The city of New Bern, North Carolina was established in 1710 as a hub for the trade of human beings. By this time, the Transatlantic Slave Trade had been in operation for more than a century, but it was the 1700s that saw the highest volume of people transported – an estimated 50,000 enslaved Africans per year. It is this appalling side of New Bern’s past that concerns photographer Raymond Thompson Jr. in his new book, It’s hard to stop rebels that time travel. The artist focuses on previously concealed stories of slaves and runaways, expanding narratives around the Black experience and connection to the American landscape. Here, the figures previously hidden from both their contemporaries and from the archives are placed front and centre, adding an important new angle to modern understandings of Black life and history.
The book focuses on maroons – enslaved people who had escaped their captors but chose not to flee to the north – who inhabited the liminal spaces around New Bern. They created lives in hard to access swamps or the ungoverned wild spaces between plantations. The USA’s largest community of maroons was in the Great Dismal Swamp, which covered great swathes of Southeast Virginia and northeast North Carolina. The site has increasingly caught the interest of archaeologists in recent years, revealing much about how this community lived. Dan Sayers, an archaeologist and chair of the anthropology department at American University in Washington D.C., uncovered a 20-acre island in the swamp. He explains the significance to Smithsonianmagazine, saying: “These people performed a critique of a brutal capitalistic enslavement system, and they rejected it completely. They risked everything to live in a more just and equitable way, and they were successful for 10 generations.” Maroons lived a covert and sheltered life, avoiding detection from authorities, and as such, have largely been overlooked in historical narratives. This is slowly beginning to change, and Thompson Jr. adds his voice to the conversation.
It’s hard to stop rebels that time travel begins with a poem, written by the artist and dedicated to his ancestors. It is a reassurance that they have not been forgotten, instead living on through their descendants: “The soil thick with your blood / keeps the memory of your magic power / that strength reverberates / through the generations / it’s in me, and the others of your line / I can see it in their faces.” It is a suitably personal opening for a book that is rooted in Thompson Jr’s family history – the artist’s grandfather was born outside New Bern in 1918 and left the region during the Great Migration. This more intimate approach to interrogating the archives is a new angle for the artist, who is best-known for tackling systematic injustices and offering a voice to those rendered silent. Previous works include Appalachian Ghost, a photographic series that considered the dangerous work of migrant labourers in the construction industry; and High Waters, which spotlights how the effects of climate change are disproportionately felt by marginalised communities. This book feels like a natural progression, continuing the exploration of race, memory and representation through a new lens. More than anything, this project is a stark reminder that history is not so far removed from today. In shaping the narrative around his grandfather, readers are forced to confront the fact that only a few generations ago, slavery was still in living memory. The last survivor of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Matilda McCrear, died in 1940. Her grandson is still alive. Meanwhile, Daniel Smith, thought to be the last child of an enslaved person, only died in 2022. The past, marred with atrocities, human suffering and oppression, is not a far-off place. Its legacy is alive and well, continuing to shape the social, political and cultural circumstances of millions of people.
Thompson Jr. takes closely cropped portraits of people he met in New Bern. The intentionally dark, abstract aesthetic of the images is inspired by philosophical questions around the right of Black people to control their own visibility. These original works are interspersed with historic news reports of lynchings and runaway slaves. They, unsurprisingly, make for disturbing reading. Headlines tell of plantation owners who offer huge rewards for the return of runaway slaves, with one reading: “I expect he is lurking about in the neighbourhood where he was raised. I will give the above reward for his delivery to me in Lenoir County, or ten dollars for his confinement in any jail so that I can get him.” Another described a missing man, called Charles, as: “about five feet high, very black, can read and write, and probably has a free pass; he can play on the violin; and shews guilt very remarkable by wrinkling his face when accused; he was taken up and put in jail at Newbery about four years ago, it is supposed he is either lurking about there, or Washington.” The sheer number of stories telling of lynching is a sobering picture of the dangers maroons faced, as countless reports tell of “Lynching at New Bern” and “Lewis Patrick in hands of a mob.” The artist confronts these realities head on, challenging viewers to look history in the eye. Thompson Jr. annotated these adverts with details of the runaway, reimagining and reclaiming the individual within the narrative.
The book also features landscape photography, located at the sites mentioned in reports of lynchings. The now empty and unassuming patches of land are made to feel as though they hold the reverberations of injustices. In this, Thompson Jr’s work is reminiscent of American artist and McArthur Fellow Dawoud Bey, whose series In This Here Place (2019) depicts former sites of plantation, where the peaceful scenery shows little indication of their previous function. Thompson Jr’s slim, rectangular book is a piece of art itself, echoing the format of a travel journal or field notebook that would be slipped in a pocket on a long journey. It is a guide for the maroons of New Bern, directing them through the perilous landscape. The final page shows a map of North Carolina to indicate the locations maroons and runaways could have lived. Here, Thompson Jr. carves out a space in history for those who were denied this in life.
It’s hard to stop rebels that time travel’s impact looms much larger than its 112 pages. The echoes of the slave trade imbue each page, as the past is brought into the present-day. Readers are reminded of the real people behind the established narrative – both those living within the barbaric confines of slavery, and those who feel the repercussions today. It is a sobering read, but not without hope. Ultimately, this is a book about dignity, memory and, above all, about ensuring we do not forget those who came before.
It’s hard to stop rebels that time travel is published by VOID: void.photo
Words: Emma Jacob
All Images: Untitled from It’s hard to stop rebels that time travel © Raymond Thompson Jr.
