“Like gory spectres”: Representing evil in Theodore weld's American slavery as it is

Theodore Weld's American Slavery As It Is signalled a key moment in the abolitionist's efforts to represent slavery to optimal effect. The largest‐selling antislavery text prior to Uncle Tom's Cabin, American Slavery was conspicuously graphic and unrelenting in its depictions of slavery's horrors. At the same time, it helped to set in place a vocabulary of images that has significant implications for the way in which we represent race relations in our time.