Africans as Objects: Hogarth’s Complex Portrayal of Exploitation

Abstract

Hogarth's depiction of African slaves in A Harlot's Progress (1731) and other engravings sends a complicated moral message to the viewer. The dangers of portraying human beings as objects are (at least) three-fold: to the African slaves who are demeaned, to the possessors (mostly women) who are corrupted, and even to the viewers should they be misled into tacitly or passively accepting the dehumanization. Hogarth intends to warn against excessive preoccupation with objects and the licentious practice of objectifying human beings. However, I argue that this moral lesson is jeopardized by Hogarth's aesthetic choice to analogize the slave children to animals or objects with exotic appeal.