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

Part of a piazza in the palace [No. 7] ; Part of a piazza in the palace [No. 8] [graphic] / Drawn by T.E. Bowdich Esq.
Plates included in Chapter VI, "Architecture, Arts, and Manufactures." As the title suggests, the top image shows part of a piazza in the palace of the King of Gaman. (The Gaman peoples live in modern Ghana.) "No. 7," Bowdich explained, "is a part of a piazza, which lines the interior of the wall secluding the palace from the street. The piazza is 200 yards long and inhabited by captains and other attendants on the King; above is a small gallery. Piles of skulls, and drums ornamented with them, are frequent in this piazza. The figure is a common soldier of the Ashantee, his belt ornamented with red shells, and stuck full of knives." The bottom image is another piazza view. "No. 8, is the upper end of the piazza, which is more ornamented, and appropriated to the superior captains, who have each a suite of rooms, marked by the small doors under the piazza. A woman is dancing whilst a man plays the flute and rattle.", Two plates 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. 308., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Part of Adoom street [No. 9] [graphic] / Drawn by T.E. Bowdich Esq.
As the title suggests, the plate shows part of Adoom-street in Gaman (now part of Ghana). In the accompanying text, Bowdich wrote, "No. 9, is a view of part of Adoom-street: each open front denotes the residence of a captain, being used for talking palavers, receiving strangers, observing or superintending customs, and evening recreation The dwelling is entered by the small door at the side, which generally leads through a narrow passage or court to a large area like No. 6, and thence by various intricate ways to smaller and more retired areas like No 4. and No. 5. A fetish woman has just quitted the centre house; she has on a white cloth, and various pieces of rich silk are hanging round her girdle, her breasts are confined with a scarf, a fillet encircles her head, in each hand she waves a horse's tail, and she continues yelling and swinging round and round until she is quite stupified. A weaver and loom are on her right, and a market woman under her shed on the left.", Fold-out 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. 308., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
[Parting scene; Old Kentucky Home] [graphic] / Kilburn & Cross ; Copeland '87.
This parting scene illustrates a verse from Foster's song. Standing on the front porch of the old Kentucky home, a black woman cries into a handkerchief as she watches a black man walking away. He is followed by another man on a horse., Plate in Stephen Collins Foster's My Old Kentucky Home (Boston: Ticknor and Company, 211 Tremont Street, 1888), n.p., The following verse is printed on the opposite page: "The time has come when the darkeys have to part, -- / Then my old Kentucky Home, good-night!", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Daily Life.
Persecuted virtue [graphic] / G.S.
Illustration accompanies a recollection made by George, a fugitive slave, in Chapter XI, "In Which Property Gets into an Improper State of Mind." In conversation with Mr. Wilson, George recalled how his sister was whipped by her owner for no other reason that wanting a decent Christian life. Correspondingly, the image captures the moment leading up to George's sister's whipping. Stripped to the waist, she waits on her knees as shabby looking white man ties her wrists to a post. In the center of the scene, a black overseer stands with a whip in his hand, talking with the master. Chains and shackles hang from the rear wall of the barn interior., Illustration in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (London: John Cassell, Ludgate Hill, 1852), p. 112., Caption underneath the image reads, "She was whipped, sir, for wanting to live a decent Christian life, such as your laws give no slave girl a right to live." --Page 95., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Piantazione di zucchero. [graphic] / G.M.T. sc.
Illustration of a Jamaica sugar plantation. Key indicates the location of the plantation owner's house, workers' houses, part of the savanna or pasture, sugar fields, the water mill, the sugar house, waste from the mill, the purgatory?, and the heater for drying cakes of sugar., Plate 12 in Il gazzettiere americano (In Livorno: Per Marco Coltellini all' inglese della verita, [1763]), vol 2, p. 110., Possibly based on an earlier plate published in Denis Diderot's Encyclopedie, ou, Dictionnaire Raisonne des Sciences, des Arts et des Metiers (Paris, 1762)., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Picking cotton [graphic] / J.W. Orr N.Y.
Engraving is one of several accompanying T.B. Thorpe's article "Cotton and its Cultivation." It shows several black field hands picking cotton, and corresponds with the following passage: "The season of cotton picking commences in the latter part of July, and continues without intermission to the Christmas holidays. The work is not heavy, but becomes tedious from its sameness. The field hands are each supplied with a basket and a bag. The basket is left at the head of the 'cotton-rows;' the bag is suspended from the 'picker's' neck by a strap, and is used to hold the cotton as it is taken from the boll. When the bag is filled it is emptied into the basket, and this routine is continued through the day." (p. 455), Illustration in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. 8, no. 46 (March 1854), p. 456., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Pirogues des Negres [graphic].
