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Storytelling: Aaron Douglas

Grade Level: 4–12

The spruce-green silhouette of a broad-shouldered man standing among palm fronds looks up at a faint red star against a field of green circles radiating out from the horizon in this abstracted vertical painting. The scene is made with mostly flat areas of color to create silhouettes in shades of slate and indigo blue, lemon-lime and pea green, plum purple, and brick red. To our right of center, the man faces our left in profile. His eye is a slit and he has tight curly hair. The position of his feet, standing on a coffin-shaped, brick-red box, indicate his back is to us. He stands with legs apart and his arms by his sides. Terracotta-orange shackles around his wrists are linked with a black chain. A woman to our left, perhaps kneeling, holds her similarly shackled hands up overhead. A line of shackled people with their heads bowed move away from this pair, toward wavy lines indicating water in the distance. The water is pine green near the shore and lightens, in distinct bands, to asparagus green on the horizon. On our left, two, tall pea-green ships sail close to each other at the horizon, both titled at an angle to our right. Concentric circles radiate out from the horizon next to the ships to span the entire painting, subtly altering the color of the silhouettes it encounters. To our left, a buttercup-yellow beam shines from the red star in the sky across the canvas, overlapping the man’s face. Spruce-blue palm trees grow to our right while plum-purple palm fronds and leaves in smoke gray and blood red frame the painting along the left corners and edge. The artist signed the painting in the lower right, in black, “AARON DOUGLAS.”

Aaron Douglas, Into Bondage, 1936, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase and partial gift from Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Jr., The Evans-Tibbs Collection), 2014.79.17

About the Artist 

Aaron Douglas (1899–1979) was a painter and illustrator. Known for his work addressing race and segregation, he was one of the leading artists of the Harlem Renaissance—an outpouring of Black culture in the 1920s and 1930s. Douglas had a unique style, incorporating elements of African art with Jazz Age modernism. He is also remembered for his legacy as a teacher, educating and inspiring future generations of Black artists. 

About the Artwork 

A line of people walks in shackles toward the ocean. In the distance, ships approach to forcibly transport them to the Americas. The man in the foreground pauses on the slave block, turning his face toward a beam of light from a star, while the woman at left raises her bound hands.

This painting depicts the brutality of the transatlantic slave trade, when between 10 and 12 million people were captured and brought to the Americas for a life of enslavement. The work depicts a specific moment in history while also foreshadowing the eventual abolition of slavery and hope for the future. 

Aaron Douglas created this work in 1936 as part of a series of murals for the Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas. His four paintings charted the journey of African Americans from slavery to the present. The exhibition opened on Juneteenth (June 19)—a holiday celebrating the end of slavery. 

Discussion Questions and Activity 

Slow looking  

Take a quiet minute to look carefully at this artwork.   

  • What do you notice first?
  • Look closely at the figures. How would you describe their appearance or poses?
  • Describe the setting. What colors and details are present?
  • What is happening around the figures?
  • What other details stand out to you?

Exploring Multiple Narratives  

Douglas created this painting as part of a series of murals that told the story of African Americans and slavery to his present day (1936). Looking at this work, discuss the multiple narratives that are both present and hidden.
  • What is the main story being told in this work of art? 
  • Whose perspectives are represented in that story?
  • What stories might lie beyond the borders of the painting?
  • What stories might be obscured or left out, either intentionally or unintentionally?

Extending the Story  

Douglas created this series nearly a hundred years ago. Consider what has happened in the world since 1936.  What stories would you add to this series?  What do you think is important to portray?

  • Consider the multiple narratives present and absent from Douglas’s work and your own lived experiences. Create an image that could go next in this series. You might choose to represent a moment in time between 1936 and the present, what life is like today, or your hopes for life in the future. 

Black Art & Artists in Our Collection

Teacher Resource: Afro-Atlantic Histories

Harlem Renaissance

Civil War and Its Aftermath 

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