Search results

Title: A Negro hung alive by the ribs to a gallows
Description: Engraving was done after one of John Gabriel Stedman's own drawings; it illustrates an incident that he learned of during his travels in Surinam. According to Stedman, a "decent looking man" explained to him, "Not long ago, . . . I saw a black man suspended alive from a gallows, by the ribs, between which, with a knife, was first made an incision, and then clinched an iron hook with a chain; in this manner he kept alive three days, hanging with his head and feet downwards, and catching with his tongue the drops of water (it being the rainy season) that were flowing down his bloated breast." (vol. 1, p. 109), Plate XI in John Gabriel Stedman's Narrative, of a five year's expedition, against the revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the wild coast of South America; from the year 1772 to 1777 (London: Printed for J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church Yard, & J. Edwards, Pall Mall, 1796), vol. 1, p. 110., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Creator: Blake, William, 1757-1827, engraver
Date: Dec. 1, 1792
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1796 Sted 755.Q v 1 p 110, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2694

Title: Do the slaves desire their liberty?
Description: A male slave hangs from a tree by a rope tied around his wrists. He also holds a log between legs. A slaveowner moves to hit him with a large paddle. A small house and what appears to be a church are visible in the background., 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. 3 (March, 1835), p. 25., Caption reads: A punishment, practised in the United States, for the crime of loving liberty., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [March 1835]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per A 245 16998.D v 1 n 3 cover page, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2855

Title: Flagellation of a female Samboe slave
Description: Engraving was done after one of John Gabriel Stedman's own drawings; it illustrates an incident that he witnessed during his travels in Surinam. According to Stedman's account, the image shows a beautiful Samboe girl of about eighteen, who was tied by both arms to a tree limb and flagellated by two overseers in such a manner that "she was from her neck to her ancles [sic] literally dyed over with blood." When Stedman reached her, she had already received 200 lashes, and he begged one of the overseers to let her down. At this point, however, the overseer explained that, in order to prevent strangers from interfering with his government, he had made an unalterable rule to double any slave's punishment when a stranger tried to intervene on his or her behalf. The girl thus received another 200 lashes., Plate XXXV in John Gabriel Stedman's Narrative, of a five year's expedition, against the revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the wild coast of South America; from the year 1772 to 1777 (London: Printed for J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church Yard, & J. Edwards, Pall Mall, 1796) vol. I, facing p. 326., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Creator: Blake, William, 1757-1827, engraver
Date: [between 1791 and 1796]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1796 Sted 755.Q v 1 p 326, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2697

Title: A female negro slave, with a weight chained to her ancle [sic]
Description: Engraving was done after one of John Gabriel Stedman's own drawings; it records an incident that he witnessed during his travels in Surinam. In Port Amsterdam, Stedman encountered a young female slave dressed in a scanty loin-cloth, which, like her skin, bore the traces of a whip. As punishment for failing to complete a task to which she was unequal, the young woman was forced to wear a chain around her ankle to which a hundred pound weight was also affixed. This she wore for some months., Plate IV in John Gabriel Stedman's Narrative, of a five year's expedition, against the revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the wild coast of South America; from the year 1772 to 1777 (London: Printed for J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church Yard, & J. Edwards, Pall Mall, 1796), vol. I, facing page 15., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Creator: Bartolozzi, Francesco, 1727-1815, engraver
Date: Dec. 1, 1795
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1796 Sted 755.Q v 1 p 15, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2693

Title: Persecuted virtue
Description: Illustration accompanies a recollection made by George, a fugitive slave, in Chapter XI, "In Which Property Gets into an Improper State of Mind." In conversation with Mr. Wilson, George recalled how his sister was whipped by her owner for no other reason that wanting a decent Christian life. Correspondingly, the image captures the moment leading up to George's sister's whipping. Stripped to the waist, she waits on her knees as shabby looking white man ties her wrists to a post. In the center of the scene, a black overseer stands with a whip in his hand, talking with the master. Chains and shackles hang from the rear wall of the barn interior., Illustration in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (London: John Cassell, Ludgate Hill, 1852), p. 112., Caption underneath the image reads, "She was whipped, sir, for wanting to live a decent Christian life, such as your laws give no slave girl a right to live." --Page 95., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Date: [1852]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1852 Sto 72726.O p 112, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2789

