Category: Experiences of Disability in Early America

With over seventy paintings signed by or firmly attributed to his hand, Edward Caledon Bruce (1825–1900) is best known as one of the most productive artists in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and the state capitol of Richmond.  Lesser known is Bruce’s importance as an example of an American artist with acquired deafness: Bruce became deaf due… Continue Reading  Art, Disability, and Enslavement: The Worlds of Edward Caledon Bruce (1825–1900)

 Slavery was an inherently traumatic experience for enslaved people with the Middle Passage, the violence of relocations, loss of autonomy, separation from family, vulnerability to abuse, and corporeal punishment as but a few examples of the emotional and psychological horrors enslaved people endured. Although it is difficult to gain insight into the traumas of a… Continue Reading Sullen, Down-Cast: Mental Health in Temperate Slavery Advertisements