Black Slaves Seated Outside their House in Martinique
1media/black-slaves-seated-outside-their-house-in-martinique_thumb.jpg2023-07-17T19:13:47+00:00Rosie Abraham2a093479b34581dd3e51723cbd505a74ce038215112plain2023-07-18T19:27:24+00:001775Pierre Le MazurierFranceNoncommercialRosie Abraham2a093479b34581dd3e51723cbd505a74ce038215
12023-07-19T17:00:50+00:00Rosie Abraham2a093479b34581dd3e51723cbd505a74ce038215The Working Class with ChocolateRosie Abraham8plain2023-07-21T00:20:28+00:00Rosie Abraham2a093479b34581dd3e51723cbd505a74ce038215
12023-07-19T17:02:49+00:00Rosie Abraham2a093479b34581dd3e51723cbd505a74ce038215French Art Showing ChocolateRosie Abraham11plain2023-07-21T14:24:29+00:00Rosie Abraham2a093479b34581dd3e51723cbd505a74ce038215
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12023-07-19T17:02:49+00:00French Art Showing Chocolate11plain2023-07-21T14:24:29+00:00Following Spain and Italy, France was early in the European adoption of chocolate into their culture. With little to no hesitation, the French loved chocolate, and it quickly became a popular delicacy. In a few instances throughout our data collection, we noticed French artwork depicting chocolate as a tool for socializing. For example, the hectic scene of "Operating a Fools Stone" shows a man serving chocolate in the back of the tavern-like establishment full of rowdy guests letting loose. Was the stimulating cacao substance to blame for their behavior? In another depiction, "Un Cavalier, Et une Dame Beuvant du Chocolate", a group sips on drinking chocolate while socializing with one another, and the cacao is used as further indication of luxury and wealth.
In contrast, French works notably depict dark skinned people facing the brunt of labor that went on behind cacao production. Many of these particular pieces showcase beautiful landscapes and natural elements that take the focus away from the brutality of the slave trade and colonization in which cacao production was heavily reliant.
12023-07-19T17:00:50+00:00The Working Class with Chocolate8plain2023-07-21T00:20:28+00:00 As chocolate spread across the Old World, it was initially difficult to obtain. The combination of the substance's rarity and the stimulating effects experienced by cacao drinkers elevated chocolate to a marker of prestige in some places, such as France. Therefore, it was often left out of the hands of the lower and working classes. However, a recurring theme that we noticed in our data collection was depictions of servants or enslaved people preparing, harvesting, or serving chocolate. These portrayals further reified the high class and desirable nature of what chocolate had become. To drink chocolate was to live luxuriously, while the preparation behind it signified a working class or even slave identity.