This 1868 painting by T. S. Noble depicts a transaction between a slave trader and a rich planter. The trader nervously pretends to study the contract, while the planter waits impatiently for the completion of the sale. The planter’s mulatto son, who is being sold, looks away. The children of white men and slave women were property and could be sold by the father/master. Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA.

READING THE IMAGE: Who is absent from the painting, and what does this suggest about the tragedy of miscegenation?

CONNECTIONS: The white, male planter represented the pinnacle of southern society. How did white women, black men, and black women fit into this strict hierarchy?