The Slaver

The Slaver relates to the prelude to Benet's poem, which evokes the slave trade in Colonial America.  Curry illustrated a passage that describes a fearful shipmate's descent into the dark, damp hold, where he encounters a striking and defiant captive.  He emphasized this tense confrontation by placing the two men in opposite corners of the composition.

The lantern shook in his hand.
This was black, here

The blackness of black, with one weak lamp to light it
As ineffectually as a firefly in Hell,

His glance fell
On the man who said he had been a king, the man
Called Tarbarrel, the image of black stone
Whose eyes were savage gods.

The huge suave muscles
Rippled like stretching cats as he changed posture,
Magnificence in chains that yet was ease.
The smolder in those eyes.  The steady hate.