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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: All men born free and equal?
Description: Vignette accompanies the essay "Opinions of Travellers," a compilation of excerpts from various travel accounts. In addition to an American flag, the image includes a coffin and an assortment of weapons and objects associated with slavery. Many of these objects figure in the various authors' accounts., Vignette in Lydia Childs's the Oasis (Boston: Benjamin C. Bacon: Tuttle and Weeks, printers, No. 8, School Street, 1834), p. 241., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Creator: Croome, William, 1790-1860, engraver
Date: [1834]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1834 Chi 70173.D.5 p 241, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2737

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: Negres de traite en voyage
Description: Engraving shows several Africans being led from Senegal's interior to the coast, where they will be sold into slavery. Three Africans in the foreground wear forked branches around their necks. Such branches were commonly used in the African slave-trade, and appear frequently in depictions thereof. The branches were secured in back by an iron rod, which threatened to choke the wearer if he or she struggled or tried to escape., Illustration in Abel Hugo's France pittoresque ou Description pittoresque, topographique et statistique des départements et colonies de la France (A Paris: Chez Delloye, éditeur de la France militaire, place de la Bourse, rue des Filles-Saint-Thomas, 13, 1835), vol. 3, p. 270., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
Creator: Lalemont, engraver
Date: [1835]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1835 Hugo 10039.Q v 3 p 270, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2742

Title: Implements of torture, and their dangerous effects illustrated The iron gag of its natural size locked upon Mathias Maccumsey, a convict from Lancaster County sentenced to the cells for manslaughter, who dies with it in his mouth, in the Eastern State Penitentiary , of Pennsylvania, June 1833
Description: Illustrated handbill containing an image of the "iron gag," an iron palet placed over the tongue and chained around the jaw. Also contains a paragraph of text calling for the abolition of the device after condemning its use on the convict "for merely speaking to a fellow prisoner" as antithetical to the "liberty, equality, and a just enjoyment of the rights" espoused by the people." Maccumsey was a 44 year old man serving his second of twelve years for murder when punished with the iron gag after continually talking to inmates, an infraction at the prison founded upon Quaker principles of solitude and silence as measures for reform., Not in Wainwright., Thomas McElwee was a member of the legislative investigative committee monitoring Eastern State Penitentiary who wrote the critical "A Concise History of the Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania :...." (Philadelphia, 1835)., Philadelphia on Stone, POSP 115, Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Ba 263 Ak 53
Creator: Akin, James, ca. 1773-1846
Date: c1835
Location: Historical Society of Pennsylvania HSP Ba 263 Ak 53

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: 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: [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: [Methods and instruments of restraint, plate II]
Description: Illustration shows some types of restraints used by Mundingo (African) slave merchants when marching groups of slaves from Bambarra to Galam. Referring to Fig. I, Clarkson explained: "AA represents two separate pieces of wood, which in the Fig. 2, 3 are made fast to the necks of two Negroes by means of cords, which are composed of the roots of trees, and are in use in those countries. Many of the Negroes were accustomed to be driven before the Mundingoes, one by one, each with this instrument on his neck." As Clarkson continued, "The second manner of conducting them is described in the same plate. Fig. 4 represents an instrument, which is of wood. Within the crutches of the instrument, which are at each end of it, are placed the necks of two Negroes in Fig. 5, which are confined in it at the extremities XX by means of certain cords, which are in use in that part of the world. Thus confined, two at a time, others of the Negroes, who were annually brought from Bambarra to Galam are said to have travelled." (p. 36), Plate in Thomas Clarkson's Letters on the Slave Trade, and the State of the Natives in those Parts of Africa, which are Contiguous to St. Louis and Goree (London: Printed and sold by James Phillips, Geroge Yard, Lombard Street, 1791), p. 36., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Date: [1791]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1791 Cla 619.Q plate II p 36, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2685