Included in Chapter IV, "Cayor" the engraving shows pirogues, or the boats of the Africans., Illustration in René Geoffroy de Villeneuve's L'Afrique, ou Histoire, moeurs, usages et coutumes des africains: Le Sénégal (Paris: Nepveu, libraire, passage des Panoramas, no. 26, 1814), vol. 3 p. 60., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Plan and sections of a slave-ship / Representation of an insurrection on board a slave-ship [insert] [graphic].
This page introduces several diagrams under the title "Plan and Sections of a Slave Ship." Fig. I is a vertical cross-section of the hold of a slave-ship, seen from the side. It shows the manner in which slaves were forced to spend the voyage: lying flat on their backs in rows, one pressed against another. Figs. II. and III are vertical cross-sections viewed from the ship's bow or stern. Figs. IV, V, VI, and VII are aerial views of the ship's hold, all of which clearly illustrate the inhumane conditions in which slaves were transported. In addition to these diagrams, the page also includes a separate insert entitled "Representation of an Insurrection on Board a Slave-Ship." The engraving is accompanied by two captions, the first of which appears above the image and reads: "Showing how the crew fire upon the unhappy slaves from behind the BARRICADO, erected on board all Slave ships, as a security whenever such commotions may happen." Printed below the image, the second caption reads: "See the privy council's report part I. Art: Slaves, Minutes of evidence before the House of Commons. Wadstrom's Essay on Colonization. 471." A version of the engraving appeared, as a color lithograph, in William Fox's A Brief History of the Wesleyan Missions of the Western Coast of Africa (London: Printed for the author, published by Aylott and Jones, 8, Paternoster-Row, 1851, p. 116)., Folded insert at the back of Carl Bernhard Wadstrom's An Essay on Colonization: Particularly Applied to the Western Coast of Africa, with Some Free Thoughts on Cultivation and Commerce; also Brief Descriptions of the Colonies already Formed, or Attempted, in Africa, Including those of Sierra Leone and Bulama (London: Printed for the author, by Darton and Harvey, Gracechurch-Street. And sold by G. Nicol, No. 58, Pall-Mall; W. Faden, corner of St. Martin's Lane, Strand; J. Stockdale, No. 191, Piccadilly; J. Edwards, No. 78, Pall-Mall; E. [sic] & J. Egerton, No. 32, Charing-Cross; J. Debrett, No. 179, Piccadilly; J. Johnson, No. 72, St. Paul's Church-Yard; and C. Dilly, No. 22, Poultry, MDCCXCIV [1794-1795])., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Images from the Slave Trade., Plates have been removed from book and are housed separately: 3# U Afr Wads 728.Q (Plates)
A plantation "corn-shucking" -- social meeting of slaves [graphic] / H. Helmick.
Illustration is included in Chapter XIX, "The Slave-Trader's Purchase -- A Slave Gang Bound for the South -- Distressing Scenes at Parting -- 'We'll Shuck dis Cawn Befo' We Go!'" Image shows a large, festive, night-time corn-shucking in which slaves from several neighboring plantations were said to have participated. Sitting and standing around an enormous pile of husks, the slaves strip the ears of corn and throw them into buckets. According to the text, the slaves sang while they worked, and some tried to outdo each other in husking contests., 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. 336., Caption underneath the image reads: "Costumed in every variety of nondescript gaments, with faces of every shade of black, as diverse in aspect as were their garments in fashion, they seated themselves in groups around the mounds of unhusked corn.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
Plantation scene -- coffee [graphic] / Felch-Riches. Columbus. O.
Illustration is set on a coffee plantation in either South American or the West Indies. Sitting in the shade of a palm tree, a planter watches several slaves at work. To the right, two women and a child pick coffee beans and place them in baskets. In the middle, three women carry full baskets up an incline and dump the beans on the ground. Two men rake and shovel them., 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. 288., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
[Views of Saint Domingue] [graphic].
