Collection created through a Samuel S. Fels Community Fellowship Grant in 2003 of over 300 book and periodical illustrations from the 16th - to 19th -centuries depicting all aspects of African American history and life.

Images range in date from 1595 (Giralomo Benzoni, Americae Pars Quinta) to 1914 (John Wesley Cromwell, The Negro in American History) and include views from 17th through 19th centuries travel and history texts of the social life and agricultural, industrial, and craft work of African peoples; graphics from the antislavery movements in France, Great Britain, and the United States detailing the brutality of slave life and the violence of slave resistance; and a selection of racist caricatures and cartoons from the 19th century reflecting the growing denigration and dehumanizing of African Americans in the era’s American popular print culture.

Pages

[African climbing palm tree] [graphic].
Included in Chapter III, the engraving accompanies Winterbottom's discussion of the uses of the palm tree in Sierra Leone. Using an elliptical hoop, a man climbs a palm tree to procure wine. On the ground, another man points at him, and a mother walks with two small children. "To procure the palm wine," Winterbottom explained, "requires no small degree of agility and address." Describing this process in detail, he wrote, "As the trunk of the tree is too rough to allow the hands and knees to be applied in climbing to its summit, the natives use a kind of hoop of an elliptical form, made of bamboo, and open at one side. The person about to ascend, first passes the hoop round the stem of the tree, including himself also, he then fastens the hoop by twisting its two ends into a kind of knot. The hands are applied to the sides of the hoop, while the feet are firmly pressed against the tree, and the lower part of the back supported by the opposite end of the hoop. In order to advance, the person thus prepared draws his body a little forwards, keeping his feet steady, and at the same moment slips the hoop a little higher up the tree, after which he advances a step or two with his feet. In this manner he alternately raises the hoop and his feet, and thus advancing, he gains at length the upper part of the stem, just below where the branches are thrown off. Here, at the height of 50 or 60 feet, with no other support than the pressure of his feet against the tree, and of his back against the hoop, he sits with perfect composure. In a small bag hung round his neck or arm he carries an anger to bore the tree, and a gourd or calibash to receive the wine. A hole is bored, about half an inch deep, below the crown of the tree, and into this is inserted a leaf rolled up like a funnel, the other end of it being put into the mouth of a calibash capable of containing several quarts, which is filled in the course of a single night. . . . When the palm wine has been drawn off, the hole is carefully filled up with mud, to prevent insects from depositing their eggs in it, the larvae of which would destroy the tree." (p. 61-62), Plate in Thomas Winterbottom's An Account of the Native Africans in the Neighborhood of Sierra Leone; to which is Added, an Account of the Present State of Medicine Among Them (London: Printed by C. Whittingham, Dean Street; and sold by John Hatchard, 199, Piccadilly, and J. Mawman, Poultry, 1803), vol. 1, p. 60., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography
African mother on a rock [graphic].
Yarrima, an African mother, watches in despair as her son, Yazoo, is whisked away on the white man's boat., Illustration in Lydia Childs's the Oasis (Boston: Benjamin C. Bacon: Tuttle and Weeks, printers, No. 8, School Street, 1834), p. 28., Caption underneath the illustration reads: "Yarrima climbed to the highest rock, and saw the white man's boat moving rapidly over the waves.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
African slave trade [graphic] / Felch-Riches.
Illustration is set on the eastern coast of Africa, most likely in Sierra Leone. In the center, a slave-trader inspects a slave for purchase. To the left of the pair, another European slave-trader (presumably the seller) sits on a crate, smoking a cigar as he observes the inspection process. His book, the quill, and the ink-well suggest that he is prepared to record the day's transactions. To the right, another European trader converses with three African merchants, possibly members of the Mandigo tribe. The subject of their discussion may be the sale of goods in the Africans' trunk. To the far right, an overseer with a raised whip marches behind a row of bound slaves who are headed toward a ship., Plate in William Blake's The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade, Ancient and Modern (Columbus, Ohio: Published and sold exclusively by subscription J. & H. Miller, 1858), p. 112., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Images of the Slave Trade.
[African weaver] [graphic].
Report includes William Singleton's "Account of a Visit to the Gambia and Sierra Leone," in which he described the weaver featured in the frontispiece. Recalling his arrival in Tankrowall (Gambia), Singleton wrote, "The African loom here took my attention; and here too I first saw a female use the distaff: she was spinning cotton, and frequently dipped her finger into a white powder, prepared from burnt bones." (p. 30) As the frontispiece attests, the weaver's loom was sheltered, and she sat on the ground as she worked. A similar loom is depicted in René Claude Geoffroy de Villeneuve's L'Afrique, ou histoire, moeurs, usages et coutumes des africains: le Sénégal (Paris: 1814), vol. 4, p. 180., Frontispiece for the London Yearly Meeting's Report of the Committee Managing a Fund Raised by Some Friends for the Purpose of Promoting African Instruction . . . (London: Printed by Harvey, Darton, and Co., 55, Gracechurch-Street, 1822)., Caption below the image read: "The plate presented to the work by some friends to the cause.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
The Africans of the slave bark "Wildfire" [graphic] / M.N.
