ALL SAILS FINAL

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A lithographic print titled, ALL SAILS FINAL, by artist Willie Cole to memorialize the discovery of the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to arrive in the United States, off the coast of Alabama. Printed on thick, deckle-edge white paper against a background of the Confederate flag, the print is a reinterpretation of the coat of arms of Alabama. In the center, where the flag's two blue bars with white stars intersect, is a shield emblem divided into yellow, red, and green fields with a small blue and red-and-white striped shield from the Great Seal of the United States at the very center. The larger shield is framed with mirror images of illustrated, nude male figures, bound to each other by large iron shackled collar around their necks. The collar has two, long spokes at the back that terminate in hook-shaped barbs that extend into the white border of the lithograph.

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