Illustration after the romanticized paintings and drawings of artist Agostino Brunias (ca. 1730-1796) when he worked in the British West Indian colonies, particularly Dominica. Brunias’s work was often copied and the West Indian island or community depicted identified inaccurately. Moving clockwise from the top left, "Place et Fontaine Montarcher" shows a fountain and a city square idenitifed as in Cap-Francois (now Cap Haitien) in Saint-Domingue (Haiti). "Fontaine D'Estaing" shows a fountain in a city's port. Set on a street, "Costumes des Affranchies et des Esclaves des Colonies," shows differences in dress between free residents and enslaved peoples. In this scene, an enslaved woman offers food on a platter to two "Affranchies." The plaid cloth from which the enslaved women's shawl and head-dress are fashioned contrasts with the finery worn by the other two. Again, the fourth engraving,"Costumes des Affranchies et des Esclaves des Colonies" highlights differences in dress, this time in a landscape setting., Title supplied by cataloger., Illustration in Nicolas Ponce's Receuil du vues des lieux principaux de la colonie francaise de Saint-Domingue (A Paris: Chez Moreau de Saint-Mery, en son domicile, rue Caumartin, no. 31. [Chez] Ponce, rue Saint-Hyacinthe, no. 19. [Chez] Phelipeau, rue Saint-Jacques, près celle des Mathurins, no. 45., 1795), plate number 25, n.p., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
[Views of Saint Domingue] [graphic].
Illustration after the romanticized paintings and drawings of artist Agostino Brunias (ca. 1730-1796) when he worked in the British West Indian colonies, particularly Dominica. Brunias’s work was often copied and the West Indian island or community depicted identified inaccurately. Image consists of four separate roundels. Moving clockwise from the top left, "Blanchisseuses," shows three women at the edge of a river. To the left, on the bank of the river, a woman dressed only in a long skirt and a head-dress carries a child on her back while balancing a tray (and some type of load) on her head. In the center of the image, a lighter-skinned woman, draped only in a cloth, stands ankle-deep in the river. It appears as if she holds a mirror in her hand. Next to her, a third woman sits on a rock in the water. "Affrainchis des Colonies" shows three free residents (two women and a man) in fashions influenced by European styles. "Négres Jouant au Baton" is an outdoor sporting scene that features two men engaged in a baton fight; a large group of male spectators is assembled around them. "Danse de Négres" shows a group of men and women dancing and clapping to the music of a drum and a tamborine., Title supplied by cataloger., Illustration in Nicolas Ponce's Receuil du vues des lieux principaux de la colonie francaise de Saint-Domingue (A Paris: Chez Moreau de Saint-Mery, en son domicile, rue Caumartin, no. 31. [Chez] Ponce, rue Saint-Hyacinthe, no. 19. [Chez] Phelipeau, rue Saint-Jacques, près celle des Mathurins, no. 45., 1795), plate number 26, n.p., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
The poor mother [graphic].
Image portrays a distraught mother kneeling on a rock on the coast of Africa. She watches and gestures in vain as her children are ferried off in a boat by slavetraders., Illustration in the Slave's Friend (New York: Published by R.G. Williams, for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1836), vol. 1, no. 3 (1836), p 3., Image accompanied by a plea in verse-form, which begins as follows: "HELP! oh help! thou God of Christians / Save a mother from despair; / Cruel white-men steal my children, / God of Christians! hear my prayer.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
[Practical slavery and professional liberty] [graphic] / Barralet del. ; Edwin sc.
Image shows a reformed slave trader who reaches toward a female allegorical figure representing liberty, virtue, and independence, who is seated on a staircase above him. A harbor is visible in the background, as are four slaves (three adults and one child), two of whom appear to be bound., Frontispiece for Thomas Branagan's Penitential Tyrant (New York: Printed and sold by Samuel Wood, 1807)., Accompanied by the following description of the frontispiece: "It is intended as a contrast between Practical Slavery and Professional Liberty, and suggests to the citizens of the American States the following distich: 'Sons of Columbia, hear this truth in time, He who allows oppression shares the crime.' The temple of Liberty, with the motto of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which would as well become her sister states, is displayed; the Goddess, in a melancholy attitude, is seated under the Pillar of our Independence, bearing in her hand the Sword of Justice surmounted by the Cap of Liberty, while one foot rests on the Cornucopiae, and the Ensigns of America appear at her side. She is looking majestically sad on the African Slaves, landed on the shores of America, who are brought into view, in order to demonstrate the hypocrisy and villainy of professing to be votaries of liberty, while, at the same time, we encourage, or countenance, the most ignoble slavery.", 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 of 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 aur 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, 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.
The praying child. [graphic].
Kneeling in a field, a child slave dressed in a loose smock clasps her hands together in prayer. A basket rests beside her., Cover page of the Slave's Friend (New York: Published by R.G. Williams, for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1836), vol. 1, no. X (1836)., Accompanied by the following verse: "Poor little slave! to thee was given / Thy simple, earnest trust in Heaven. / Pour out thy griefs to God above! / He hears thee with a Father's love.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Princesse née de Malembe [graphic] / Dessiné d'après nature, par G.P. ; Godfroi sculpt.
