Slavery was rooted in violence and intimacy. The children of enslavers and the enslaved sometimes grew up in the same households with minimal social distance. Affective bonds developed alongside the constant threat of violence and separation from kith and kin. Last weekend, I went to the @MFAH for a talk and, while there, a curator shared this miniature with me, which reiterates the above point. Considering the dress of the sitters, it can be inferred that it dates back to the early 1800s. The fact that this type of miniature was most common in France and the French Caribbean indicates that it may have been produced for or in a slave-holding region of the French Empire. Though the black girl might have been free or freed, but her life was certainly circumscribed by slavery. The intimate embrace between these two girls does not erase the power differential that also separated them.