1845: Lieutenant Francis Meynell, a British naval officer on suppression patrol in West Africa, documented the conditions of captives through a series of evo…

1845: Lieutenant Francis Meynell, a British naval officer on suppression patrol in West Africa, documented the conditions of captives through a series of evocative watercolors. His painting of the captured Spanish ship Albanez (or Albaroz) showed Africans below deck who were under naval protection and free of shackles. Despite their improved status, Meynell’s artwork could not disguise the emaciated, youthful, and despondent state of the victims. These visual records provided the British public with direct evidence of the physical toll the illegal trade continued to take on its survivors.