Portrait image of a Malembe princess. The image is accompanied by a description of Malembe women's dress, an approximate translation of which reads as follows: "The dress of the women is less grand; they do not wear bonnets . . . and their drawers never touch the ground, but they cover themselves with a great quantities of . . . glass beads whose color differs from those worn by Europeans. . . . They cover their neck with a small scarf, as seen in the engraving, and like the men, they are very fond of coral red." (p. 74-75), Fold-out plate in L. de Grandpré's Voyage à la côte occidentale d'Afrique: fait les années 1786 et 1787; contenant la description des moeurs, usages, lois, gouvernement et commerce des États du Congo, fréquentés par les Européens, et un précis de la traite des Noirs, ainsi qu'elle avait lieu avant la Révolution française; suivi d'un voyage fait au cap de Bonne-Espérance, contenant la description militaire de cette colonie (Paris: Dentu, imprimeur-libraire, Palais du Tribunat, galeries des bois, no. 240, an IX --., 1801), vol. 1, p. 74., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
[Processing tobacco] [graphic].
Engraving shows four slaves at work in a tobacco house. In the lower right-hand corner, a female slave sits on the ground and strips (?) tobacco. Behind her, another slave twists tobacco, while a third slave (to the left) puts it on a roll. Drying tobacco leaves hang upside down from the house's rafters. In the background, a woman and a child work hanging leaves., Fold-out plate in Jean Baptiste Laban's Nouveau voyage aux isles de l'Amerique (A Paris: rue S. Jacques, chez Pierre-François Giffart, prés la ruë Mathurins, à l'image Sainte Therese, M.DCC.XXII [1722]), vol. 4, p. 496., The key in the upper left-hand corner reads: 1. Negre qui ejambe le tabac. 2. Negre qui torque le tabac. 3. Negre qui le met en rolle. 4. Tabac a la pente., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Procession au grand serpent pour le Couronnement du Roy de Juda fait le 15 April 1725 [graphic] / K. De Putter fecit 1731.
Large aerial depiction of the procession of the grand serpent for the coronation of the King of Juda (French Guiana). While the King does not appear himself, notable figures include the master of ceremonies (Fig. T, in the middle of the image, slightly left of center), the King's mother (Fig. 4, to the right of the palm tree in the central foreground), and the grand sacrificer (Fig. 7, below the King's mother). Several troops of musketeers, numerous bands of trumpeters, flutists, and drummers, and many of the King's wives are included in the engraving as well. Two groups of women (Fig. L and Fig. R) carry offerings for the grand serpent, whose mosque appears in the upper left-hand corner (Fig. D)., Fold-out plate in Jean Baptiste Labat's Voyage du chevalier Des Marchais en Guinée, isles voisines, et a Cayenne, Fait en 1725, 1726, & 1727 (A Amsterdam: aux dépens de la Compaigne, M.DCC.XXXI [1731], vol. 2, p. 154., The key underneath the image reads as follows: A. Rade des Vaisseaux; B. Tentes des Vaisseaux sur le bord de la Coste; D. Mosquée du Grand Serpent; E. Le peuple assis; F. Six chasse Cocquins avec leurs Baguettes; G. 40 Mosquetaires; H. 20 Trompettes; I. 20 Tambouers; K. 20 Flutes; L. 12 Femmes du Roy Portant des presens au Serpent; M. Premier Valet de Chambre du Roy; N. 20 Trompettes; O. 40 Mosquetaires; P. 20 Tambours; Q. 20 Flutes; R. 12 Femmes du Roy Portans des Viures pour le Serpent; S. 3 Nains du Roy; T. Maitre des Ceremonies; V. 40 Mosquetaires; X. 20 Tambours; Y. 20 Trompettes; Z. 20 Flutes; 1. 12 Femmes du Roy Portant les presens de sa mere; 2. Trois Valets Portant la Chaise de la Mere du Roy; 3. Trois Nains du Roy; 4. La Mere du Roy; 5. 3 Dames du Palais; 6. Musique du Serail par les Femmes; 7. Grand Sacrifficateur; 8. 40 Mosquetaires., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
[Punishments for deserters] [graphic].
