Search results

Title: A fact with a short commentary
Description: Lunging forward onto his left knee, a slaveowner points a double-barreled rifle at a male slave who is stretched out on the ground beneath him. Propping himself up with his left arm, the slave uses his right arm to gesture toward the slaveowner in a protective manner. The slaveowner's hat, which rests on the ground, and an overturned table in the background suggest that the action has proceeded quickly. In the background, the slave's child watches from the doorway of his hut., 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. I (January, 1836), whole no. 13, p. 1., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [January 1836]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per A 245 60026.D v 2 n 1 cover page, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2846

Title: The humanity of the Africo-Americans
Description: The setting is St. Domingo. A slave brings a basket of provisions to his owners, Monsieur and Madame Baillon, and appraises them of an imminent revolt by other slaves. The loyal slave aids the couple, their daughter and son-in-law, and their two white servants in making an escape., 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. III (March, 1836), whole no. 15, p. 1., Curator's note: Notice here the use of the term "Africo-Americans," used infrequently but persistently by some African Americans and abolitionists from at least the early 1830s through the Civil War period. Common usage of "blacks" and "Africans" was supplanted in the 1820s with "Negro" common among whites, and "Colored" among most African Americans. As in all the terms used to described black Americans over time, there is a nationalist-assimilationist dichotomy here, with "Africo-Americans" suggesting a separate nationality and culture, and "Colored" suggesting darker-hued members of the common American nation and culture., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [March 1836]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per A 245 60026.D v 2 n 3 cover page, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2848

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: What has the North to do with slavery?
Description: Image is set in the North. It appears to show Southern slaveowners forcibly removing escaped slaves from their homes, and returning them into their custody., Title page illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1839 (New York: Published for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838)., Two captions underneath the image read: "What has the North do to with slavery?" and "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.", 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 title page, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2768

Title: Southern arguments to stop the mouths of Northern guests
Description: According to the caption, this domestic interior shows a Northern man who moved to the South and married into a slave-owning family. Seated at a lavish table, the man and his family enjoy the fruits of slave labor. Through the left-hand window, a slave is being whipped by an overseer. A few other slaves can be seen through the window on the right., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1839 (New York: Published for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838), p. 23., 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 23, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2766

Title: Douglass wird von Coven gezüchtigt
Description: Engraving accompanies a brief history of Frederick Douglass' early years (c. 1817-1838), and was included in the article, "Bilder aus dem Sklavenleben" (Pictures from Slave Life). Set in a plantation field, the scene shows Douglass on his hands and knees with his shirt hanging around his waist. Standing behind him, a slave-holder named Coven (Douglass' master from approximately 1833-34) beats his bare back with a stick. According to the text, Coven never let a week go by without whipping Douglass and his back never healed., Illustration in Weber's Volks-Kalendar (Leipzig: Verlag von J.J. Weber, [1853]), p. 143., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Date: [1853]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1853 Web 21101.O p 143, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2796

Title: How can it be done?
Description: Image depicts a mob of slaveholders who are raiding an abolitionist press. Members of the mob are dragging off a broken printing press., Illustration in the Anti-Slavery Record (New York: Published by R.G. Williams, for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1835-1837), vol. II, no. IX (September, 1836), whole no. 21, p. 1., Curator's note: This is one of several antislavery graphics depicting the proslavery assault on the antislavery movement and their demand for the suppression of antislavery literature. This and several other illustrations link antislavery agitation to first amendment freedoms., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [September 1836]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per A 245 60026.D v 2 n 9 cover page, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2853

Title: Flogging of the slave girl Juliana, about five or six years of age, in Jamaica, &c
Description: Image shows Juliana, a young West Indian slave girl, being flogged by her mistress, Eleanor Whitehead, with a cat of six tails. Juliana is streched out on the floor, and her mistress, dressed in voluminous skirts and elaborate finery, looms over her threateningly., Illustration in the pamphlet Flogging of the Slave Girl Juliana, about Five or Six Years of Age, in Jamaica &c. (London: Sold at the Depository; and by Harvey & Darton; Houlston and Son; Edmund Fry; E. Albright, London; and other booksellers, 1830?). (Bagster and Thomas, printers)., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1830?]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1830 Flo 67062.D p 1, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2730