Title: A typical negro
Description: Three engravings accompanying the article "A Typical Negro." The text identifies them as "portraits" of Gordon, a fugitive Mississippi slave who joined the Union army in Baton Rouge. According to the unnamed author, the engravings were taken from photographs by McPherson and Oliver. The engraving on the left bears the title "Gordon as he entered our lines." It shows Gordon sitting on a stool with his hands folded on his lap and one leg crossed over the other. His clothing is frayed and tattered, and he wears no shoes. As the author explains, Gordon "entered our lines, with clothes torn and covered with mud and dirt from his long race through the swamps and bayous, chased as he had been for days and nights by his master with several neighbors and a pack of blood-hounds; . . . ." The middle engraving is titled "Gordon under medical inspection." Here, Gordon is seated on a stool with his bare back facing the viewer. The image offers a detailed view of the wounds and scars that cover his back. As the author commented, the engraving "shows him as he underwent the surgical examinations previous to being mustered into the service -- his back furrowed and scarred with the traces of a whipping administered on Christmas day." The portrait on the right is titled "Gordon in his uniform as a U.S. soldier." It shows Gordon in full military uniform, with all of his gear and his musket. This engraving, the author notes, "represents him in United States uniform, bearing the musket and prepared for duty.", Illustration in Harper's Weekly, vol. 7, no. 340 (July 4, 1863), p 429., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Fugitives.
Date: [July 1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare **Per H 1529.F v 7 n 340 July 4 1863 p 429, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2877

Title: [Whip and paddle]
Description: Set in a barn or work space, the illustrations shows an unclothed male slave who hangs from his wrists. To the right, a white overseer raises his whip. To the left, another white man holds the long handle of a paddle between his teeth. Rolling up his shirt sleeves, he prepares to participate in the beating. Further to the left, another white man violently restrains a slave who lies face down on the floor., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1838 (Boston: Published by D.K. Hitchcock, 1837), p. 23., Caption underneath the image reads: "Sometimes a slave is tied up by the wrists, while the ancles [sic] are fastened to a staple in the floor. In this position, they are punished with the whip or with the paddle. This is an instrument of torture bored full of holes, each hole raising a blister.", 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 23, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2755

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: A slave-ship
Description: Engraving shows two slave-traders as they throw a slave overboard. Two other slaves struggle in the ocean. This woodcut is a slightly altered version of the same scene appearing in "The Liberator," January 7, 1832. The original text notes the ship is a Brazilian slaver. Brazil collected duty on all imported slaves, and slave ship captains tossed sickly and likely unsalable slaves overboard before arrival to avoid paying the duty on them., Illustration in the Slave's Friend (New York: Published by R.G. Williams, for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1836), vol. 1, no. X (1836), p. 14-15., Image is accompanied by a poem, which begins as follows: "Oh! I have don a cursed deed, / The wretched man replies, / And night and day, and every where, / 'Tis still before my eyes.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1836]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per S 63 54051.D v 1 n X p 14-15, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2887

Title: The cruelties of slavery
Description: Holding a whip in his right hand, a slaveowner moves to strike a female slave kneeling beneath him. The slave reaches her arms toward her baby, who dangles by one wrist from the slaveowner's left hand. To the right, another slaveowner looks on as mother and child are separated. In the left background, four bound slaves march off in single file., 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. 5 (May, 1835), p. 49., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [May 1835]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per A 245 16998.D v 1 n 5 cover page, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2856