Two scenes show methods for punishing runaway slaves. As the caption suggests, the top image shows the way in which Portuguese colonizers punished captured fugitives: here, a slave-owner whips a slave who hangs by his neck from a tree limb. A form of punishment invented in Martinique is shown at the bottom left: a standing slave is forced to wear a collar around his neck and a shackle around his right ankle. The two are connected by a short chain that forces the slave to bend his right leg backward and support all of his weight on his left leg. Lastly, the bottom right illustrates one slave's punishment for having escaped: his leg was amputated above the knee., Plate in François Froger's Relation d'un voyage fait en 1695, 1696 & 1697: aux côtes d'Afrique, détroit de Magellan, Brezil, Cayenne & isles Antilles, par une escadre des vaisseaux du roy, commandée par M. de Gennes (A Paris: Imprimée par les soins & aux frais du sieur de Fer, geographe de Monseigneur le dauphin. Dans l'isle du Palais, sur le quay de l'Horloge, à la Sphere royale: Et chez G. Saugrain dans la grande salle du Palais, à la Croix d'or., M.DC.XCVIII. [1698]), p. 150., Caption accompanying the top scene reads: "Comme les Portugais fouettent leurs Esclaves lors quils ont deserté." The caption on the bottom left reads: "Invention d'un François de la Martinique;" the one on the right reads: "Esclave qui a la Jambe coupee pour avoir deserte.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
The rag-picker [graphic].
Illustration shows a familiar Philadelphia character: a black, male rag-picker. He wears a coarse, loose-fitting smock, trousers, and a cap. He carries a basket fastened to a stick over his shoulder and a hooked instrument in his hand. The accompanying text explains, "You see him with his hooked stick exploring heaps of rubbish, and carefully selecting whatever he finds which may be turned to good account, and storing all away in his basket.", Illustration in City characters, or, familiar scenes in town (Philadelphia: Geo. S. Appleton; New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1851), p. 80., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
A rebel Negro armed & on his guard. [graphic] / Bartolozzi sculpt.
Engraving was done after one of John Gabriel Stedman's own drawings. According to Stedman's account, the image depicts a rebel Surinamese negro. As he wrote, "This rebel negro is armed with a firelock and a hatchet; his hair, though woolly, may be observed to be plaited close to his head, by way of distinction from the rangers, or any other straggling negroes, who are not yet accepted amongst them; his beard is grown to a point, like that of all Africans, when they have no opportunity of shaving. The principal dress of this man consists of a cotton sheet, negligently tied across his shoulders, which protects him from the weather, and serves him also to rest on; while he always sleeps under cover in the most obscure places he can find, when detached from his companions. The rest of his dress is a camisa, tied around his loins like a handkerchief; his pouch, which is made of some animal's skin; a few cotton strings for ornament around his ancles [sic] and wrists; and a superstitious obia or amulet tied about his neck, in which he places all his confidence. The skull and ribs are supposed to be the bones of his enemies, scattered upon the sandy savannah." (vol. 2, p. 88-89), Plate in John Gabriel Stedman's Narrative, of a five year's expedition, against the revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the wild coast of South America; from the year 1772 to 1777 (London: Printed for J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church Yard, & J. Edwards, Pall Mall, 1796), vol. 2, p. 88., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
[The rebel pirate's fatal prize] [graphic].
Image depicts a scene on board the schooner S.J. Waring. The ship's steward William Tillman [i.e., Billy Tilghman], "the brave and daring negro," armed with a hatchet, defends himself and his wife from three men identified as the "Pirate Prize Master, Lieutenant, and Mate," who stand in his doorway. Having learned of their secret plot to sell him and his wife into slavery, Tillman murders them., Vignette on the broadside advertisement for The Rebel Pirate's Fatal Prize (Philadelphia: Reichner & Co., 1862)., Accompanied by the caption: "Back sirs! She is my wife, she is no slave! Seize her at your peril.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
The reception of the "Ah-Haussoo-Noh-Beh" or "Queen's Mouths." [graphic] / F.E. Forbes, del. ; M. & N. chromo lith.
Depiction of a ceremony featuring King Gezu's ambassadors ("Ah-Haussoo-Noh-Beh"), which Forbes witnessed during his travels in the Kingdom of Dahomey, now part of southern Benin. In Part II, "Abomey, its Court and its People," Forbes recalled seeing "a vast assembly of cabooceers and soldiers, with umbrellas of state, flat-topped, and ornamented like those of the Chinese, and banners of every hue and most varied devices. Besides the Dahoman standards, each of which was ornamented by a human skull, floated the national flags of France, England, Portugal, and Brazil, whilst evey cabooceer had his own particular pennon." (p. 73) "The square of the palace," Forbes continued, "was filled with armed people, seated on their hams, the polished barrels of their Danish muskets standing up like a forest. Under a thatched gateway [right] was the king, surrounded by his immediate wives; while on each side sat the amazons, all in uniform, armed, and accoutred; and in the centre of the square squatted the males. Hundreds of banners and umbrella enlivened the scene, and a constant firing from great guns and small arms increased the excitement." (p. 75), Plate in Frederick E. Forbes's Dahomey and the Dahomans: Being the Journey of Two Missions to the King of Dahomey, and his Residence at the Capital, in the Years 1849 and 1850 (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1851), vol. 1, p. 74., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Religious dancing of the Blacks, termed "shouting" [graphic] / Bricher-Conant, sc.
