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Title: A bold stroke for freedom
Description: Engraving depicts an incident that is said to have occurred near the Maryland state line on December 25, 1855. As the accompanying narrative suggests, six slaves from Virginia's Loudoun and Fauquier counties (Barnaby Grigby, his wife, Mary Elizabeth Grigby, Frank Wanzer, Emily Foster, and two others) had taken their master's horses and carriage, and were on their way to freedom. Near the Cheat River in Maryland, they were attacked by "six white men and a boy," who demanded their passes, and then ordered their surrender. The fugitives retaliated, and the four travelling in the carriage made a successful escape. Two others on horseback were assumed to have been captured., Illustration in William Still's Underground Rail Road: a record of facts, authentic narratives, letters, &c. (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1872), p. 124., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
Creator: Reed, C. H., engraver
Date: [1872]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1872 Still 19214.O p 124, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2823

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: [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: Running away
Description: Illustration accompanies part five, "Domestic Amusements in the Slave States." Trailed by a pack of bloodhounds and several mounted authorities armed with rifles, a slave family tries to make their escape. To the right, on the bank of a river, two authorities aim their rifles at a drowning slave, who is approached by a group of white men in a boat., Illustration in the Suppressed Book about Slavery! (New York: Carleton, 1864), p. 336., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Fugitives.
Creator: Van Ingen & Snyder, engraver
Date: [1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1864 Suppr 15191.D p 336, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2813

Title: The bloodhound business
Description: Illustration accompanies part five, "Domestic Amusements in the Slave States." It shows a family of runaway slaves as they try to defend themselves from a pack of bloodhounds. Behind them, two slavehunters aim their rifes at father, mother, and child., Illustration in the Suppressed Book about Slavery! (New York: Carleton, 1864), p. 288., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Fugitives.
Creator: Van Ingen & Snyder, engraver
Date: [1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1864 Suppr 15191.D p 288, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2812

Title: The runaway slaves, Anthony Burns and Thomas Sims
Description: Set in Boston, the image shows the consequences of the Fugitive Slave Law in the North. Despite public hostility to slave-hunting, Livermore explained that escaped slaves such as Burns and Sims were "returned at noon-day, military authority being called out to prevent the interference of the people, who were determined on their rescue.", 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. 450., Caption underneath image reads: "With pinioned arms and manacled feet they marched between files of soldiers to a steamer bound for South Carolina from whence they had fled. Vast throngs of men and women watched the procession, many weeping as they gazed.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Fugitives.
Creator: Garrett, Edmund Henry, 1853-1929, designer
Date: [1897]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1897 Liv 29518.O p 450, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2841

Title: The fugitive's song
Description: Backed by a large tree, a fugitive slave representing Frederick Douglass runs away from a river-bank, and heads in the direction of New England (as evidenced by the sign in the background right). The party in pursuit of him, two mounted figures and a pack of dogs, can be seen on the other side of the river in the distant background. The fugitive slave (Douglass) wears unsoiled white pants, a neat striped shirt, and no shoes; he carries a bundle on a stick., Sheet music cover for J. Hutchinson (lyrics) and J.M. White's (music), The Fugitive's Song (Boston: Published by Henry Prentiss, 33 Court St., 1845)., Dedication underneath the image reads: "Words / composed and respectfully dedicated, in token of confidential esteem to / Frederick Douglass / a Graduate from the / "Peculiar Institution" / For his fearless advocacy, signal ability and wonderful success in behalf of / his brothers in bonds. / (and to the fugitives from slavery in the ) / Free States & Canadas. / by their friend / Jesse Hutchinson Junr.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Fugitives.
Creator: Bouvé, Ephraim W., 1817-1897, designer
Date: [1845]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *Sheet Music Fugitive 8214.F, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2891

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: Tearing up free papers
Description: A man restrains a free Southern black woman as another man destroys the papers that attest to her freedom. The woman's small child stands beside her. In the background, at least two figures are visible behind bars., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1838 (Boston: Published by D.K. Hitchcock, 1837), p. 7., Caption underneath the image reads: "In the Southern States, every colored person is presumed to be a slave, till proved to be free; and they are often robbed of the proof.", 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 7, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2750

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: "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: "Nuisances" going as "missionaries," "with their own consent"
Description: Illustration shows a group of free blacks being forcibly deported to Liberia. Standing in line, these Northern blacks wait to board the ship. A man who tries to flee is being chased by the authorities., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1839 (New York: Published for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838), p. 29., 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 29, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2767

