On the one hand this is the familiar iconography: standing white, kneeling black. Many of the illustrations of Jim depict him visually beneath the novel's white characters. But this image is also a reminder of how complex such conventional (and intrinsically racist) representations can become in MT's novel. The "Duke's" speech also echoes the Anti-Slavery emblem -- "am I not a man and a duke?" But the "rights" the white man is claiming so grandly here are clearly fraudulent.
The Barrett Collection, UVA PS1305 .A1 1885b