Illustration accompanies Chapter XXXIII, "The Religion of the Blacks, with Anecdotes Illustrating the Same." It is set in a Baptist church, and shows a type of dance called "shouting." According to Stearns, shouting usually took place just before a congregation broke up, when "the spirit [was] upon them." He included a lengthy description of shouting, which reads as follows: "A ring of singers is formed in an open space in the room, and they, without holding on to each others' hands, walk slowly around and around in a circle, the back of the foremost one coming close to the front side of the succeeding brother or sister. They then utter a kind of melodious chant, which gradually increases in strength, and in noise, until it fairly shakes the house, and it can be heard for a long distance. . . . The dancers usually bend their bodies into an angle of about forty-five degrees, and thus bent, march around, accompanying their steps, every second or so, with a quick, jerking motion, or jump, which I can compare to nothing else than the brisk jumping of a frog, . . . The performers also accompany the jerking of their bodies with a corresponding clapping of their hands, and motion of their arms. . . . Occasionally, one of the most zealous of the sisters, throws herself up so as to nearly touch the ceiling over their heads, and then falls down helplessly into the eager arms of some stout brother, who springs forward with alacrity to receive her." (p. 371-72), Plate in Charles Stearns's The Black Man of the South, and the Rebels: or, the Characteristics of the Former, and the Recent Outrages of the Latter (New York: For sale by American News Co., 1872), p. 370., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Daily Life.
Remarks on the slave trade [graphic].
Image shows the plan of an African slave ship. From left to right, the ship is divided into the following compartments: men's room, boy's room, women's room, and girl's room. It also includes two small store rooms. Hundreds of human figures illustrate the extent to which the slaves were crowded on board, and suggest the conditions under which they made the passage., Illustration for Remarks on the Slave Trade, Extracted from the American Museum, for May, 1789. And published by order of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, &c. (Philadelphia: s.n., 1789)., A caption at the head of the engraving reads: "Plan of an African ship's lower deck, with Negroes, in the proportion of not quite one to a ton.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Representation of the court of select audience -- Costume, and the ceremony of swearing fidelity to the British government [graphic] / Drawn by J. Dupuis ; C. Williams sc.
Egraving depicts an event described in Chapter III, "Commencement of Negotiations," (p. 89-91). As the British envoy to Ashantee [i.e., Ashanti], Depuis participated in a ceremony in which the King of Ashantee, his principal officers, and chiefs took an "oath of friendship and alliance" to the British government. The ceremony took place in the royal palace, and Depuis is seated at the left. Standing next to him with a raised scimiter, the Ashantee King delivers "an energizing speech." (p. 89), Frontispiece for Joseph Dupuis's Journal of a Residence in Ashantee (London: Printed for Henry Colburn, New Burlington Street: Shackell and Arrowsmith, Johnson's-Court, Fleet-Street, 1824)., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Revolte sur un bâtiment négrier [graphic].
Image depicts a revolt aboard a slave-ship. Having broken free of their shackles and chains, the slaves use them to attack the ship's crew. The crew members fight back with daggers and hatchets., Engraving in Albert Laporte's Récits du vieux marins (Paris: Librairie Théodore Lefèvre et cie 2, rue des Poitevins, 1883?), p. 267., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from the Slave Trade.
The runaway [graphic].
In the center of the image, a black barber from Buffalo urges a white ferryman to launch the boat that will carry a runaway Georgia slave and his family across the Niagara River to Canada. Just as the boat leaves shore, the slave's master arrives on horseback. Brandishing a pistol, he attempts to prevent their passage., Caption title vignette in the Anti Slavery Record (New York: Published by R.G. Williams, for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1835-1837), vol. II, no. IV [VI] (June, 1836), whole no. 18, p. 1., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Fugitives.
The runaway [graphic].
Full length, right profile view of a runaway slave dressed in a collared shirt and a buttoned jacket, and carrying a bundle on his back., Caption title vignette in the Anti-Slavery Record (New York: Published by R.G. Williams, for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1835-1837), vol. III, no. VII (July, 1937), whole no. 31, p. 1., Small caption underneath the image reads: "This picture of a poor fugitive is from one of the stereotype cuts manufactured in this city for the southern market, and used on handbills offering rewards for runaway slaves.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Fugitives.
The runaway slaves, Anthony Burns and Thomas Sims [graphic].
