Martyrdom of John Brown.
Title
Martyrdom of John Brown
Description
Print depicting the fictitious blessing of an enslaved African American baby by the radical abolitionist on his walk to the gallows in December 1859. Shows Brown in front of his Charles Town, Virginia cell, flanked by guards carrying rifles and swords. An African American woman kneels before him and holds her baby up while Brown lays his hand on the baby’s head. Spectators surround them, including white women and veterans, one with his arm in a sling. In the right, an African American woman nanny wraps her arms around her two well-dressed white boy charges., Title from original painting "John Brown's Blessing" completed in 1867 by Southern historical and genre painter Thomas Satterwhite Noble in the collections of the New York Historical Society., Purchase 1968., 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.
Date
[ca. 1867]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **Portrait Prints-B [7777.F]
John Brown meeting the slave mother and her child on the steps of Charlestown jail on his way to execution.
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]