<I>ALL SAILS FINAL</I>
date: label: Date
content: June 11, 2020
name: label: Created by
content: Willie Cole, American, born 1955
notes: label: Caption
content: Willie Cole created ALL SAILS FINAL at the University of Alabama to honor and memorialize the final voyage in the Atlantic Slave Trade. The crew of the schooner Clotilda illegally transported 110 people from West Africa and transported them to enslavement near Mobile, Alabama. After disembarking, the captain ordered the ship to be burned and sunk, and its ruins were only rediscovered in 2019 along the Mobile River just north of the Mobile Bay Delta. The design of the print echoes the Alabama coat of arms, with the same Latin text that translates to “We dare defend our rights.” Here, however, the Confederate flag is more prominent. A ship appears atop the image and notably, the two eagles are replaced with African men in bondage.
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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. Centered above the shield is a solid black three-masted barque, or sailing ship, outlined in yellow, and with the text [CLOTILDA] across the side. Below the boat is a patch of blue, representing water. Beneath the shield is a yellow scroll with the Alabama with the state motto, [AUDEMUS JURA NOSTRA DEFENDERE] in black.
label: Description
content: Along the bottom margin of the print is a handwritten graphite inscription with [6/11] on the far left, the title [ALL SAILS FINAL] at the center, and the artist’s signature and date on the far right, [Will C 2020]. There are no marks or inscriptions on the verso.
place: label: Place printed
content: Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, United States, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: American South
label: Topic
content: Art
label: Topic
content: Colonialism
label: Topic
content: Illegal slave trade
label: Topic
content: Slavery
label: Topic
content: Trans Atlantic slave trade
label: Topic
content: Violence
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Visual Arts
label: Exhibition
content: Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.
label: On View
content: NMAAHC (1400 Constitution Ave NW), National Mall Location, Culture/Fourth Floor, 4 052
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of James D. Sokol and Lydia C. Cheney
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2023.108
objectType: label: Type
content: lithographs
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Willie Cole
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: ink on paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W: 22 3/8 × 28 7/8 in. (56.8 × 73.3 cm)