The Negress is a bronze sculpture by French artist Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux.

The Negress relates to Carpeaux's last monumental sculpture project, Fontaine de l'Observatoire, in Paris's Luxembourg Garden.

To interpret this theme, Carpeaux elected to use four life-size female figures supporting a globe and representing different races as continents.

The Indianapolis bronze is a preparatory work for Africa, presented as a bust rather than a full-length figure.

Carpeaux wanted to use her to emphasize the horrors of slavery, creating the piece three years after the Civil War of the United States had ended and twenty years after slavery was banned in all French and Danish colonies.