Book Synopsis
Too much attention has been paid to the images of blacks provided by Jim Crow America. Other images relating to the reality of black life before slavery, during slavery, and in the Jim Crow era in America, was in existence simultaneously. Hundreds of Europe's greatest artists, mostly Christian, before and during the 19th century, were busy recording the cultures being destroyed, replaced, or hidden, by the creators of colonialism, while it was being done. Thousands of those images present a side of reality that most Americans have never had a chance to experience - black people as fully functioning human beings, with heritages that are now believed to be white, before there was white contact. These paintings were mostly sold at auction at Christie's and Sotheby's, two of the most reputable auction houses in existence. They were not paintings to be found in the fantasy section. Here is a representative record of that history and reality that anyone can check for themselves.