Engraving shows the manner in which hundreds of African slaves were crowded on the deck of the "Wildfire," an American vessel captured off the northern coast of Cuba in April 1860. According to the accompanying text, the ship had left the Congo River thirty-six days before her capture, and had roughly five hundred Africans on board. The capture of the "Wildfire" was led by Lieutenant Craven of the United States steamer Mohawk. His experience was recounted in Harper's Weekly as follows: "Soon after the bark was anchored we repaired on boad, and on passing over the side saw, on the deck of the vessel, about four hundred and fifty native Africans, in a state of entire nudity, in a sitting or squatting posture, the most of them having their knees elevated so as to from a resting place for their head and arms. They sat very close together, mostly on either side of the vessel, forward and aft, leaving a narrow open space along the line of the centre for the crew of the vessel to pass to and fro. About fifty of them were full-grown young men, and about four hundred were boys aged from ten to sixteen years. It is said by persons acquainted with the slave-trade and who saw them, that they were generally in a very good condition of health and flesh, as compared with other similar cargoes, owing to the fact that they had not been so much crowded together on board as is common in slave voyages, and had been better fed than usual." (p. 344), Illustration in Harper's Weekly, vol. IV, no. 179 (June 2, 1860), p. 344., Caption underneath the image reads: "The slave deck of the bark 'Wildfire,' brought into Key West on April 30, 1860. -- [From a Daguerrotype.]", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from the Slave Trade.
After what manner the Hottentots secure their cattle in the night ; The carriage - oxen of the Hottentots [graphic].
Included in Chapter XV, "Of the Hottentot Management with Regard to their Cattle," the plates describe aspects of animal husbandry, as practiced by the Hottentot [i.e. Khoikoin] peoples. As the title suggests, the top engraving shows the manner in which the Khoikoin secured cattle during the night. The image is described in section XIV, where Kolb wrote, "I shall now shew after what Manner the Hottentots secure their cattle in the Night. The Cots of a Kraal [defined variously as a hut, an entire village, an enclosure, or a corral], as I have said already, are rang'd in a Circle, the Area of which is quite open. There is but one Entrance into a Kraal and that a narrow one. Between Five and Six in the Evening, as I have said too, the Hottentots generally drive their Cattle from Pasture. . . . On the Area of the Kraal they lodge the Calves and all the small Cattle. And round the Kraal, on the Outside, they range the great Cattle, their Heads close up to the Cots. Their Great Cattle, so rang'd, they tie, Two and Two together, by the Feet, to prevent their Struggling." (p. 176) The bottom engraving shows the oxen of the Khoikoin, of which Kolb said the followiing, "The Hottentots have likewise great Numbers of Oxen for Carriage. These too are very strong and stately Creatures, chosen out of the Herds at about the Age of Two Years, by old Men, well skill'd in Cattle. When they have destin'd an Ox to carry Burthens, they take and throw him on his Back on the Ground; and fastening his Head and Feet, as they do those of a Bull when they geld him, they make a Hole with a sharp Knife through his upper Lip, between his Nostrils. Into this Hole they put a stick, about half an Inch thick, and a Foot and a Half long, with a Hook at Top to prevent its falling through. By this hook'd Stick they break him to Obedience and Good Behaviour: For if he refuses to be govern'd, or to carry the Burthens they lay upon him, they fix his Nose by this hook'd Stick to the Ground; and there hold it till he comes to a better Temper." (p. 180-81), Page from Peter Kolb's The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope (London: Printed for W. Innys and R. Manby, at the west end of St. Paul's, MDCCXXXVIII [1738]), vol. 1, p. 174., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
All men born free and equal? [graphic].
Vignette accompanies the essay "Opinions of Travellers," a compilation of excerpts from various travel accounts. In addition to an American flag, the image includes a coffin and an assortment of weapons and objects associated with slavery. Many of these objects figure in the various authors' accounts., Vignette in Lydia Childs's the Oasis (Boston: Benjamin C. Bacon: Tuttle and Weeks, printers, No. 8, School Street, 1834), p. 241., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
"Am I not a man, and a brother?" [graphic].