Title: Scene in the slave pen at Washington
Description: Engraving portrays an episode described in Northup's narrative. After being kidnapped, Northup was held in Williams' slave pen in Washington City. There, he explained, he was beaten by James H. Burch, a well-known slave-dealer, and Radburn, his lackey. Burch is seen on the left, whipping Northup with a cat-o'-ninetails. ("The cat was a large rope of many strands -- the strands unraveled, and a knot tied at the extremity of each.") Describing the scene in his own words, Northup wrote, "As soon as these formidable whips appeared, I was seized by both of them, and roughly divested of my clothing. My feet, as has been stated, were fastened to the floor. Drawing me over the bench, face downwards, Radburn placed his heavy foot upon the fetters, between my wrists, holding them painfully to the floor. With the paddle, Burch commenced beating me." (p. 44), Illustration in Solomon Northup's Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1851, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River, in Louisiana (Auburn and Buffalo [N.Y.]: Miller, Orton & Mulligan; London: Sampson Low, Son & Company, 1854), p. 44., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Creator: Orr, Nathaniel, engraver
Date: [1854]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1854 North 70438.O p 44, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2799

Title: The execution of breaking on the rack
Description: Engraving was done after one of John Gabriel Stedman's own drawings; it records an incident that he witnessed during his travels in Surinam. According to Stedman, the man on the rack was sentenced to death for having shot and killed an overseer. As Stedman wrote, "Informed of the dreadful sentence, he composedly laid himself down on his back on a strong cross, on which, with arms and legs expanded, he was fastened by ropes; the executioner, also a black man, having now with a hatchet chopped off his left hand, next took up a heavy iron bar, with which, by repeated blows, he broke his bones to shivers, till the marrow, blood, and splinters flew about the field; but the prisoner never uttered a groan nor a sigh." (vol. 2, p. 295), Plate LXXI in John Gabriel Stedman's Narrative, of a five year's expedition, against the revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the wild coast of South America; from the year 1772 to 1777 (London: Printed for J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church Yard, & J. Edwards, Pall Mall, 1796), vol. II, p. 296., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Date: Dec. 2, 1792
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1796 Sted 755.Q v 2 p 296, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2702

Title: [Frontispiece for the Curious Adventures of Captain Stedman]
Description: Image relates to an episode that Captain John Stedman witnessed during his travels in Surinam, and went on to describe in his text, Narrative, of a five year's expedition against the revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the wild coast of South America; from the year 1772 to 1777 (London: Printed for J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church Yard, & J. Edwards, Pall Mall, 1796). In the corresponding passage, Stedman described how a beautiful Samboe girl of about eighteen was tied by both arms to a tree limb and flagellated by two overseers in such a manner that "she was from her neck to her ancles [sic] literally dyed over with blood." When Stedman arrived on the scene, the girl had already received 200 lashes, and he begged one of the overseers to let her down. At this point, the overseer explained that, in order to prevent strangers from interfering with his government, he had made an unalterable rule to double any slave's punishment when a stranger tried to intervene on his or her behalf. To Stedman's utter dismay, the girl thus received another 200 lashes. Stedman's own 1796 text included an illustration of this terrible episode: an engraving done by William Blake after one of Stedman's drawings. Like Blake's engraving, the 1809 aquatint shows the two black overseers who carried out the girl's punishment, the planter who presumably ordered it, and the slave girl herself. The aquatint, however, differs substantially in style, composition, and interpretation., Folded frontispiece for the Curious Adventures of Captain Stedman, during an expedition to Surinam in 1773 (London: Printed for Thomas Tegg [1809])., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Date: [1809]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1809 Cur 68448.D frontispiece, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2718

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: [X stands for cross]
Description: Image is accompanied by a verse, which begins as follows: "X Stands for Cross. By the lusts of the flesh / Men open the wounds of the Saviour afresh, /." In the foreground of a wooded landscape, an overseer / slaveowner flogs the back of a male slave whose wrists are shackled and chained to a tree trunk. On a hill in the background, a Christ-figure hangs on a cross., 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 X, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2818

