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intersection between bodies and profit, this block asks observers a simple question: Is the slave nothing more than an outdated cotton gin?
Published address given by George D. Herron before the Minnesota Congregational Club. It was this address that first brought Herron to national attention. Also available at https://archive.org/details/messageofjesusto00herr.