Profile view of a half-kneeling slave figure facing right. His ankles and wrists are shackled and chained; his hands are clenched together and raised in an imploratory manner. The sparse background suggests a plantation setting., Title page vignette in Thomas Branagan's Penitential Tyrant (New York: Printed and sold by Samuel Wood, 1807)., Images in this work derived from oral testimony given before the British Parliament's Select Committee Appointed to Take the Examination of Witnesses Respecting the African Slave Trade originally published as An Abstract of the Evidence Delivered Before a Select Committee of the House of Commons in the Years 1790, and 1791; the Part of Petitioners for the Abolition of the Slave-Trade (London: printed by James Phillips, 1791). Images also issued in a number of other printed works including Remarks on the Methods of Procuring Slaves with a Short Account of Their Treatment in the West Indies (London: printd by and for Darton and Harvey, no. 66 Gracechurch Street, MDCCXCIII [1793]): Sclaven-Handel (Philadelphia: Gedruckt fur Tobias Hirte, bey Samuel Saur, 1794); Der Neue Hoch Deutsche Americanische Calender auf das Jahr 1797 (Baltimore: Samuel Saur, 1796); Injured Humanity: Being a Representation of What the Unhappy Children of Africa Endure from Those Who Call Themselves Christian... (New York: printed and sold by Samuel Wood, no. 362, Pearl Street, between 1805 and 1808); and The Mirror of Misery, or Tyranny Exposed (New York: printed and sold by Samuel Wood, 1807) and later editions issued in 1811 and 1814., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Am I not a man, and a brother [graphic].
Profile view of a half-kneeling slave figure facing right. His ankles and wrists are shackled and chained; his hands are clenched together and raised in an imploratory manner., Title page vignette in James Field Stanfield's Observations on a Guinea Voyage (London: printed by James Phillips, George-Yard, Lombard-Street, 1788)., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Amistad captives [graphic].
From top to bottom, the three profile portraits depict: Cinque, the leader of the Amistad revolt; Grabeau, second in command; and James Covey, the interpreter. The features of Cinque and Covey are rendered in some detail; Grabeau is represented by little more than a silhouette., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1841 (New York: Published by S.W. Benedict, 1841 [i.e. 1840]), p. 22-23., Title above the three portraits reads: "Description of Cinquez, Grab-Eau, and James Covey the Interpreter.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Andries Africander, a mulatto Hottentot [graphic] / W. C. Harris del.
Portrait image of Andries Africander, a mulatto Hottentot (i.e. Khoikhoi), who served as Harris's driver during part of his travels. A pensioned private in the Cape Rifle Corps, Africander is shown here with his rifle. As Harris noted, and as the engraving suggests, he was missing both his right eye and his index finger. When Harris first made Africander's acquaintance, the latter had already made numerous trips into Moselekaste's country. He was also acquainted with the chief, and spoke a bit of English and Sichuana. He proved, however, to be an unfortunate addition to Harris's party. "A coward, a mutineer, and an inveterate liar," Harris wrote, " . . . Andries caused more mischief and trouble to us by his pernicious example and rebellious conduct when beyond the reach of the law, than can be well conceived by those who have never had the misfortunes to be exposed to the machinations of so dangerous a ruffian." (p. 10), Plate in Sir William Harris's The wild sports of Southern Africa: Being a narrative of a hunting expedition from the Cape of Good Hope, through the territories of the Chief Moselekatse, to the Tropic of Capricorn (London: Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden, 1852), p. 8., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
[Anna Xinga and her commanders] [graphic].
Engraving features Anna Xinga or Nzinga (second from left), the daughter and rightful successor of the King of Congo. After the Portuguese prevented her ascension to the throne, she fled the kingdom. As Ogilby explained, "She and her People (for the most part) lead an unsettled life, roving up and down from place to place, like the Jages: Before any enterprize undertaken, though of meanest concern, they ask councel of the Devil; to which end they have an Idol, to whom they sacrifice a living Person, of the wisest and comliest they can pick out." Ogilby then continued, "The Queen against the time of this Sacrifice, Clothes her self in mans appareal, (nor indeed does she at any time go otherwise habited) hanging about her the Skins of beasts, before and behind, with a Sword about her Neck, an Ax at her Girdle, and a Bowe and Arrows in her Hand, leaping according to their Custom, now here, then there, as nimbly, as the most active among her Attendants; all the while striking her Engema, that is, two Iron Bells, which serve her in stead of Drums. When she thinks she has made a show long enough, in a Masculine manner, and thereby hath weary'd her self; then she takes a broad Feather and sticks it through the holes of her boar'd Nose, for a sign of War. She her self in this rage, begins with the first of those appointed to be sacrificed; and cutting off his head, drinks a great draught of his blood. Then follow the Stoutest Commanders, as do as she hath done; and this with a great hurly-burly, tumult, and playing upon Instruments about their Idol. Among all her most pretious things, she bestows no such care on any, as the Bones of one of her Brothers, who Raign'd before her, which lie together in a costly Silver Chest, long before gotten of the Portuguese." (p. 564), Illustration in John Ogilby's Africa: Being an accurate description of the regions of Aegypt, Barbary, Lybia, and Billedulgerid: the Land of Negroes, Guinee, and Aethiopia, and Abyssines, with all the adjacent islands, either in the Mediterranean, Atlantick, Southern, or Oriental Sea, belonging thereunto (London: Printed by Tho. Johnson, for the author, and are to be had at his house in White Fryers, M.DC.LXX [1670]), p. 565., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Another method of fixing the poor victims on a ladder to be flogged, which is also occasionally laid flat on the ground for severer punishment. [graphic].
