with the voice actor Dayenne C. Walters, it became clear that her writings were often insightful, incisive, sarcastic, thoughtful and intellectually subversive.
So, I decided to portray Wheatley as a brilliant, young (she was 14 when her first poem was published) firebrand, confidently leveling her gaze at the viewer, with the feather quill in her cap.
My avatar for Phillis Wheatley
My visual studies also involved historic migration and slave trade routes…and looking at contemporary West Africans, like Kofi Annan, 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations. (please see diptych panels below)
My graphic-novel style avatar for Onesimus, Cotton Mather's enslaved servant. Mather referred to Onesimus as being of "Guramantese" ("Coromantee") ancestry. Please see adjacent image of Mr. Kofi Annan.
Kofi Annan, 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations, in a 2012 photo. Mr. Annan was born in the Gold Coast (now Ghana), of Fante and Asante (Akan) ancestry. A significant portion of colonial American slaves were from the same region and ancestry, with many identified as "Coromantee" captives. (Image courtesy of the US Mission, Geneva)
Rev. Cotton Mather’s letters tell of his often contentious and sometimes violent relationship with his proud, enslaved man Onesimus; Prince Hall’s biographies chronicle his Revolutionary War military service and his subsequent fight for the education of Black children and the abolition of slavery; and Phillis Wheatley’s story involves a quick rise to fame and ultimate tragic death in poverty and destitution. All of this research made me think of these people as heroes in a graphic novel. - Roberto