Model for Middle Passage Monument
1987
Cast bronze

Hunt’s Model for Middle Passage Monument is a tribute to the over twelve million Africans that passed between the African continent and the Americas. Like Hunt, many Black artists have made maquettes and designs for monuments that depict the origins of American racism. However, no singular memorial exists to commemorate the lives lost to the horrors of the Triangle Slave Trade. Hunt was inspired by his friend Robert Hayden’s poem, “Middle Passage” (begun in 1941, revised 1962), which uses powerful language to capture the visceral terror of the crossing: “a voyage through death to life upon these shores.”

Collection of The Richard Hunt Trust

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