A slaveowner stands to the right and watches as a partially clothed male slave flogs the backside of a naked male slave who leans on a ladder that is propped against a tree., Illustration in Thomas Branagan's Penitential Tyrant (New York: Printed and sold by Samuel Wood, 1807], p. 273., Engraving attributed to Alexander Anderson., Images in this work derived from oral testimony given before the British Parliament's Select Committee Appointed to Take the Examination of Witnesses Respecting the African Slave Trade originally published as An Abstract of the Evidence Delivered Before a Select Committee of the House of Commons in the Years 1790, and 1791; on the Part o the Petitioners for the Abolition of the Slave-Trade (London: printed by James Phillips, 1791). Images also issued in a number of other printed works including Remarks on the Methods of Procuring Slaves with a Short Account of Their Treatment in the West-Indies (London: printed by and for Darton and Harvey, no. 66 Gracechurch Street, MDCCXCIII [1793]); Sclaven-Handel (Philadelphia: Gedruckt fur Tobias Hirte, bey Samuel Saur, 1794); Der Neue Hoch Deutsche Americanische Calender auf das Jahr 1797 (Baltimore: Samuel Saur, 1796); Injured Humanity: Being a Representation of What the Unhappy Children of Africa Endure from Those Who Call Themselves Christians... (New York: printed and sold by Samuel Wood, no. 362 Pear Street between 1805 and 1808); and The Mirror of Misery, or Tyranny Exposed (New York: printed and sold by Samuel Wood, 1807) and later editions issued in 1811 and 1814., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
"The auctioneer's young man" [graphic] / King sc.
This portrait is included in Chapter X, "A Visit to Houston," where it accompanies the section "Types from Negro-Life." The engraving depicts the auctioneer's "young man," a black man carrying a bell and a flag that reads "AUCTION SALE." Describing him and other Houston "types", King wrote: "The street life is interesting; the negro on his dray, racing good-humoredly with his fellows; the ragged urchin with his saucy face and his bundle of magnolia-blossoms; and the auctioneer's "young man," with his mammoth bell and brazen voice, are all interesting types, which, as the reader will observe, the genial and careful artist has faithfully reproduced." (p. 116), Illustration in Edward King's The great South: a record of journeys in Louisiana, Texas, the Indian territory, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland (Hartford, CT: American Publishing Company, 1875), p. 116., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Daily Life.
[Aunt Judy's husband captured] [graphic].
Illustration accompanies the narrative, "Aunt Judy's Story: A Story from Real Life," by Matilda G. Thompson. According to the story, Aunt Judy's husband, John, was a Kentucky slave with a brutal master. Desperate to leave, and eager to regain contact with Judy, who lived on a different plantation, John managed to escape. He made it to the plantation of Judy's mistress, and hid there for more than a week before he was betrayed and captured by slave-hunters., Illustration in The child's anti-slavery book (Boston: American Tract Society, 28 Cornhill, Boston, 1859), p 104., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
Aunt Winnie [graphic] / J.W. Orr sc.
As the title suggests, the engraving is a portrait of Aunt Winnie, whom Strother's described as an "aged domestic" of "much importance" on a large Virginia estate. "Aunt Winnie," he explained, "was supposed to be upward of a hundred years old, and could count among her descendants children of the fifth generation" (one of whom stands at her side). According to Crayon, Aunt Winnie's cabin, a portion of which is visible in the portrait, "was fitted up with due regard to the comfort of the aged occupant, not forgetting the ornamental, in the shape of highly-colored lithographs and white fringed curtains." (p. 309), Illustration in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. 13, no. 75 (August 1856), p. 310., Engraving accompanies Porte Crayon's [i.e., David Hunter Strother's] "Virginia illustrated. Adventures of Porte Crayon and his cousins," which was published in book form in 1857 by Harper & Brothers of New York., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
[B stands for bloodhound] [graphic].
Image is accompanied by a verse, which begins as follows: "B Stands for Bloodhound. On merciless fangs / The slaveholder feels that his "property" hangs, /." With his arms extended over his head, an escaped slave falls to his knees. Behind him, a bloodhound bites at his shoulders and claws his thigh; two other dogs surround him., Illustration in Abel C. Thomas's Gospel of Slavery (New York: Published by T.W. Strong, 1864), n.p., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Fugitives.
The banks of the River James [graphic].
