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Title: The laundress
Description: Illustration shows a familiar Philadelphia character: a black laundress. She is neatly dressed in a long, flowing skirt; and her head is covered with an untied bonnet. "This woman," as the accompanying text explains, "is engaged by rich people to wash and iron clothes, which have been soiled by wearing." The text continues, "The woman in the picture looks as though she had just finished a hard day's work and was taking clothes home to the owners; she what a large basket she carries. It is full of articles of clothing neatly folded up; and this shows how much the woman has done in one day.", Illustration in City Characters, or, Familiar Scenes in Town (Philadelphia: Geo. S. Appleton; New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1851), p. 32., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Date: [1851]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1851 Cit 68429.D p 32, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2783

Title: The rag-picker
Description: 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.
Date: [1851]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1851 Cit 68429.D p 80, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2784

Title: [Election night mob]
Description: Scene depicts an incident that occurred in Philadelphia (the city proper and Moyamensing) on Election night, October 11, 1849. The incident began when a group of white boys and men dragged a flaming furniture car through the area around St. Mary Street, a neighborhood inhabited primarily by blacks. As the car travelled along, a shot was fired, and a cry arose that a white man had been shot. Having heard this, the mob headed toward the California house at Sixth and St. Mary, which was kept by a black man who was rumored to have a white wife. A riot ensued, and the California house was destroyed in a fire that claimed many other buildings and numerous lives., Frontispiece for Life and Adventures of Charles Anderson Chester: the notorious leader of the Philadelphia "killers." (Philadelphia: Printed for the publishers, 1850, c1849)., Accompanied by the following caption: "A cry at once arose that a white man was shot, and the attention of the mob was directed to the California House, at the corner of Sixth and St. Mary street.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
Date: [1850]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1850 Lif 76423.O (Mrs SM Brenner) frontispiece, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2780

Title: The whitewasher
Description: Illustration shows a familiar Philadelphia character: a black, female whitewasher. The woman is dressed in work-clothes and coarse shoes; her sleeves are rolled-up and the illustrator emphasizes her muscular forearms. According to the accompanying text, the bucket on the floor contains a mixture of lime and water, with a little salt and indigo to make it clear. In the course of her work, the whitewasher dips long-handled brushes (like those seen here) into the mixture and rubs it onto the walls for cleaning., Illustration in City characters, or, familiar scenes in town (Philadelphia: Geo. S. Appleton; New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1851), p. 12., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Date: [1851]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1851 Cit 68429.D p 12, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2782

Title: The wood-sawyer
Description: Illustration shows a familiar Philadelphia character: a black wood-sawyer. As the text explains, "This is a hard occupation, followed generally by coloured people. They are old men, and have little ones to support, so that they have to work very hard." Shown in full profile, this mature wood-sawyer carries an axe in his hand and a "Horse" on his back. According to the text, when the wood-sawyer cuts his logs, he puts them on this "curious-four legged machine," which is "very strong, and made of oak or hickory wood." Holding the logs down with one knee, the wood-sawyer cuts off one piece at a time., Illustration in City characters, or, familiar scenes in town (Philadelphia: Geo. S. Appleton; New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1851), p. 96., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Date: [1851]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1851 Cit 68429.D p 96, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2785

Title: History of the slave, James
Description: Image is set in the Philadelphia-area household of a family of freed and escaped slaves. Having located the family, the slaves' owner, shown in the center, has come with two assistants to reclaim a slave named James, the man who is being forced out of the door in the background right. James's mother, an elderly freed slave named Harriet, battles with her former owner in the center of the scene. She bears the breast she once used to nurse him and begs for mercy. Harriett's husband and James's wife appear to the left, while James and Harriett's newborn baby sleeps in a cradle to the right., 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. II (February, 1836), whole no. 14, p 1., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [February 1836]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per A 245 60026.D v 2 n 2 cover page, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2847

Title: The Christiana tragedy
Description: 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.
Date: [1872]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1872 Still 19214.O p 350, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2824

Title: The way they "catch" men in Pennsylvania
Description: Two armed, uniformed authorities shoot at two escaped slaves in Cambria county, Pennsylvania., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1838 (Boston: Published by D.K. Hitchcock, 1837), p. 25., Caption underneath the image reads: "These men having FELT the horrors of slavery, fled to Cambria county, Pa., in April, 1837. Being pursued, one of them said he would die before he would be taken. They were shot and wounded, and then were taken with great difficulty.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1837]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1837 Ame Ant 52047.D.2 p 25, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2756

Title: [Thomas Cooper]
Description: Image depicts Thomas Cooper, a Maryland slave who escaped to Philadelphia, where he settled, found work, married, and raised a family. In this scene, Cooper's former owner, having learned of his whereabouts, has seized and handcuffed him, and is taking him back to Maryland. His wife and children beg for his release in vain. According to the accompanying text, Cooper's Philadelphia employers had offered to pay the slaveowner a large sum in return for his release, but their offer was refused., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1838 (Boston: Published by D.K. Hitchcock, 1837), p. 19., Caption underneath the image reads: "Consider the desolation which would be brought upon YOUR family, if the head of it should be taken away. The slaves suffer, in such cases, FAR MORE than we, for they have few pleasures except those they derive from their companions in wo [sic].", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1837]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1837 Ame Ant 52047.D.2 p 19, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2753

Title: [Thomas Cooper]
Description: Image depicts Thomas Cooper, a Maryland slave who escaped to Philadelphia, where he settled, found work, married, and raised a family. In this scene, Cooper's former owner, having learned of his whereabouts, has seized and handcuffed him, and is taking him back to Maryland. His wife and children beg for his release in vain. According to the accompanying text, Cooper's Philadelphia employers had offered to pay the slaveowner a large sum in return for his release, but their offer was refused., Cover of the American Anti-Slavery Reporter, vol. 1, no. 3 (March, 1834), p. 33., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Creator: Brown, G. L., engraver
Date: [March 1834]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per A 247 75432.O v 1 n 3 front cover, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2861

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