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: Flogging the Negro
Description: According to this account, the engraving shows a court-ordered public flogging that took place in Lexington, Missouri in 1856. The slave's offense was defending his wife (seen on the ground to the left) from an abusive blacksmith. In response, the court ruled that the slave was to receive 1,000 lashes. These were to be administered by three citizens, including the blacksmith, who was allowed to initiate the punishment. Here, the blacksmith flogs the slave with a paddle, while two other men (seen to the left and right) crack their whips. A small black girl prays at the feet of the flogged slave; others look on., Illustration in the Suppressed Book about Slavery! (New York: Carleton, 1864), p. 240., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Imagery.
Creator: Van Ingen & Snyder, engraver
Date: [1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1864 Suppr 15191.D p 240, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2811

Title: [Middle passage: instruments of restraint and torture]
Description: Engraving shows instruments of restraint and torture used during the Middle Passage. From top to bottom, it includes: iron hand-cuffs, iron shackles, a thumb press, and a speculum oris, an instrument originally used to open the mouths of lock-jaw patients. On slave-ships, it was used to force-feed slaves who refused to eat. The bottom diagram shows a cabin space that is 3 feet, 3 inches high; it shows manner in which enslaved Africans were forced to sit during the passage., Illustration in Lydia Childs's An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans (New York: Published by John S. Taylor, 1836), p. 21., Opposite page includes the following text: "The engraving on the next page will help to give a vivid idea of the Elysium enjoyed by negroes, during the Middle Passage. Fig A represents the iron hand-cuffs, which fasten the slaves together by means of a little bolt with a padlock. B represents the iron shackles by which the ancle [sic] of one is made fast to the ancle [sic] of his next companion. Yet even thus secured, they do often jump into the sea, and wave their hands in triumph at the approach of death. E is a thumb-screw. The thumbs are put into two rounds [sic] holes at the top; by turning a key a bar rises from C to D by means of a screw; and the pressure becomes very painful. By turning it further, the blood is made to start; and by taking away the key, as at E, the tortured person is left in agony, without the means of helping himself, or being helped by others. This is applied in case of obstinancy, at the discretion of the captain. I, F, is a speculum oris. The dotted lines represent it when shut; the black lines when open. It opens at G,H, by a screw below with a knob at the end of it. This instrument was used by surgeons to wrench open the mouth in case of lock-jaw. It is used in slave-ships to compel the negroes to take food; because a loss to the owners would follow their persevering attempts to die. K represents the manner of stowing slaves in a slave-ship.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1836]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1836 Chi S49622.D p 21, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2746

Title: [Mother taken away]
Description: Having been sold by her former mistress ("a wicked woman, a slaveholder, and a member of the Presbyterian church") to a new owner, a Kentucky slave shrieks and cries as she is torn away from her two children, ages seven and nine. The woman's new owner smokes and calmly looks on., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1838 (Boston: Published by D.K. Hitchcock, 1837), p. 17., Verse underneath the image reads: "Ev'n her babes, so dear, so young, / And so treasured in her heart, / That the cords which round them clung, / Seemed its life, its dearest part; / These, ev'n these, were torn away! / These, that, when all else were gone, / Cheered the heart with one bright ray, / That still bade its pulse beat on!", 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 17, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2752

Title: A slave caught without a pass
Description: This night-time scene depicts an overseer, who, having come upon a slave who left his plantation without a pass, forces the slave to dance for the amusement of himself and his two companions. As the slave dances, the overseer cracks a whip at his feet., 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. V (May, 1836), whole no. 17, p. 1., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [May 1836]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per A 245 60026.D v 2 n 5 cover page, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2850