Image is set Lynchburg, Virginia, where a party of African American men rest on the bank of the River James. A row-boat and two oars are visible in the left foreground; a wagon occupies the background., Illustration in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. 12, no. 68 (January 1856), p. 174., Engraving accompanies Porte Crayon's [i.e., David Hunter Srother's] "Virginia Illustrated. Adventures of Porte Crayon and his Cousins," which was published in book form in 1857. See David Hunter Strother, Virginia Illustrated (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1857)., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
Bansa oste de Stadt Salvador. Hoost-stadt van het Rijk Congo. = Bansa ou S. Salvador. Capitale de Congo. [graphic] / A Leide, Chez Pierre vander Aa.
View of the city of Banza, or San Salvador, with the River Lelunda. According to the key, A represents the king's palace. The figures denoted by the letter B (lower right, on the river's edge) are slaves who collect water to supply to the city. The structures marked C are churches, and D is a citadel. E is a spring from which slaves collect fresh water., Folded illustration in Pieter van der Aa's La galerie agreable du monde, où l'on voit et un grand nombre de cartes tres-exactes et de belles tailles-douces, les principaux empires, roiaumes, republiques, provinces, villes, bourgs et forteresses . . . (Le tout mis en ordre & executé à Leide, par Pierre vander Aa [1729?]), n.p., In the absence of pagination, 50 has been written next to the plate., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Barbarous treatment of two unfortunate females [graphic].
Illustration accompanies Miss Harrintgon's (allegedly true) account of her capture by two blacks in the parish of Concordia, Louisiana in 1842. Miss Harrington (standing in the middle) was kidnapped by two black men, Enoch and Joseph (seen at right), who forced their way into her home and murdered her father, Noah Harrington. Thereafter, the two men entered the home of Mr. George Todd, whom they also killed, and then proceeded to take his wife and seven-month old infant into captivity. (Mother and child are seen at left). With a young mulatto girl named Nelly Predello in tow, the two men led Miss Harrington, Mrs. Eliza Todd, and her child into a swampy forest, where they were held for six weeks. As Miss Harrington's narrative emphasizes, Nelly had originally thought that she would be aiding the two men in some sort of simple escape attempt, and she was dismayed to discover the true nature of their murderous plot. In this scene, Nelly protects the two women from their captors. As Miss Harrington wrote, whenever Nelly felt their lives jeopardized, she "would drop on her knees and beg of the blacks to desist, and in the meantime assuring them, 'that if the lives of the two unfortunate captives were thus to be cowardly sacrificed, their bullets would have first to pass through her body, before she would willingly permit them to reach those of the unfortunate victims!'" Eventually, Nelly aided in the women's rescue by a group of white men., Frontispiece for Miss Harrington's Narrative of the Barbarous Treatment of Two Unfortunate Females (New York: Printed for the publishers, 1842)., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
La Batugue à San-Paulo [graphic].
In an open, outdoor space, two couples dance to music performed by the two men at the left. One musician appears to play a percussion instrument, while the other seems to play a string instrument. The dancing women are bare-breasted, and some of their facial features correspond to racist stereotypes, particularly in the case of the woman closest to the right. On the left, a third woman sits underneath a pole that supports a straw roof. Some pieces of tropical fruit lie on the ground near her feet. Batugue, a type of dance still practiced today, is an Afro-Brazilian circle dance., Plate in Voyage pittoresque dans le deux Ameriques (A Paris : Chez L. Tenr'e, libraire-éditeur, rue de Paon, 1; et chez Henri Dupuy, rue de la Monnaie, 11., M DCCC XXXVI. [1836]), p. 210., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
Black and white beaux [graphic] / A. Hervieu del. ; Lith. of Pendleton.
Portrays a black couple in New York; it appears within the context of Trollope's discussion of free blacks in the city, particularly their dress, taste, and comportment. "On one occassion," Trollope wrote, "we met in Broadway a young Negress in the extreme of fashion, and accompanied by a black beau, whose toilet was equally studied; eye-glass, guard-chin, nothing was omitted; he walked beside his sable goddess uncovered, and with an air of the most tender devotion. At the window of a handsome house which they were passing stood a very pretty white girl, with two gentlemen beside her; but alas! both of them had their hats on, and one was smoking!" (p. 279), Plate in Frances Trollope's Domestic Manners of the Americans (London: Printed for Whittaker, Treacher, & Co.; New York: Reprinted for the booksellers, 1832), p. 278., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Daily Life.
Blood hounds attacking a black family in the woods [graphic] / M. Rainsford del. ; J. Barlow sculpt.
Engraving is after a drawing by Rainsford, the former Captain of Britain's Third West-India Regiment. The setting is St. Domingo (Haiti) in 1803. As Rainsford explains in his text, as the French occupiers lost power and control, they reverted to increasingly barbarous measures, and unleashed vicious blood hounds on black residents., Plate in Marcus Rainsford's Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti: comprehending a view of the principal transactions in the revolution of Saint Domingo; with its antient and modern state (London: Albion press printed: published by James Cundee, Ivy-Lane, Paternoster-Row; and sold by C. Chapple, Pall Mall, 1805), p. 338., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
The bloodhound business [graphic].