Set in Boston, the image shows the consequences of the Fugitive Slave Law in the North. Despite public hostility to slave-hunting, Livermore explained that escaped slaves such as Burns and Sims were "returned at noon-day, military authority being called out to prevent the interference of the people, who were determined on their rescue.", 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. 450., Caption underneath image reads: "With pinioned arms and manacled feet they marched between files of soldiers to a steamer bound for South Carolina from whence they had fled. Vast throngs of men and women watched the procession, many weeping as they gazed.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Fugitives.
Running away [graphic] / Van Ingen - Snyder
Illustration accompanies part five, "Domestic Amusements in the Slave States." Trailed by a pack of bloodhounds and several mounted authorities armed with rifles, a slave family tries to make their escape. To the right, on the bank of a river, two authorities aim their rifles at a drowning slave, who is approached by a group of white men in a boat., Illustration in the Suppressed Book about Slavery! (New York: Carleton, 1864), p. 336., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Fugitives.
"The Sabbath among slaves" [graphic] / Strong, Thomas W. sc.
Engraving depicts the author's experience of the Sabbath among slaves. As Bibb explained, having no moral or religious instruction, slaves generally "resort to the woods in large numbers on that day to gamble, fight, get drunk, and break the Sabbath." This behavior, Bibb noted, was encouraged by the slaveholders, who viewed the slaves' activities as a form of entertainment, and who liked to watch them fight, "dance, 'pat juber,' sing, and play the banjo." To this end, the slaves were often provided with whiskey. Accordingly, the illustration shows a slaveholder pouring a libation into a slave's glass. In the background left, a group of white men and women observe the Sabbath festivities., Illustration in Henry Bibb's Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb: an American Slave (New York: Published by the author, 5 Spruce Street, 1849), p 23., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes of Slave Life.
[Slave and bald eagle in front of Capitol] [graphic].
As the title suggests, the engraving shows a large auction in the New Orleans Rotunda. At separate podiums, three auctioneers simultaneously take bids on a painting (left), a family of slaves (center), and a manuscript (right). In the foreground, several traders lean and sit casually on barrels and crates as they watch the slave auction. Bidders for the painting and manuscript look somewhat more genteel. The engraver's emphasis the light streaming though the Rotunda's oculus may represent an ironic commentary on the events taking place within it., Frontispiece for volume one of James Silk Buckingham's The Slave States of America (London; Paris: Fisher, Son, & Co. Newgate St. London; rue St. Honoré, Paris [1842])., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Images from the Slave Trade.
[Sampson, a West Indian slave] [graphic].
According to St. Clair, the engraving features the slave Sampson, who was referred to as such on the basis of his enormous strength. Sampson was owned by a Dutchman whose plantation was near the Essequibo River in Guyana. After Sampson's second escape and capture, his master sentenced him to a severe flogging, and then took steps to deter future escape attempts. As St. Clair explained, Sampson "had an iron collar fastened round his throat, which had three legs sticking out from it, having, as represented in the sketch, hooks at their ends, which render it impossible for any human being to escape through the thick underwood in this country. In addition to this, his left leg was chained to an enormous heavy log of wood, which, when he walked, was thrown over his left shoulder. In this state, he was obliged daily to perform as much work as any other Negro on the estate.", Illustration in Thomas St. Clair's A Residence in the West Indies and America (London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, publisher in ordinary to His Majesty, 1834), vol. 2, p. 214., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
[Scene from Northwood, or, life North and South] [graphic] / McLenan, John del ; Orr, J.W., N.Y., sc.
Set in a lush grove on the bank of a river, lake, or pond, the vignette features a black man (presumably a slave), who helps a young white boy (most likely the son of his master) steady a fishing pole. The well-dressed boy sits on the knee of the barefoot slave., Vignette in a full-page advertisement for Sarah Hale's Northwood; or, Life North and South (New York: H. Long & Brother, 43 Ann-Street, [1852]), printed in The Literary World: a Gazette for Authors, Readers, and Publishers, edited by C.F. Hoffmann (New York: Osgood & Co., 1852), vol. 11, no. 299 (October 23, 1852), p. 272., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life
Scene in a Lynchburg tobacco factory [graphic] / W.L.S. ; DV.
