‘Woes & … sighs’: Fantasies of Slavery in Visions of the Daughters of Albion

Abstract

In Visions of the Daughters of Albion, Oothoon is raped by a slave-holder, Bromion, and rejected by her beloved, Theotormon, while the daughters of the title watch enthralled. Visions has a unique slant on sex, feminism and chattel slavery, manipulating a parallel that was current at the time, between a white English wife— whom Blake describes as ‘bound / In spells of law to one she loathes’ (5:21-2, E49)— and branded black slaves, who are ‘stampt with [the slave-holder’s] signet’ and whose ‘daughters worship terrors and obey the violent’ (1:21-3, E46).¹