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: Slaves taken from an Arab dhow
Description: Set below the deck of an Arab coasting vessel in Zanzibar, the illustration shows a group of scantily dressed, emaciated male slaves. An accompanying quote from Edward Steere contextualizes the image. Steere wrote, "I hope one may never see again such sights as one used to see almost daily when we first landed in Zanzibar -- the miserable remains of the great slave caravans from the interior, brought by sea to Zanzibar, packed so closely that they could scarcely move, and allowed nothing of food on the voyage but a few handfuls of raw rice passed round to be nibbled at. It is said, sometimes, that our efforts to stop the slave traffic have increased the sufferings of the slaves during their transit, but it was simply impossible to increase the misery of this open and unrestrained traffic between Kilwa and Zanzibar. Even as it was, the least delay caused a large proportion of deaths, and the parties of slaves that were led from the custom-house to their owners' houses presented every form of emaciation and disease, till it seemed impossible that they could support themselves, if only for a few minutes longer." (p. 77-78), Plate in Robert Marshall Heanley's A Memoir of Edward Steere, D.D., LL.D.: Third Missionary Bishop in Central Africa (London: George Bell and Sons, York Street, Covent Garden, 1888), p. 78., Artist's imprint illegible., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from the Slave Trade.
Date: [1888]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri Hean 52606.D p 78, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2914

Title: Branding a female slave
Description: Set on the coast of Haiti, the image shows a slave-trader branding a female slave on the shoulder. The unclothed slave kneels on the sand with her hands chained behind her back. Other slaves await their turn, covering their eyes or looking away. In the lower right-hand corner, a second slave-trader sits on a barrel with a rifle resting on his knee. A slave-ship is visible in the background., Plate in John W. Cromwell's The Negro in American History: Men and Women Eminent in the Evolution of the American of African Descent (Washington, D.C.: The American Negro Academy, 1914), p. 2., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from the Slave Trade.
Date: [1914]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1914 Cromw 78796.O p 2, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2671

Title: Scene in the hold of the "Blood-Stained Gloria." (Middle Passage)
Description: As the title suggests, the engraving shows the hold of the Gloria, a Brazilian slave-ship upon which the author travelled. In Chapter XV of his Revelations, Drake described the conditions on board: "our slaves," he wrote, "were crammed in hold, cabin, and peak, and packed like herrings, on the shelves, around our vessel's sides; and what was worse, gratings were kept down half the time." (p. 88-89) Continuing to describe the "horrors of this dreadful passage," he added, "The sick and dying were chained together. I saw pregnant women give birth to babes, whilst chained to corpses, which our drunken overseers had not removed. The blacks were literally jammed between decks, as if in a coffin; and a coffin that dreadful hold became, to nearly one-half of our cargo, before we reached Bahia." (p. 89) In the engraving, Ruiz, the ship's captain, has entered the hold with one of his mates. In addition to a lantern, the captain carries a large sword, while his mate carries a rifle. A cat-o'-ninetails can be seen on the floor., Fold-out plate in Richard Drake's Revelations of a Slave Smuggler: Being the Autobiography of Capt. Rich'd Drake, an African Trader for Fifty-Years from 1807 to 1857; during which Period He Was Concerned in the Transportation of Half a Million Blacks from African Coast to America (New York: Robert M. De Witt, publisher, [c1860]), p. 28., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from the Slave Trade.
Creator: Andrew & Filmer, engraver
Date: [c1860]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1860 Dra 72735.O p 28, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2806