Illustration accompanies part five, "Domestic Amusements in the Slave States." It shows a family of runaway slaves as they try to defend themselves from a pack of bloodhounds. Behind them, two slavehunters aim their rifes at father, mother, and child., Illustration in the Suppressed Book about Slavery! (New York: Carleton, 1864), p. 288., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Fugitives.
A bold stroke for freedom [graphic] / C.H. Reed.
Engraving depicts an incident that is said to have occurred near the Maryland state line on December 25, 1855. As the accompanying narrative suggests, six slaves from Virginia's Loudoun and Fauquier counties (Barnaby Grigby, his wife, Mary Elizabeth Grigby, Frank Wanzer, Emily Foster, and two others) had taken their master's horses and carriage, and were on their way to freedom. Near the Cheat River in Maryland, they were attacked by "six white men and a boy," who demanded their passes, and then ordered their surrender. The fugitives retaliated, and the four travelling in the carriage made a successful escape. Two others on horseback were assumed to have been captured., Illustration in William Still's Underground Rail Road: a record of facts, authentic narratives, letters, &c. (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1872), p. 124., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
Branding a female slave [graphic].
Set on the coast of Haiti, the image shows a slave-trader branding a female slave on the shoulder. The unclothed slave kneels on the sand with her hands chained behind her back. Other slaves await their turn, covering their eyes or looking away. In the lower right-hand corner, a second slave-trader sits on a barrel with a rifle resting on his knee. A slave-ship is visible in the background., Plate in John W. Cromwell's The Negro in American History: Men and Women Eminent in the Evolution of the American of African Descent (Washington, D.C.: The American Negro Academy, 1914), p. 2., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from the Slave Trade.
The bridal dance [graphic] / J.H. Goater del ; N. Orr Co. sc.
Engraving depicts a fictional episode from Chapter IV, "Christmas." The scene takes place on Fairfax Plantation on Christmas day. The newly married couple, Jim and July, dance merrily to the music of fiddles, banjos, and tamborines, while other slaves look on. The pair are still dressed in their wedding attire: July is described as "resplendent in a white dress, white cotton gloves, a string of mock-pearls about her neck, and a wreath of silver flowers about her head," while Jim wears "a gorgeous waistcoat, had a sprig of flowers in the button-hole of his coat, and also sported white cotton gloves." According to the text, a bonfire provided the illumination for these festivities, which grew gayer as evening turned into night., Illustration in Metta Victoria Fuller Victor's Maum Guinea, and her plantation "children" (London: Beadle and Company,44 Paternoster Row; New York: Beadle and Company, 141 William Street, 1861), p. 46., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
The broomstick wedding [graphic] / H.H.
Illustration is included in Chapter XIV, "I am the Innocent Cause of a Fight -- Religious Services among the Slaves in 'Ole Virginny.'" It shows a "broomstick wedding" that the author recalls having seen. Standing to the left, the betrothed slaves Pompey and Susan hold hands as they wait to jump over the broomstick, which is held by two slaves who are bent at the waist. Uncle Aaron, an elderly slave know as a preacher and a conjuror, presides over the ceremony. According to the author's description, the bride and groom wore the cast-off clothes of their mistress and master: she in a half-worn, ill fitting, maroon-colored merino gown, and he in checked trousers, a white vest and a brown linen duster that was several sizes too big. Numerous wedding guests fill the cabin., Illustration in Mary Ashton Rice Livermore's The Story of my Life, or, The Sunshine and Shadow of Seventy Years (Hartford: A.D. Worthington & Co., 1897), p. 257., Caption underneath the image reads: "'Look squar' at de broomstick! All ready now! one-two-three-jump!'", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
The brutal whipping of Matt [graphic] / H. Helmick.
Illustration is included in Chapter XII, "Negro Matt, the Cooper -- Savage Bryson -- the Negro Overseer - An Agonizing but Unavailing Plea for Mercy -- A Slave-Whipping and a Tragedy." According to Livermore, the print shows the cooper, Matt, being whipped by a "gigantic" man as his master watches at the left. Other slaves look on in horror. Matt offense was accidentally burning his master in the blacksmith's shop. For this, Livermore explained, a "rope was roughly tied around his wrists, and thrown over a beam projecting from the roof of the shop, by which he was drawn up with jerks, until his toes barely touched the ground." The overseer, she noted, "stood by urging on the terrible flagellation, in the most brutal and fiendish manner conceivable." (p. 217), Illustration in Mary Ashton Rice Livermore's The Story of my Life, or, The Sunshine and Shadow of Seventy Years (Hartford: A.D. Worthington & Co., 1897), p. 214., Caption underneath the image reads: "The swish of a long whip flashed through the air. The lash sank with a cutting sound into Matt's quivering flesh. Shrieks of torture pierced the skies as blow after blow fell upon the body of the suffering man. I stood immovable, sick and faint, and heard and saw it all, paralyzed with horror and fear.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Camp de Pampoen-Kraal [graphic].
