Captive Passage - Departure
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Captive Passage: The Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Making of the Americas

Captive Passage
has been made
possible in part by:
National Endowment for the Humanities
Recognition of
additional sponsors
for this exhibition
can be found by
clicking on
ExhibitionSponsors.


Henry Laurens, 1792
In the mid-18th century, about one-quarter of all enslaved Africans brought to Charleston, South Carolina, were carried by Henry Laurens's business firm. Besides owning a plantation and trading in slaves, Laurens dealt in commodities like wine and rice. It is estimated that Laurens netted about 5 per cent from his other business ventures but 10 per cent from every enslaved African he imported.
Like typical European portraits of the day, this painting shows Laurens against an opulent backdrop. The documents on the table refer to the 1778 alliance between France and the Continental Congress, to which Laurens was a delegate.
John Singleton Copley, artist
Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, gift of the A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust

Henry Laurens

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