Title: The manner in which slaves are placed to be flogged
Description: A slaveowner stands to the left and watches as a partially clothed male slave flogs a naked male slave who lies face down on the ground. The arms and legs of the slave being flogged are fastened to pegs in the ground., Illustration in Thomas Branagan's Penitential Tyrant (New York: Printed and sold by Samuel Wood, 1807), p. 272., Engraving attributed to Alexander Anderson., 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 Methods of Procuring Slaves with a Short Account 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 auf 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.
Creator: Anderson, Alexander, 1775-1870, engraver
Date: [1807]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1807 Bra 2721.D p 272, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2714

Title: Another method of fixing the poor victims on a ladder to be flogged, which is also occasionally laid flat on the ground for severer punishment
Description: A slaveowner stands to the right and watches as a partially clothed male slave flogs the backside of a naked male slave who leans on a ladder that is propped against a tree., Illustration in Thomas Branagan's Penitential Tyrant (New York: Printed and sold by Samuel Wood, 1807], p. 273., Engraving attributed to Alexander Anderson., 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 o 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 auf 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 Pear 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.
Creator: Anderson, Alexander, 1775-1870, engraver
Date: [1807]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1807 Bra 2721.D p 273, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2715

Title: A Spanish planter of Porto Rico
Description: Set in a lush grove, the image depicts a Spanish planter in Puerto Rico, who "luxuriates" in a hammock suspended from a citrus tree. The well-dressed planter wears a large top hat and holds a pipe in his mouth; his legs hang over either side of the hammock and his arms are folded in a contented manner. He is waited on by a partially clothed male slave, whose facial features correspond to racist stereotypes. Smiling at the planter, the slave holds a tray upon which a drink rests., Illustration in John Augustine Waller's Voyage in the West Indies (London: Printed for Sir Richard Phillips, and Co. Bride Court, Bridge Street, 1820), p. 34., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
Creator: Neele & Son, engraver
Date: [1820]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Egyp Forb (b.w.) 5258.O.2.9 p 34, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2939

Title: The flogging of females
Description: This scene is set in the West Indies. A female slaveowner dressed in colonial attire whips the back of a female slave who is hunched forward and whose hands appear to be bound. To the left, another white female sits in a chair and watches. To the right, three West Indians -- a man, a woman, and a child -- look on in horror., 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. 10 (October, 1835), p. 109., Small caption underneath the image reads: "What ! -- the whip on WOMAN's shrinking flesh!", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [October 1835]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per A 245 16998.D v 1 n 10 cover page, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2859

Title: Journey of a slave from plantation to the battlefield
Description: Collection of twelve titled album (carte-de-visite size) cards depicting the evolution of the life of an African American man from enslavement to a Union soldier. "In the Cotton field" and "The Christmas Week" show his life on the plantation from which he is sold and separated from his family in "The Sale" and "The Parting: 'Buy us too'." His new enslaver whips him in "The Lash," for which he then retaliates in "Blow for Blow." He hides "In the Swamp" and is finally "Free!" to become a Union soldier and "Stand up a Man" to fight in the battlefield to "Make Way for Liberty!" He is struck down in "Victory!" for Liberty, depicted as a white woman, who states as she mourns over his body, "He Died for Me!", Title from series title., Publication information inferred from copyright statement: Entered according to the act of the year 1863 by William A. Stephens in the Clerks' Office of the Dist. Court of the U.S. for the E. Dist. of Pa., Attributed to James Fuller Queen after Henry Louis Stephens., Henry Louis Stephens was a native Philadelphia caricaturist, book, and magazine illustrator who worked in New York in the mid-19th century for the periodical "Frank Leslie's." His brother William Allen Stephens served as his business manager., Described in Gathering history: The Marian S. Carson Collection of Americana. (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1999), p. 26., Original wrapper for the card set held in the collections of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. [LOT 5174], Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of humorous caricatures and photographs. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., Copyright by William A. Stephens, 1120 Girard Avenue, Philadelphia., Description revised 2023., Access points revised 2023., Queen, a Philadelphia lithographer and pioneer chromolithographer known for his attention to detail, served in the Civil War militia from 1862 until 1863, and created several lithographs with Civil War subjects.
Creator: Queen, James Fuller, 1820 or 21-1886, artist
Date: 1863
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Henry Louis Stephens Collection [(5)5780.F.56m-p; (5)5780.F.57a-h]

