Typescript containing information on the Lucas triplets and the Lucas family of Grinnell, Iowa. Includes many anecdotes on the life of Henry Lucas who was born into slavery in Virginia which was written by his son John Brown Lucas. The typescript contains part of an article that appeared in the Grinnell Herald on May 20, 1932, and additional information.
This block depicts the transformation of the cotton and slave industries after the invention of the cotton gin. It aims to capture small sober reminders that enslaved peoples were commodities in the eyes of the United States, their only intended purpose to advance capital and power within the nation. When considering how to visualize freedom we must also consider how to re-imagine profit. Representing the intersection between bodies and profit, this block asks observers a simple question: Is the slave nothing more than an outdated cotton gin?