The colour of blood
(Click image for a larger view)Credit: The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MSS. Lister 34 and 35
In 1675, Martin Lister was informed in a letter from Barbados that Africans have black blood. He sought further information from Henry Oldenburg, the secretary of the Royal Society, a group devoted to increasing scientific knowledge, who consulted other witnesses who said Black people do not have black blood.
‘Enjoy the journey as we take you from the past to our present’
Dirty Freud and Chris Skerritt chose to make an audio visual response to the assumption and fear which resonate in these letters. Their work encapsulates what the letters inspired in them and why they felt it was important to showcase this.
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