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: Modes of punishing slaves
Description: Illustration is included in Chapter VI, "Domestic Slavery in Madagascar." According to Ellis, he often witnessed "some of the inevitable consequences of the system [i.e., domestic slavery] that were perhaps more revolting in their moral degradation than in the physical suffering inflicted." The girl on the right, for example, represented one such case. As Ellis wrote, "I saw one young girl who had a couple of boards fixed on her shoulders, each of them rather more than two feet long, and ten inches or a foot wide, fastened together by pieces of wood nailed on the under side. A piece had been cut out of each board in the middle, so that, when fixed together, they fitted close to her neck, and the poor girl, while wearing this instrument of punishment and disgrace, was working with the rest." (p. 147-48) The boy on the left represented another such case. Ellis recalled, "On another occasion I saw a boy, apparently about fifteen years of age, with a rough, heavy, iron collar on his naked neck. It seemed to be formed by a square bar of iron of about three quarter of an inch thick being bent round his neck, and the two ends then joined together. Yet he was working with a number of other boys and men employed in carrying fire-wood to the beach for shipping.", Illustration in William Ellis's Three Visits to Madagascar during the Years 1853 -- 1854 -- 1856 (London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1858), p. 148., As noted on the title page, the wood engravings are said to be after "photographs, etc.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Date: [1858]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri Ellis 14699.O p 148, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2904

Title: The brutal whipping of Matt
Description: Illustration is included in Chapter XII, "Negro Matt, the Cooper -- Savage Bryson -- the Negro Overseer - An Agonizing but Unavailing Plea for Mercy -- A Slave-Whipping and a Tragedy." According to Livermore, the print shows the cooper, Matt, being whipped by a "gigantic" man as his master watches at the left. Other slaves look on in horror. Matt offense was accidentally burning his master in the blacksmith's shop. For this, Livermore explained, a "rope was roughly tied around his wrists, and thrown over a beam projecting from the roof of the shop, by which he was drawn up with jerks, until his toes barely touched the ground." The overseer, she noted, "stood by urging on the terrible flagellation, in the most brutal and fiendish manner conceivable." (p. 217), Illustration in Mary Ashton Rice Livermore's The Story of my Life, or, The Sunshine and Shadow of Seventy Years (Hartford: A.D. Worthington & Co., 1897), p. 214., Caption underneath the image reads: "The swish of a long whip flashed through the air. The lash sank with a cutting sound into Matt's quivering flesh. Shrieks of torture pierced the skies as blow after blow fell upon the body of the suffering man. I stood immovable, sick and faint, and heard and saw it all, paralyzed with horror and fear.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Creator: Helmick, Howard, designer
Date: [1897]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1897 Liv 29518.O p 214, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2838

Title: A freeholder's court
Description: Engraving portrays an episode described in Hildreth's fictional narrative. A court of five Carolina freeholders, selected "at hap-hazard," falsely convicted a slave named Billy for plundering the rice-fields of a neighboring plantation, and sentenced him to death. As Hildreth wrote, "the sentence was no sooner pronounced than preparations were made for its execution. An empty barrel was brought out, and placed under a tree that stood before the door. The poor fellow was mounted upon it; the halter was put about his neck, and fastened to a limb over his head. The judges had already become so drunk as to have lost all sense of judicial decorum. One of them kicked away the barrel, and the unhappy victim of Carolina justice dropped struggling into eternity." (p. 197), Frontispiece for Richard Hildreth's Archy Moore, the White Slave; or Memoirs of a Fugitive (New York and Auburn: Miller, Orton & Mulligan, 1855)., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Creator: Fox, Frederick E., engraver
Date: [1855]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1855 Hildr 72210.O frontispiece, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2800

Title: [Instruments of torture]
Description: Illustration shows an "instrument of torture" used on Roper during his years of slavery. Of it, he wrote, this is a machine used for packing and pressing cotton. By it, he [i.e., the slave-owner Mr. Gooch] hung me up by the hands at letter a, a horse moving around the screw e, and carrying it up and down, and pressing the block c into the box d, into which the cotton is put. At this time, he hung me up for a quarter of an hour. I was carried up ten feet from the ground, when Mr. Gooch asked me, if I was tired. He then let me rest for five minutes, then carried me round again, after which he let me down and put me into the box, and shut me down in it for about ten minutes." (p. 52), Illustration in Moses Roper's A Narrative of the Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper, from American Slavery (London: Darton, Harvey, and Darton, 55, Gracechurch Street; and to be had of the author, at the Anti-Slavery Office, 18, Aldermanbury, Murrays, Mare Street, Hackney; Hudson, 18, Bull Street, Birmingham, MDCCCXXXVII [1837]), p. 51., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Date: [1837]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1837 Roper 101478.D p 51, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2758

