Included in Chapter IX, "Mandings, Barra, Kollar, et Badibou," the engraving shows a Mandingo regent in the costume of his people. The Mandingos are a West African ethnic group; they live in the countries of Gambia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Senegal., Illustration in René Geoffroy de Villeneuve's L'Afrique, ou Histoire, moeurs, usages et coutumes des africains: Le Sénégal (Paris: Nepveu, libraire, passage des Panoramas, no. 26, 1814), vol. 3 p. 170., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Date
[1814]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri R.G.V. 65954.D v 3 p 170, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2930
Illustration is set on the eastern coast of Africa, most likely in Sierra Leone. In the center, a slave-trader inspects a slave for purchase. To the left of the pair, another European slave-trader (presumably the seller) sits on a crate, smoking a cigar as he observes the inspection process. His book, the quill, and the ink-well suggest that he is prepared to record the day's transactions. To the right, another European trader converses with three African merchants, possibly members of the Mandigo tribe. The subject of their discussion may be the sale of goods in the Africans' trunk. To the far right, an overseer with a raised whip marches behind a row of bound slaves who are headed toward a ship., Plate in William Blake's The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade, Ancient and Modern (Columbus, Ohio: Published and sold exclusively by subscription J. & H. Miller, 1858), p. 112., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Images of the Slave Trade.
Creator
Felch-Riches, engraver
Date
[1858]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1858 Blake 70419.O p 112, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2802
Contains a line of text from the Koran written in a courtly hand by an enslaved, educated, black Islamic priest. Translated text reads: In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful Say: He is Allah, the One and Only! Allah, the Eternal, Absolut; He begetteth not nor is He begotten. And there is none like unto Him., Title from LCP exhibition catalogue: Pierre Eugene Du Simitière. His American Museum 200 years after, entry #5:21., Date from manuscript note on recto: the above was written in my presence by a negro m[a]nding[o] at Leoganne in January 1773 DuSimitiere., Du Simitière, a Swiss-born historian, antiquarian, and artist, traveled and documented North America and the West Indies from the 1750s to 1770s. He settled in Philadelphia in 1774, and in 1782 opened the American Museum, which contained his collected antiquities., Purchase at auction, Du Simitière's American Museum, March 10, 1785., Explanation of translation in Du Simitière research file, Graphic Arts Department., 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 the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date
[Léogâne, Haiti]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Du Simitière Collection [961.F.5d]
