| Creator |
Currier & Ives. |
| Contributor |
Ransom, Louis Liscolm, 1831-1926 or 1927, artist. |
| Title |
John Brown meeting the slave mother and her child on the steps of Charlestown jail on his way to execution. [graphic] / From
the original painting by Louis Ransom.
|
| Publisher |
New York : Published by Currier & Ives, 152 Nassau St |
| Publisher |
N.Y. New York. 1863 |
| Date |
1863 |
| Physical Description |
1 print : lithograph ; sheet 28 x 38 cm (15 x 11 in.) |
| Description |
Print depicting the fictitious meeting between John Brown and an enslaved African American mother during the radical abolitionist's
walk to the gallows in December 1859. Shows Brown at the top of the steps of the Charles Town, Virginia jail being led by
several white men past the mother holding and looking down at her baby. The men include a prison guard in militia-uniform
attempting to push the mother aside as Brown gazes compassionately upon her; the jailor, an old bearded man in cape and hat
with his hand raised in front of his chin; the jailor's friend, a balding, bearded man pointing the way to the execution;
and another militia man in an old Continental" uniform with a tricorne hat labeled "76." Also includes the Virginia state
flag, waving above the head of Brown in the shape of a halo inscribed, "Sic Semper Tyrannis," i.e.; "Who is the tyrant, who
the conqueror?" and a stern-faced, enslaver, attired in a Virginia militia uniform, waiting impatiently at the bottom of the
stairs opposite a dismembered statue of justice in a pile of rubbish.
|
| Is referenced by |
Reilly, 1863-2 |
|
Conningham, Currier & Ives Prints, 3253 |
| Notes |
Title from item. |
|
Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1863, by Currier and Ives in the Clerk's
Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York.
|
|
Text printed below the title: The artist has represented Capt. Brown regarding with a look of compassion a Slave-mother and
Child who obstructed the passage on his way to the scaffold. Capt. Brown stooped and kissed the child- then met his fate.
|
|
Original painting described in "A Rare Picture," an 1886 broadside probably by Ransom, in the collections of the library of
Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. Transcription available at repository.
|
|
Purchase 1969. |
|
Reaccessioned as P.2003.18. |
|
Description revised 2021. |
|
Access points revised 2021. |
|
Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the
Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom
Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
|
| Subject |
Brown, John, 1800-1859 -- Portraits. |
|
Abolitionists -- United States. |
|
African American children -- West Virginia -- Charles Town. |
|
African American mothers -- West Virginia -- Charles Town. |
|
African American women -- West Virginia -- Charles Town. |
|
Justice. |
|
Militia -- West Virginia -- Charles Town. |
|
Mothers & children -- West Virginia -- Charles Town. |
|
Prison guards -- West Virginia -- Charles Town. |
|
Slaveholders -- West Virginia -- Charles Town. |
|
Enslaved persons -- Virginia -- Charles Town. |
|
Enslaved children -- West Virginia -- Charles Town. |
|
Enslaved women -- West Virginia -- Charles Town. |
|
Enslavers -- West Virginia -- Charles Town. |
| Genre |
Lithographs -- 1860-1870. |
|
Portrait prints -- 1860-1870. |
| Location |
Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| *Portrait Prints-B [7817.F] |
| Accession number |
7817.F |