Title: View of the Capitol of the United States after the conflagration in 1814
Description: Engraving is set in 1815 in Washington, DC, where a group of bound slaves passes in front of the burned-out Capitol building en route to Georgia. Two allegorical figures, one of whom represents Liberty, float on a smoke cloud above the building. The frontispiece relates to Torrey's musings as to whether "the Sovereign Father of all nations" permitted the burning of the Capitol as a "fiery, though salutary signal of his displeasure at the conduct of his Columbian children, in erecting and idolizing this splendid fabric as the temple of freedom, and at the same time oppressing with the yoke of captivity and toilsome bondage, twelve of fifteen hundred of their African brethren (by logical induction), making merchandise of their blood, and dragging their bodies with iron chains, even under its towering walls." Torrey then commented, "Yet it is a fact, that slaves are employed in rebuilding this sanctuary of liberty.", Frontispiece for Jesse Torrey's A Portraiture of Domestic Slavery, in the United States (Philadelphia: Published by the author. John Bioren, printer, 1817)., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Images from the Slave Trade.
Creator: Lawson, Alexander, 1773-1846, engraver
Date: 1817
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1817 Tor 4875.O frontispiece, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2722

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: The "West Point," the second locomotive built in the United States for actual service
Description: Ilustration shows the "West Point" during its first excursion trip or "trial of speed." The train was conducted by Stephen Lee Alison, who is shown with a African American assistant. Behind them, an African American man rides on the "barrier car," which consists of six bales of cotton strapped down by hoop-irons. (Such cars helped protect passengers from steam and hot water.) The next car is occupied by a "well-known colored band of Charleston" (p. 28), while the final car carries white passengers., Fold-out illustration in William H. Brown's The History of the First Locomotives in America: Together with other Valuable and Interesting Information from Original Documents, and the Testimony of Living Witnesses (Philadelphia: Barclay & Co., Publishers, No. 21 North Seventh Street, c1877), p. 28., Caption below the illustration reads: "The 'West Point' was built at the West Point Foundry Works, in New York City, for the South Carolina Railroad, forwarded to Charleston by ship Lafayette, and after several experimental trials, in February, 1831, made the first excursion trip, as above, on Saturday afternoon, March 5, 1831. (See extract from Charleston Courier.), Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Date: [c1877]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1877 Bro S20245.O p 28, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2830

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: Turning the tables on the overseer
Description: Bitter anti-slavery print depicting a group of slaves about to whip their white overseer, who has been bound to a tree on the plantation grounds. Before the overseer, the male slave holding the whipping lash boldly pulls up his sleeve as the slave next to him takes off his hat in a mock gesture of respect. Smiling men, women, and children of all ages stand, sit, and lean on a fence, surrounding the overseer in anticipation of his whipping., Illustration in New York Illustrated News, November 28, 1863, p. 73., Also published as a loose print by the African American press, Robert and Thomas Hamilton, possibly the first black press to publish separate prints., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
Date: [1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare **Per D 8.5 1571.F Nov 28 1863 p 73, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2863

Title: [Friedenstahl in St. Croix]
Description: As the caption suggests, the image is set on the island of St. Croix in early May 1769, and it shows a group of black baptismal candidates being led into the "Negro church," for baptism. Dressed in long white robes, trousers, and turban-like head-dresses, the men file into the church first. They are followed by the women, who are dressed in long white dresses and white caps. In front of the long, simple hall that serves as the church, some black women sit in a courtyard bordered by trees and shubbery. According to the caption, the ceremony takes place around noon. Missionaries, soldiers, and black citizens (all men) meet and converse in the open space in front of the church. Others watch the procession of baptismal candidates;some appear to pray, holding their palms upward. The missionaries' quarters appear in the background of the image, while the Negroes' quarters are seen to the right., Folded plate at the back of Christian Georg Andreas Oldendorp's Geschichte der Mission der Evangelischen Brüder auf den caraibischen Inseln S. Thomas, S. Croix, und S. Jan (Barby: Bey Christian Friedrich Laux, und in Leipzig in Commission bey Weidmanns Erben und Reich, 1777), n.p., Caption underneath the image reads: "Friedenstahl in St. Croix an einem Bettage, da die Täuflinge zur Taufe in Kirche geführt werden, 1768 zu Anfang May und zu Mittage, da die Sonne übern Scheitel steht, aller Schatten senckrecht faellt, überhaupt weing Schatten ist. Hinten das Wohnhaus, zur linken die Neger Kirche, zur rechten Negerhaeufer." The text can be translated as follows, "Friedenstahl in St. Croix on a day of prayer, on which the baptismal candidates are led into church for baptism, Wednesday, the beginning of May, 1769, because the sun is at its apex, all shadows fall perpendicular to the ground, there is little shade. In the background, the missionaries' quarters; to the left, the Negro church; to the right, Negro quarters.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
Creator: Nusbiegel, Georg Paul, 1713-1776, engraver
Date: [1777]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1777 Olde 69802.O n.p., https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2678

Title: Colored schools broken up, in the free states
Description: Depicts an attack on a school established by Prudence Crandall in Caterbury, Connecticut that was destroyed by a white mob in September 1834. Image shows a mob of whites raiding, torching, and throwing cobblestones at a building whose sign reads "School for colored girls." At the left, two young girls exit the side door of the school., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1839 (New York: Published for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838), p. 15., 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 15, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2763

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