1833: French artist François Auguste Biard painted “The Slave Trade,” a graphic portrayal of the inhumanity and routine horrors found at slave transactions o…

1833: French artist François Auguste Biard painted “The Slave Trade,” a graphic portrayal of the inhumanity and routine horrors found at slave transactions on the African coast. The scene catalogues various atrocities, including the branding of a woman, the whipping of a captive man, and the casual inspection of another individual being sold. The painting was later presented to the British abolitionist Thomas Fowell Buxton, who used it as a powerful visual argument to pressure other nations to follow Britain’s lead in ending the traffic. Biard’s work reflects a broader movement where artists documented the “execrable human traffic” to shift global public opinion against slavery.