Pl. 25 – The Little Black Boy
1789
William Blake created this tender scene for his 1789 collection Songs of Innocence, illustrating his own poem about racial identity and spiritual equality. A dark-skinned mother and her child sit beneath a leafy tree, gazing at a rising sun that symbolizes divine love. Below the image, Blake hand-lettered the poem's verses in swirling, vine-like script, blending text and picture into a single, unified vision. This piece is a powerful early statement against racism, suggesting that physical skin color is merely a 'cloud' hiding the soul's true light.
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