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Title: The nation's act
Description: A free black man who has been kidnapped is auctioned before a crowd of white bidders. A small black child sits on the auction block. In the background, other kidnapped free blacks wait to be sold into slavery. A building marked "JAIL" is visible in the distant background., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1839 (New York: Published for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838), p. 7., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1838]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1838 Ame Ant 16996.D.3 p 7, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2760

Title: Sale of estates, pictures and slaves in the Rotunda, New Orleans
Description: 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.
Creator: Starling, J. M., engraver
Date: [1842]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1842 Buc 10584.O v 1 frontispiece, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2774

Title: The Africans of the slave bark "Wildfire"
Description: 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.
Date: [June 1860]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare **Per H 1529.F v IV n 179 June 2 1860 p 344, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2651

Title: [Liberator masthead, 1831]
Description: As indicated by two signs, the vignette is set in a horse-market, and depicts an auction of "Slaves, Horses, & Other Cattle," complete with an auctioneer standing at a podium at the right. In the center of a small group consisting of slaves and potential bidders, a female slave covers her face in desperation as two small childen huddle around her. To her right, a male slave sits at the base of the podium. In a clear gesture of despair, he rests his elbows on his knees and holds his head in his hands. A domed building that appears to be a court-house is visible in the distant background. A large flag reading "LIBERTY" waves from its top., Masthead from the Liberator (Boston: William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac Knapp, Publishers), vol. 1, no. 27 (July 2, 1831), p. 105., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [July 1831]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per L 21 1646.F v 1 n 27 July 2 1831 p 105, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2880

Title: [Liberator masthead, 1850
Description: Engraving is divided into two parts by a roundel in the center that features a Christ-figure with a cross. The words "I come to break the bonds of the oppressors" are printed around the roundel's periphery. To the left, a black man kneels at Christ's feet. With shackled wrists, he holds his hands together in prayer. To the right, a slaveholder is positioned on the ground; most of his body is oriented away from Christ. Scene to the left of the roundel shows a slave auction, identified as such by a sign that reads "Slaves, Horses, & Other Cattle in Lots to Suit Purchase." (Versions of the sign appear in earlier Liberator mastheads.) An auctioneer stands on a raised platform over which an American flag flies; a small black child sits at his feet. Crying, the child covers his face with his hands. Several other slaves (adults and children) huddle around the rear of the platform, while a number of slaveowners stand in front of it. A courthouse (or another government building) appears in the distant background; a flag that reads "SLAVERY" waves above it. The scene to the right of the roundel depicts the emancipation of the slaves. A similar building appears in the background. In this case, however, the flag above it reads "FREEDOM." With a sea of flags, a parade (of troops?) marches through a triumphal arch marked "EMANCIPATION." In the foreground, freed slaves of varying ages cluster in front of a building that may represent a schoolhouse. Seated in a rocking chair, an eldery slave holds an infant in her out-stretched arms. A lamb, a dog, and other animals stand on the edge of the group., Masthead from the Liberator, ed. William Lloyd Garrison (Boston: Y.B. Yerrinton & Son, Printers, 1850), vol. XX, no. 22, whole no. 1012 (May 31, 1850), p. 85., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Creator: Hartwell
Date: [May 1850]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per L 21 1646.F v XX n 22 May 31 1850 p 85, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2882

Title: [Liberator masthead, 1838]
Description: Divided into two halves, the masthead vignette contrasts the consequences of slavery and the benefits of emancipation. Scene to the left is a reworking of the original masthead illustration of 1831 showing a slave auction with a slave being whipped in the background and a capitol building adorned with a flag reading "Liberty." A common graphic strategy of abolitionists was to picture scenes of slavery alongside symbols of American freedom such as the capitol, the flag, etc. In this revised version, the slave auction is set on Freedom St., and joining it on the right is a scene showing emancipated slaves enjoying the benefits of freedom. Added vignette commemorates the abolition of slavery in the British colonies., Masthead from the Liberator, ed. William Lloyd Garrison (Boston: Published weekly at no. 25 Cornhill by Isaac Knapp), vol. VIII, no. 9 (March 2, 1838), p. 33., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [March 1838]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per L 21 1646.F v VIII n 9 March 2 1838 p 33, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2881