Depiction of Le Vaillant's camp at Pampoen-Kraal, where, according to his account, he and his party repaired their wagons and carriages, and dried their goods, which had become wet during the course of their travels. (In the engraving, however, it appears that Africans do much of the work for them.) "The hill of Pampoen-Kraal, . . . ," Le Vaillant wrote, "pleased me much." As he then recalled, "Nor far from my tent [right] stood a small eminence, crowned by a thicket of thirty or thirty-five feet in diameter. The trees and shrubs of which it was composed, in growing had so interwoven their branches, that the whole appeared as one very thick and bushy body. Having imagined that I might convert it into a little palace, I ordered a path to be traced out to its centre, and the branches to be lopped off on each side to the height of a man, so as to afford an easy passage. In the middle of the thicket, by the force of labour and employing the hatchet, we were able to cut out two chambers perfectly square; in one of which I placed my table and chair; this was my study. The second I ornamented with my kitchen utensils: but this did not prevent me from using it at the same time as a dining room. These two apartments, naturally covered with branches and leaves impenetrably thick, afforded me a delightful and cool retreat, when harassed and covered with sweat and dust, after my hunted excursion in the morning, I retired from the heat of the day, and the scorching rays of the sun. (See the English translation of Le Vaillant, Travels into the Interior Parts of Africa [London: Printed for G.G. and J. Robinson, Paternoster-Row, 1796], vol. 1, p. 164-165.), Fold-out plate in François Le Vaillant's Voyage de Monsieur Le Vaillant dans l'intérieur de l'Afrique par le Cap de Bonne-Espérance: dans les Années 1780, 81, 82, 83, 84 & 85 (A Paris: Chez Leroy, Libraire, rue Saint-Jacques; vis-à-vis celle de la Parcheminerie, no. 15, M.DCC.LXXXX [1790]), vol. 1, p. 166., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
[Le Cap de Bona Esperance] [graphic] / Carolus Allard excudit cum Privilegio ordinum Hollandie et Westfrisiae ; A. Meyer fecit.
Engraving shows a black family near the Cape of Good Hope. Carrying three small children (two hang in front of her, one is strapped on her back), the mother gestures toward the father, who appears to hold a dead bird by its neck. (It could, however, be some other type of creature.) The father wears a large collar, and his skin reveals numerous cut-marks. Ships are visible on the waters in the background., Double-page plate in Pieter van der Aa's La galerie agreable du monde, où l'on voit et un grand nombre de cartes tres-exactes et de belles tailles-douces, les principaux empires, roiaumes, republiques, provinces, villes, bourgs et forteresses . . . (Le tout mis en ordre & executé à Leide, par Pierre vander Aa [1729?]), n.p., Caption reads: C.D. Bona Esperance., In the absence of pagination, 57a has been written next to the plate., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Captain in his war dress [graphic] / Drawn by T.E. Bawdiet (owdich) Esq.
Arriving in Coomassie, Bowdich and his party encountered an enormous crowd -- "upwards of 5000 people," most of whom were warriors. Amidst smoke, martial music, and a "confusion of flags," the military captains performed a dance. "The dress of the captains," Bowdich explained, "was a war cap, with gilded ram horns projecting in front, the sides extended beyond all proportion by immense plumes of eagles feathers, and fastened under the chin with bands of cowries. Their vest was of red cloth, covered with fetishes and saphies (scraps of Moorish writing, as charms against evil) in gold and silver; and embroidered cases of almost every colour, which flapped against their bodies as they moved, intermixed with small brass bells, the horns and tails of animals, shells, and knives; long leopards tails hung down their backs, over a small bow covered with fetishes. They wore loose cotton trowsers, with immense boots of a dull red leather, coming half way up the thigh, and fastened by small chains to their cartouch or waist belt; these were also ornamented with bells, horses tails, strings of amulets, and innumerable shreds of leather; a small quiver of poisoned arrows hung from their right wrist, and they held a long iron chain between their teeth, with a scrap of Moorish writing affixed to the end of it. A small spear was in their left hands, covered with red cloth and silk tassels; their black countenances heightened the effect of this attire, and completed a figure scarcely human." (p. 32), Plate in T. Edward Bowdich's Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee: with a Statistical Account of that Kingdom, and Geographical Notices of Other Parts of the Interior of Africa (London: J. Murray, Albemarle-Street: printed by W. Pulmer and Co., Cleveland-Row, St. James's, 1819), p. 32., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
A Carib of Morne Ronde, St. Vincent [graphic].
