Comparison Of Watson And The Shark

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The relationship of African-American slaves to their owners have been portrayed with a sense of dependency. In John Singleton Copley’s “Watson and the Shark” (c. 1778) and William Sidney Mount’s “Eel Spearing at Setauket” (c. 1845), each artist depicts a dependent relationship between master and slave.
Copley’s “Watson and the Shark” is a painting that was commissioned to tell the story of a shark attack that happened to Brook Watson. The painting includes nine different people trying to help the tenth person, Watson, who was attacked by the shark. Watson lays prone and naked in the water about to be attacked by the shark for the third time. He is reaching for the slave that is on the boat. Meanwhile, one crew member is in a position to stab