Afro Atlantic: Paths from Enslavement

Into Bondage is a powerful depiction of Africans being forcibly enslaved to be taken to the Americas. Shackled figures walk toward slave ships on the horizon, and an individual at left raises their bound hands. The figure in the center is turned toward a beam of light emanating from a lone star in the sky, possibly suggesting the North Star. The concentric circles are a motif frequently used by Aaron Douglas to suggest sound, particularly African and African American song. 

In 1936, Douglas, considered a leader of the Harlem Renaissance, was commissioned to create a series of four murals (of which only two have survived) for the Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas. Installed in the Hall of Negro Life, his four paintings charted the journey of African Americans from slavery to the present. The Hall of Negro Life opened on Juneteenth (June 19), a date celebrating the end of slavery. 

This video from NEH-supported Smarthistory discusses the context of Douglas's Hall of Negro Life murals with a focus on the other extant panel Aspiration. 

Find related images in the EDSITEment collection Afro Atlantic Art: Enslavements and Emancipations. 

Activity 1. Observation and Discussion

1. Have students individually spend some time examining this painting, writing down 10 words or phrases to describe what they see. Share lists and discuss in pairs or small groups. What were the similarities and differences in what you noticed? 

2. In pairs or small groups, generate a list of questions about the painting’s artist, subject matter, method, historical context, etc. Discuss the questions generated as a class and select a few for further investigation. Assign small groups to research one of the questions and report back to the class.   

Activity 2. Making Connections

Interdisciplinary artistic and cultural interactions were one characteristic of the Harlem Renaissance. An example of this can be found in this primary source from the NEH-funded W.E.B. DuBois Papers project. Here you will find a letter from Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes to DuBois on the 20th anniversary of Hughes’ first publication in The Crisis, an important political and literary journal. After offering “gratitude and continued admiration,” Hughes includes a reproduction of his poem from the 1921 publication “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” accompanied by a woodcut illustration by Aaron Douglas. Many artists of the Harlem Renaissance had been inspired by Hughes’ poem, and this woodcut from Douglas is a prime example. As students examine the letter, ask them to consider the following: 

• What word or phrase would you use to describe the feelings Hughes expresses for DuBois? Does this tell you anything about the relationships among major figures during the Harlem Renaissance? You might search through other correspondence in this archive to further develop this idea. 

• Is Douglas’s woodcut an appropriate illustration for Hughes’ poem? What specific words or lines in the poem lead you to this conclusion? 

• Imagine you have been given the task of pairing Douglas’ Into Bondage with another Hughes poem, “Afro-American Fragment.” What words or lines make the strongest connection between the poem and the painting. Invite students to explain their thinking in a discussion or quick written response.  

Afro-American Fragment, 1930, Langston Hughes 

So long, 
So far away 
Is Africa. 
Not even memories alive 
Save those that history books create, 
Save those that songs 
Beat back into the blood— 
Beat out of blood with words sad-sung 
In strange un-Negro tongue— 
So long, 
So far away 
Is Africa. 
Subdued and time-lost 
Are the drums—and yet 
Through some vast mist of race 
There comes this song 
I do not understand, 
This song of atavistic land, 
Of bitter yearnings lost 
Without a place— 
So long, 
So far away 
Is Africa's 
Dark face. 

© 1951 by the Langston Hughes Estate 

Activity 3. Independent Research

This painting was installed in the Hall of Negro Life at the Texas Centennial Exposition. The Hall of Negro Life opened at the exposition on June 19, 1936, in recognition of Juneteenth—a holiday first celebrated in 1866 by freed communities in Texas, marking the end of slavery. 

1. Direct students to search the LOC-NEH Chronicling America database of American newspapers for mentions of the Juneteenth holiday around the time of the creation of Douglas’s painting. What information can they find, and what does this information tell us about the status of the holiday in the early 20th century? 

2. Ask students to select one or two national or local newspapers for research on recent reporting related to Juneteenth. What is the coverage like, and how far back in time can they find articles covering the topic of Juneteenth?  

Discuss as a class: What recent events or shifts in attitudes might have contributed to increased coverage on Juneteenth, now a federal holiday? 

• How does this painting compare to other images in the EDSITEment collection Afro Atlantic Art: Enslavements and Emancipations, particularly Kerry James Marshall's Voyager? Consider the historical context of each painting’s creation, in the early 20th century vs. the late 20th century. What feelings does each painting evoke? Which do you find more powerful and why?

BlackPast: History of Juneteenth 

Texas State Historical Association: Juneteenth