Illustration is included in Chapter LXI, "A Visit to Lynchburg in Virginia," and corresponds with the following passage, which clearly aims to present the tobacco factories in a positive, and even romantic light: "It [Lynchburg] has thirty-five tobacco factories, employing great numbers of negroes, men, women, and children. These negroes earn good wages, work faithfully, and turn out vast quantities of the black, ugly compound known as "plug," which has enslaved so many thousands, and promoted such a sublime disregard for the proprieties in the matter of expectoration. . . . In the maufacturies the negro is the same cheery, capricious being that one finds him in the cotton or sugar-cane fields; he sings quaintly over his toil, and seems entirely devoid of the sullen ambition which many of our Northern factory laborers exhibit. The men and women working around the tables in the basements of the Lynchburg tobacco establishments croon eccentric hymns in concert all day long; and their little children, laboring before they are hardly large enough to go alon, join in the refrains." (p. 556) Correspondingly, the engraving shows four small children stripping tobacco leaves alongside the adults., Illustration in Edward King's The Great South (Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, 1875), p. 557., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Scene in the hold of the "Blood-Stained Gloria." (Middle Passage) [graphic].
As the title suggests, the engraving shows the hold of the Gloria, a Brazilian slave-ship upon which the author travelled. In Chapter XV of his Revelations, Drake described the conditions on board: "our slaves," he wrote, "were crammed in hold, cabin, and peak, and packed like herrings, on the shelves, around our vessel's sides; and what was worse, gratings were kept down half the time." (p. 88-89) Continuing to describe the "horrors of this dreadful passage," he added, "The sick and dying were chained together. I saw pregnant women give birth to babes, whilst chained to corpses, which our drunken overseers had not removed. The blacks were literally jammed between decks, as if in a coffin; and a coffin that dreadful hold became, to nearly one-half of our cargo, before we reached Bahia." (p. 89) In the engraving, Ruiz, the ship's captain, has entered the hold with one of his mates. In addition to a lantern, the captain carries a large sword, while his mate carries a rifle. A cat-o'-ninetails can be seen on the floor., Fold-out plate in Richard Drake's Revelations of a Slave Smuggler: Being the Autobiography of Capt. Rich'd Drake, an African Trader for Fifty-Years from 1807 to 1857; during which Period He Was Concerned in the Transportation of Half a Million Blacks from African Coast to America (New York: Robert M. De Witt, publisher, [c1860]), p. 28., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from the Slave Trade.
Scene in the slave pen at Washington [graphic] / Coffin; N. Orr N.Y.
Engraving portrays an episode described in Northup's narrative. After being kidnapped, Northup was held in Williams' slave pen in Washington City. There, he explained, he was beaten by James H. Burch, a well-known slave-dealer, and Radburn, his lackey. Burch is seen on the left, whipping Northup with a cat-o'-ninetails. ("The cat was a large rope of many strands -- the strands unraveled, and a knot tied at the extremity of each.") Describing the scene in his own words, Northup wrote, "As soon as these formidable whips appeared, I was seized by both of them, and roughly divested of my clothing. My feet, as has been stated, were fastened to the floor. Drawing me over the bench, face downwards, Radburn placed his heavy foot upon the fetters, between my wrists, holding them painfully to the floor. With the paddle, Burch commenced beating me." (p. 44), Illustration in Solomon Northup's Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1851, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River, in Louisiana (Auburn and Buffalo [N.Y.]: Miller, Orton & Mulligan; London: Sampson Low, Son & Company, 1854), p. 44., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
[Scenes from Guinea] [graphic].
Three illustrations accompanying Taylor's discussion of Guinea. In figure 34, two Europeans try to kidnap an African family to sell them into slavery. Of this practice, Taylor wrote: "they [the Europeans] lie in wait near a village during the day, and catch any stragglers; but at night they come and set fire to their huts in several places; when the poor creatures run out in terror and confusion, then the soldiers seize upon all they can catch, and hurry them away to the sea-side, to sell them." (p. 62) Figure 35 shows the plan of a slave ship. Taylor described the conditions on board as follows, "only sixteen inches each, in width, are allowed for the men, and less still for women and children. There they lie, so close, that it is impossible to walk among them, without treading upon them." (p. 63) Figure 36 depicts slaves being sold at auction. Each slave, Taylor explained, was forced to stand on a hogshead, for easier inspection, while the planters offered their bids., Page of illustrations in Isaac Taylor's Scenes in Africa , for the Amusement and Instruction of Little Tarry-at-Home Travellers (New York: W.B. Gilley, 94 Broadway, 1827), p. 60., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Images from the Slave Trade.
Scenes in the city prison of New York [graphic].
This scene is set in front of Bridewell prison in New York. The black man shown here is a Virginia slave who escaped to New York. Before being arrested as a fugitive, the man found employment and a loving wife, the woman who kneels in front of him. In this scene, the man is being released from prison into the custody of his owner, who plans to take him back to Virigina., Caption title vignette in the Anti-Slavery Record (New York: Published by R.G. Williams, for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1835-1837), vol. I, no. 7, p. 73., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.

Pages