Flags of Freedom
Creating Flags of Freedom
Flags of Freedom artist Nyugen E. Smith
Flag for the Stono Rebellion (South Carolina), Nyugen E. Smith, 2024
Most flags from antislavery movements have been lost to history. For this exhibition, artist Nyugen E. Smith reimagined historical flags from antislavery movements in Barbados, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti,, South Africa, Suriname, and the United States.
From anticolonial revolutions to slave rebellions, Africans and their descendants across the Atlantic world flew flags and banners to express political identity and announce military power. Banners differed in appearance; some flags included religious symbolism while others asserted alternative meanings to flags of oppressors.
Featured Object
A Flag for Bussa’s Rebellion
Artist Nyugen E. Smith reimagined this flag of Bussa’s Rebellion. In 1816, hundreds of enslaved people led by Bussa, an enslaved plantation manager, rose up in the largest slave revolt in Barbadian history.
Featured Object
A Flag for the Bahian Conspiracy
Artist Nyugen E. Smith reimagined this flag of the 1798 Bahian Conspiracy in Bahia, Brazil. This multiracial revolt attempted to abolish slavery and upend the Portuguese colonial government.
Featured Object
A Flag for the Aponte Rebellion
Artist Nyugen E. Smith artistically interpreted the flag of the Aponte Rebellion. In 1812, José Antonio Aponte, a free Black carpenter and artist, organized a revolt in Cuba to abolish slavery.
Featured Object
A Flag for the Haitian Revolution
Artist Nyugen E. Smith artistically interpreted the flag of the Haitian Revolution. The rebellion ended French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue and established Haiti as an independent Black republic.
Featured Object
A Flag for the Cape Town Revolt
Artist Nyugen E. Smith crafted this flag to commemorate the 1808 Cape Town Revolt in South Africa.
Featured Object
A Flag for the Boni Maroons
Artist Nyugen E. Smith reimagined this flag of the Boni Maroons. In the late 1700s, a man named Boni led a group of Maroons in a series of wars against the Dutch government in colonial Suriname.
Featured Object
A Flag for the Stono Rebellion
Artist Nyugen E. Smith reimagined this flag of the 1739 Stono Rebellion in South Carolina. Seeking freedom in Spanish Florida, enslaved rebels marched along the Stono River in the largest slave rebellion in colonial British America.
Featured Object
A Flag for Gabriel’s Rebellion
Artist Nyugen E. Smith created a flag to commemorate Gabreil’s Rebellion in 1800. Gabriel, an enslaved blacksmith, and others seeking freedom planned a revolt to end slavery in Virginia, United States.
Related Exhibition
Rebellion
