Details
Title [Election night mob] [graphic].
Publisher [Philadelphia: s.n]
Publisher PA. Philadelphia. 1850
Date [1850]
Physical Description 1 print: wood engraving; image 10 x 16 cm. (4 x 6.25 in)
Description Scene depicts an incident that occurred in Philadelphia (the city proper and Moyamensing) on Election night, October 11, 1849. The incident began when a group of white boys and men dragged a flaming furniture car through the area around St. Mary Street, a neighborhood inhabited primarily by blacks. As the car travelled along, a shot was fired, and a cry arose that a white man had been shot. Having heard this, the mob headed toward the California house at Sixth and St. Mary, which was kept by a black man who was rumored to have a white wife. A riot ensued, and the California house was destroyed in a fire that claimed many other buildings and numerous lives.
Is part of Life and adventures of Charles Anderson Chester. Philadelphia: Printed for the publishers, 1850, c1849.
Notes Frontispiece for Life and Adventures of Charles Anderson Chester: the notorious leader of the Philadelphia "killers." (Philadelphia: Printed for the publishers, 1850, c1849).
Accompanied by the following caption: "A cry at once arose that a white man was shot, and the attention of the mob was directed to the California House, at the corner of Sixth and St. Mary street."
Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
Subject Race riots -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia -- 1840-1850.
Fires -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Genre Wood engravings -- 1840-1850.
Book illustrations -- 1840-1850.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Books & Other Texts | Rare | Am 1850 Lif 76423.O (Mrs SM Brenner) frontispiece
Accession number 76433.O