Title: [Punishments for deserters]
Description: Two scenes show methods for punishing runaway slaves. As the caption suggests, the top image shows the way in which Portuguese colonizers punished captured fugitives: here, a slave-owner whips a slave who hangs by his neck from a tree limb. A form of punishment invented in Martinique is shown at the bottom left: a standing slave is forced to wear a collar around his neck and a shackle around his right ankle. The two are connected by a short chain that forces the slave to bend his right leg backward and support all of his weight on his left leg. Lastly, the bottom right illustrates one slave's punishment for having escaped: his leg was amputated above the knee., Plate in François Froger's Relation d'un voyage fait en 1695, 1696 & 1697: aux côtes d'Afrique, détroit de Magellan, Brezil, Cayenne & isles Antilles, par une escadre des vaisseaux du roy, commandée par M. de Gennes (A Paris: Imprimée par les soins & aux frais du sieur de Fer, geographe de Monseigneur le dauphin. Dans l'isle du Palais, sur le quay de l'Horloge, à la Sphere royale: Et chez G. Saugrain dans la grande salle du Palais, à la Croix d'or., M.DC.XCVIII. [1698]), p. 150., Caption accompanying the top scene reads: "Comme les Portugais fouettent leurs Esclaves lors quils ont deserté." The caption on the bottom left reads: "Invention d'un François de la Martinique;" the one on the right reads: "Esclave qui a la Jambe coupee pour avoir deserte.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Creator: Inselin, C., engraver
Date: [1698]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1698 Froge 578.D p 150, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2663

Title: When slaves are purchased by the planters; they are generally marked on the breast with a red hot iron
Description: A slaveowner uses a hot iron to brand a male slave's breast. Two other male slaves wait to be branded as well. A ship is visible in the background, possibly suggesting that the three had been purchased immediately beforehand., Illustration in Thomas Branagan's Penitential Tyrant (New York: Printed and sold by Samuel Wood, 1807), p. 274., 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 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 (Balitmore: 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 274, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2716

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: [Log-yokes used by the Mandingoes to restrain slaves.]
Description: Top half of the image shows two male slaves who are joined together by a log-yoke that fits around their necks and rests on their shoulders. Bottom half shows a slave in a log-yoke that takes the form of an inverted V and hangs from his neck by a piece of rope., Illustration in Thomas Branagan's Penitential Tyrant (New York: Printed and sold by Samuel Wood, 1807) p. 268., Engraving attributed to Alexander Anderson., Accompanied by the following text: "The manner of yoking the slaves by the Mandingoes, or African slave merchants, who usually march annually in eight or ten parties, from the river Gambia to Bambarra; each party having from one hundred to one hundred and fifty slaves. The Log-Yokes are made of the roots of trees, so heavy as to make it extremely difficult for the persons who wear them to walk, much more to escape or run away. Where the roads lie through woods, the captives are made to travel several hundred miles with logs hung from their necks, as described in the plates.", 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 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, 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 edtions 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 268, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2711

Title: [Slave at work with head-frame]
Description: Three-quarter, right profile view of a male slave in a plantation setting. Image shows him at work with a hoe, and draws attention to the accoutrements he is forced to wear: the ankle spurs, the head-frame and mouth-piece, and the heavy weight that is suspended from a chain around his waist. A second slave works in the distant background., Illustration in Thomas Branagan's Penitential Tyrant (New York: Printed and sold by Samuel Wood, 1807) p. 269., Engraving attributed to Alexander Anderson., Accompanied by the following text: "A representation of a slave at work cruelly accoutred, with a Head-frame and Mouth-piece to prevent his eating -- with Boots and Spurs round his legs, and half a hundred weight chained to his body to prevent his absconding.", 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 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 suf 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 269, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2712

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