Michael Vannoy Adams is noted as a psychoanalyst and literary scholar whose work provides insight into the allegorical underpinnings of the image "Voyage of the Sable Venus." This image, which inspired the title of Robin Coste Lewis's debut poetry collection, is a painting by Thomas Stothard. Adams interprets the "Sable Venus" image as a euphemism that obscures and justifies the brutality of the slave trade by presenting the Middle Passage as a voluntary journey. His analysis highlights how the imagery attempts to repress the enormity of the historical events it depicts.

The "Sable Venus" image itself is complex, featuring a Black woman on a seashell, reminiscent of Venus Anadyomene, but surrounded by cherubs and depicted crossing the Middle Passage. This visual is linked to an ode by Isaac Teale, which has been interpreted as celebrating the sexual violence inherent in slavery. Adams's perspective, as cited in discussions of Lewis's work, focuses on the psychological and ideological functions of such art, revealing how it sanitizes oppressive historical realities. His contribution is to deconstruct the symbolic language used to normalize and excuse the slave trade, emphasizing the distorting effect of artistic representation on historical truth.

Michael Vannoy Adams, identified as a psychoanalyst and literary scholar, offers a critical perspective on the "Sable Venus" image, a key element in understanding the context of Robin Coste Lewis's poetry collection. Adams views the image, originally by Thomas Stothard, as a sophisticated euphemism. He argues that it serves to downplay and excuse the horrors of the slave trade. By depicting the Middle Passage as a journey undertaken by choice, the image effectively represses the brutal reality of forced transportation. This interpretation is crucial for understanding how art can be used to sanitize or obscure historical atrocities, presenting a distorted narrative that conveniently overlooks the suffering involved.

The "Sable Venus" image, and its allegorical connections, are a focal point for Michael Vannoy Adams's scholarly observations. The image depicts an African woman on a half-shell, a motif associated with Venus, but places her within the context of the Middle Passage. Adams notes that this imagery, particularly when linked to Isaac Teale's ode "The Sable Venus: An Ode," functions to normalize and even romanticize the slave trade. The idea that differences in race are erased "at night" is presented as a justification for exploitation. Adams's analysis underscores how such artistic representations can create a veneer of pleasure or choice over acts of extreme violence and dehumanization, thereby excusing the inexcusable.

“euphemism that represses the enormity of the slave trade and conveniently excuses it”

“presents the Middle Passage as a route taken by choice, rather than by force”