Title: [W stands for woman]
Description: Image is accompanied by a verse, which begins as follows: "W Stands for Woman. In Slavery-life, / Full many are mothers, but no one is wife./." The presence of an auctioneer in the background suggests that the setting is a slave auction. In the foreground, a slaveowner whips the bare back of a female slave. The woman kneels on the ground; her hands are raised over her head, and her wrists are fastened to a post. To the right, another slaveowner leads away a small child, presumably that of the woman., Illustration in Abel C. Thomas's Gospel of Slavery (New York: Published by T.W. Strong, 1864), n.p., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1864 Thoma 50969.D vignette W, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2817

Title: [The rebel pirate's fatal prize]
Description: 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.
Date: [1862]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1862 Und (2) 5786.F 46e broadside vignette, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2809

Title: "Incendiary pictures"
Description: This commonplace cut of a slave on the auction block was mass produced for use in southern newspapers to advertise slave sales. It appears in "The Anti-Slavery Record" as a stroke of irony. Opponents of abolition denounced the antislavery movement for its agitational pamphlets and newspapers, and particularly for its use of what opponents termed "incendiary pictures" of southern slavery. The editors note: "The cast from which it was taken was manufactured in this city, for the southern trade, by a firm of stereotypers, who, on account of the same southern trade, refuse to stereotype the Record, because it contained just such pictures! Now, how does it come to pass, that this said picture when printed in southern newspapers is perfectly harmless, but when printed in the Anti-Slavery Records is perfectly incendiary?", Illustration in the Anti-Slavery Record (New York: Published by R.G. Williams, for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1835-1837), vol. II, no. VII (July, 1836), whole no. 19, p. 12., Small caption underneath the image reads: Who bids?, Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [July 1836]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per A 245 60026.D v 2 n 7 p 12, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2852

Title: Kidnapping
Description: Engraving relates to an incident recounted by Torrey. In the middle of the night, five men forced their way into the room of a free black woman, who was pregnant and recently widowed. They dragged her out of the bed in which she was sleeping with her child, tied a noose around her neck, and then carried mother and child to a Maryland tavern, where they were bought by a slave-dealer and brought to Washington., Plate in Jesse Torrey's A Portraiture of Domestic Slavery, in the United States (Philadelphia: Published by the author. John Bioren, printer, 1817), p. 48., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Images from the Slave Trade.
Creator: Goodman & Piggot, engraver
Date: 1817
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1817 Tor 4875.O p 48, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2723

Title: Gang of slaves journeying to be sold in a Southern market
Description: Driven by mounted men with whips, a large procession of bound slaves travels down a shallow creek. Some of the slaves hold children in their arms; others carry baskets and bundles on their heads. A family of free blacks watches from the banking on the left., Illustrated plate in James Silk Buckingham's The Slave States of America (London; Paris: Fisher, Son, & Co. Newgate St. London; rue St. Honoré, Paris [1842]), vol. 2, p. 552., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Images from the Slave Trade.
Creator: Holl, F., engraver
Date: [1842]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1842 Buc 10584.O v 2 p 552, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2775

Title: Whipping with the paddle, as witnessed by the author
Description: Image shows the type of event that Watson witnessed regularly while in the custody of a slave-trader named Mr. Denton. As Watson explained, "I was not sold for several weeks, thought I wished to be the first, not wishing to witness his cruelty to his slaves any longer; for if they displeased him in the least, he would order them to be stripped, and tied hand and foot together. He would then have his paddle brought, which was a board about two feet in length and one inch in thickness, having fourteen holes bored through it, about an inch in circumference. This instrument of torture he would apply, until the slave was exhausted, on parts which the purchaser would not be likely to examine." Correspondingly, in this scene, Denton beats a man who is tied to an upright pole in such a manner that he is forced to lie on his side on the ground in a fetal position. A child cries in the background; two potential purchasers approach., Illustration in Henry Watson's Narrative of Henry Watson: a Fugitive Slave (Boston: Bela Marsh, 1850), p. 11., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Date: [1850]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1850 Wat 71223.O p 11, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2781

Title: Wreck of the slave ship
Description: According to Hildreth's narrative, the plate shows a domestic slave ship that was caught in a storm while travelling down the Atlantic coast to Charleston. After the captain and crew fled in a jolly-boat, the slaves worked the pumps in the hopes of saving themselves. They were eventually rescued and brought to a jail in Norfolk, Virginia., Illustration in Richard Hildreth's The White Slave: or, Memoirs of a Fugitive (London: Ingram, Cooke, & Co., 227 Strand, MDCCCLII, 1852), p. 80., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Images from the Slave Trade.
Date: [1852]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1852 Hildr 70799.O p 80, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2787

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