Photographic reproduction of a racist anti-abolition cartoon depicting a busy street scene with the hall being used as an interracial brothel by the second Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women on May 16, 1838. The convention, held during the week of interracial ceremonies and services celebrating the opening of the building, fulminated the racist fears of the local citizens, and on May 17th, a mob set the hall aflame, razing the building. Depicts well-dressed interracial couples, including a pair of children, strolling, kissing, and cavorting in the street and near the windows of the building. Among the couples, a Black man frolics upon a broadside referring to abolitionist David Paul Brown, a Philadelphia lawyer who spoke on May 14th, the day of dedication of the hall., Title from item., Date inferred from photographic medium and content., Illustrated in Jean Fagan Yellin and John C. Van Horne, eds. The Abolitionist sisterhood (Ithaca: Cornell University Press in cooperation with The Library Company of Philadelphia, 1994), p. 228., 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., McAllister Collection, gift, 1884., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Date
[ca. 1850]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - unidentified - Theaters & Halls - Pennsylvania Hall [(6)1332.F.113b]
