William Henry Brooke, Preparatory Watercolor for “Slaves Shipping Cotton by Torch-Light” (1842) Print Orange Bellied Squirrel

Orange Bellied Squirrel

Brown University

directly from King Charles IV in Madrid

19 1/2 x 23 1/2 in

Clark (Anchor Thread Mills

William Henry Brooke, Preparatory Watercolor for “Slaves Shipping Cotton by Torch-Light” (1842) Print Orange Bellied SquirrelThis rare preparatory drawing by William Henry Brooke served as the foundation for an early published visual critique of slavery in the United States. Created for James Silk Buckinghams The Slave States of America (London, 1842), the image records forced labor along the Alabama River with emotional restraint and historical clarity. Buckinghams account helped shape British public understanding of American slavery and the growing abolitionist movement.