Virgin Luxuries Analysis

Question 1
What relationships of power are featured in “Virginian Luxuries” (Document 1)?
Two relationships of power are depicted in the painting entitled “Virgin Luxuries”: sexual power and physical power. In the first panel of the painting, a well dressed white man embraces a female African-American woman, presumably a slave. The way in which enslaved woman gazes admiringly - somewhat praisingly - into the white man’s eyes and the way in which she submissively entwines herself around him illustrates the white man’s sexual power over the black woman. In a parallel scene, a white slave owner is shown aggressively beating his slave with a cane. The white man’s expression is vivid and his stance is open and menacing. By contrast, the black man is virtually faceless, positioned with his back to the audience, and his hands held upwards in fear. These elements combined epitomizes the physical power that the white man possessed over the black slave.
How are unequal power relationships reflected in Tocqueville’s distinctions between the three races (Document 2)?
In his social analysis entitled “Democracy in America”, Alexis de Tocqueville distinguishes three races of humans that
There are two distinguishable relationships of power illustrated in “The Discord”: the male and female power struggle, and the divine power.
The gender power struggle is depicted in the foreground. A man and a woman, presumably spouses, tug over a pair of pants, the quintessential symbol of male power and dominance, particularly in 19th century America, where the traditional costume for women was the Victorian gown. By quarrelling over the pair of pants, the man and the woman metaphorically dispute for authority and control in a male-dominated society. While the husband argues that the “man ought always to be the ruler”, his wife retorts that women were not born to “obey these contemptible creature called