Title: Slaves concealing their master from a search party
Description: Proslavery print depicting an enslaved African American family hiding their white man enslaver in their cabin from a Union search party on horseback. The enslaver, holding a pistol, hides behind the open door from which the mother, her chair turned over behind her, misdirects the search party down the road. Near the hearth, an older son holds a skillet defensively as a younger petrified sibling holds unto him for protection., Inscribed upper left corner: 12., Issued as plate 12 in Sketches from the Civil War in North America (London [i.e., Baltimore]: [the author], 1863-1864), a series of pro-Confederacy cartoons drawn and published by Baltimore cartoonist Adalbert John Volck under the pseudonym V. Blada. The "first issue" of 10 prints (numbered 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 15, 16, 21, 24), with imprint "London, 1863" were printed as etchings. The remaining 20 prints (numbered 4, 8, 9-11, 14, 17-20, 23, 25-27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 40, 45) headed "Second and third issues of V. Blada's war sketches" and dated "London, July 30, 1864" were printed as lithographs., Title and publication information from series at Brown University Library., Research file about artist available at repository., Accessioned 1935., RVCDC, 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.
Creator: Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912, artist
Date: [1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Volck - Sketches - Volck 12 [2990.F.3]

Title: [Trio gem lantern slide of scenes from Uncle Tom's Cabin]
Description: Lantern slide with three sequential scenes from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s "Uncle Tom’s Cabin." Depicts scenes from chapters 26, 40, and 41. Chapter 26 image shows the deathbed scene of Eva St. Clair. Shows Eva in bed, seated up, holding a bouquet of flowers in her lap, and surrounded by people. Eva's parents Mr. and Mrs. St. Clare sit on either side of the bed and Miss Ophelia kneels and cries behind Mr. St. Clare. Mrs. St. Clare holds a fan, has a handkerchief in her lap, and looks toward Eva. Mr. St. Claire, rests his head in one hand, and has his other hand on the bed. In front of Eva, the enslaved men and women of the household, including Tom, kneel, stand, pray, hold handkerchiefs, and cry. The setting also includes a window with open drapes, a curtain behind Eva's bed, and a side table adorned with a vase of flowers. Chapter 40 scene represents the beating of Tom by his enslaver Simon Legree following the escape of the enslaved Cassy and Emmeline. Shows Tom, with grey hair, a grey beard, and barefooted, lying on a pile of cotton on the floor of a shed. Legree stands over him with one hand clenched in a fist toward his chest and the other clenched by his side as he raises up one of his feet. Chapter 41 scene shows an adult George Shelby visiting with the beaten and dying Tom after locating him in order to see if he "couldn't buy him back." Shows Tom lying on a pile of cotton near the opening to a shed. An open book lies near him by his hand. Shelby leans over Tom and holds his hand. In the background, outside of the opening, Legree stands, with his hands in his pant pockets and watching the men., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from format., Printed on cover glass: Gem Slide. Gem Slide., Contains ornamental pictorial details in the corners of the cover glass., Contains label with series number: 107., Gift of David Doret., RVCDC
Date: [ca. 1890]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Doret and Mitchell Collection - Photographs [P.2020.39.9]

Title: John Brown meeting the slave mother and her child on the steps of Charlestown jail on his way to execution
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., 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.
Creator: Currier & Ives
Date: 1863
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *Portrait Prints-B [7817.F]

Main menu