Portrait image of Mary and her child, two Caribs whom Wentworth met in Morne Ronde on St. Vincent. According to Wentworth, Mary's features "were more of the African character, than of the aboriginal Indians, who were remarkable for the symmetry of their forms, and long straight glossy hair." "Her proportions, too," he wrote, "were singularly out of proportion, as if -- excepting her head and feet, she had been formed of the half limbs of a muscular giantess." (p. 337), Plate in Trelawney Wentworth's West India Sketch Book (London: Printed for Whittaker & Co., Ave Maria Lane, 1834), vol. II, p. 336., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
Carrying cotton to the gin [graphic] / J.W. Orr N.Y.
Engraving is one of several accompanying T.B. Thorpe's article "Cotton and its Cultivation." It shows seven African American plantation hands walking with large baskets of cotton on their heads. The men and women walk in a perfect line, leaving three or four paces between them. The illustration corresponds with the following passage, "Among the most characteristic scenes of plantation life is the returning of the hands at nightfall from the field, with their well-filled baskets of cotton upon their heads. Falling unconsciously "into line," the stoutest leading the way, they move along in the dim twilight of a winter day with the quietness of spirits rather than human beings." (p. 455-56), Illustration in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. 8, no. 46 (March 1854), p. 457., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Case a Negres [graphic] / Bullica del. ; Chamoun sculp.
Tropical landscape in which a black family is featured in the foreground. The father wears a straw hat, and carries some type of tool or bundle over his shoulder. The mother sits with their child on her lap in a posture that suggests breast-feeding. Behind a stone and wooden fence, the thatched roofs of two small houses are visible., Illustration in Abel Hugo's France pittoresque ou Description pittoresque, topographique et statistique des départements et colonies de la France (A Paris: Chez Delloye, éditeur de la France militaire, place de la Bourse, rue des Filles-Saint-Thomas, 13, 1835), vol. 3, p. 274., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
[Chain gang] [graphic].
Illustration shows seven male slaves in tattered clothing who are chained together by shackles around their necks. Holding shovels and other tools, they set off to work in a field., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1838 (Boston: Published by D.K. Hitchcock, 1837), p. 21., Caption underneath the image reads: "The slaves are sometimes chained together when they go to work in the fields, lest their love of liberty should induce them to make violent efforts to escape.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Chaine d'esclaves venant de l'interieur [Senegal] [graphic].
Having been captured in the country's interior, six Senegalese slaves are led by two European slave-traders who carry swords and long spears. The slaves march in a line; each wears a collar that is attached to a long pole that rests on their shoulders and extends down the line., Illustration in René Geoffroy de Villeneuve's L'Afrique, ou Histoire, meours, usages et coutumes des africains: Le Sénégal (Paris: Nepveu, libraire, passage des Panoramas, no. 26, 1814), vol. 4, p. 41., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from the Slave Trade.
Chatoyer the Chief of the Black Charaibes in St. Vincent with his five wives [graphic] / Drawn from the life by Agostino Brunyas -- 1773. From an original painting in the possession of Sir William Young, Bart, F.R.S. ; Grignion sc.
Engraving illustrates an episode described in Chapter 13 of Edward's volume, "A Tour through the Several Islands of Barbadoes, St. Vincent, Antigua, Tobago, and Grenada, in the Years 1791, and 1792." The chapter was written by Sir William Young, the owner of the painting upon which this engraving is based. Set on the island of St. Vincent, the engraving shows Chatoyer, the chief of the black Charaibes, and his five wives., Folded plate in Bryan Edward's The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies, in three volumes (London: Printed for John Stockdale, Piccadilly, 1801), vol. 3, p. 262., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
Chorus -- sing, darkeys, sing [graphic] / Whitney-Annin sc. ; Darley
Pro-slavery image set on Fairfield Plantation, a fictional plantation near Macon, Georgia. This scene of casual socializing shows a large "corn-shucking" or husking. A group of men, women, and childen sit around a large pile of corn husks. Laughing and talking with one another, they husk the corn and toss the ears aside. A man identified in the text as Uncle Cato sits on top of pile and leads the others in singing. Two white overseers, who, according to the text, provided the slaves with whiskey, stand near a tree in the background., Illustration in Robert Criswell's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" contrasted with Buckingham Hall, the planter's home; or, A fair view of both sides of the slavery question (New York: Printed and published by D. Fanshaw, No. 108 Nassau-street, 1852), p. 64., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
The Christiana tragedy [graphic].
Depicts an incident that is said to have occurred in Christiana in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania in September 1851. A party of slave-hunters, emboldened by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, attempted to capture a number of black men as fugitive slaves. The slave-hunters tried to enter the home of a suspected fugitive, but they were denied access and shots were fired. In response, a group of approximately thirty to fifty blacks congregated to defend themselves and their neighbor. Fierce fighting ensued, and lives were lost., Illustration in William Still's Underground Rail Road: a record of facts, authentic narratives, letters, &c. (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1872), p. 350., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.

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