Title: [Methods and instruments of restraint, plate III]
Description: Illustration shows some types of restraints used by Mundingo (African) slave merchants when marching groups of slaves from Bambarra to Galam. In the accompanying text, Clarkson explained, "In Fig. 1, B represents a large log of wood, X a crutch at one end of it, and A a twisted cord to which it is fastened at the other. This log is made fast to a Negro's neck in Fig. 2. It is reported to be so heavy and unmanageable, that it is extremely difficult for the person who wears it to walk, much less to escape or run away. In travelling it is said to be necessary to lift up the log, that is thus fastened to the neck of each, and to place the crutch of it on the shoulder of every preceding slave. Budensome as this instrument may appear to be, it is rendered more light and portable by these means. In this way, then many of the Negro slaves from Bambarra to Galam have been made to travel as described in Fig. 3 of the same plate. When it has been necessary to halt, the crutch has been taken from the shoulders of each, and the person, who has worn it, has remained then as in Fig. 2, as unable to walk or manage himself as before, and has become almost as secure, as if he had been chained to the spot in which he had been made to halt. When it has been thought necessary to proceed, the log has again been put on the neck of every preceding slave." (p. 36-37), Plate in Thomas Clarkson's Letters on the Slave Trade, and the State of the Natives in those Parts of Africa, which are Contiguous to St. Louis and Goree (London: Printed and sold by James Phillips, Geroge Yard, Lombard Street, 1791), p. 36., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Date: [1791]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1791 Cla 619.Q plate III p 36, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2684

Title: [Head-frame and mouth-piece used to restrain slaves]
Description: From left to right, the top half of the illustration includes profile and frontal views of a male slave wearing a head-frame and mouth-piece, and a collar with long spokes and barbs that is referred to as a necklace in the text. In the upper-right quadrant of the illustration, the letter A denotes the location of the flat iron, a portion of the mouth-piece that is shown in greater detail in the bottom half of the image (to the left). A depiction of shackles and a left-hand view of the head-frame are also included., Illustration in Thomas Branagan's Penitential Tyrant (New York: Printed and sold by Samuel Wood, 1807), p. 270-71., Engraving attributed to Alexander Anderson., Accompanied by the following descriptive text: "A front and profile view of an African's head, with the mouth-piece and necklace, the hooks around which are placed to prevent an escape when pursued in the woods, and to hinder them from laying down the head to procure rest. -- At A is a flat iron which goes into the mouth, and so effectually keeps down the tongue, that nothing can be swallowed, not even the saliva, a passage for which is made through holes in the mouth-plate. An enlarged view of the mouth-piece, which, when worn, becomes so heated, as frequently to bring off the skin along with it.", 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 Themselved 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 270-71, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2713

Title: [Sampson, a West Indian slave]
Description: According to St. Clair, the engraving features the slave Sampson, who was referred to as such on the basis of his enormous strength. Sampson was owned by a Dutchman whose plantation was near the Essequibo River in Guyana. After Sampson's second escape and capture, his master sentenced him to a severe flogging, and then took steps to deter future escape attempts. As St. Clair explained, Sampson "had an iron collar fastened round his throat, which had three legs sticking out from it, having, as represented in the sketch, hooks at their ends, which render it impossible for any human being to escape through the thick underwood in this country. In addition to this, his left leg was chained to an enormous heavy log of wood, which, when he walked, was thrown over his left shoulder. In this state, he was obliged daily to perform as much work as any other Negro on the estate.", Illustration in Thomas St. Clair's A Residence in the West Indies and America (London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, publisher in ordinary to His Majesty, 1834), vol. 2, p. 214., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Date: [1834]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1834 St. Cla 8958.O v 2 p 214, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2739

Title: [Rise and progress of abolition ; Instruments of bondage and torture]
Description: Abolitionist book illustration depicting a diagram of the author's "four classes of the forerunners and adjunctors" in the history of the abolition of the Transatlantic slave trade containing the names, religious and social groups, and events significant in the movement before 1787., Abolitionist book illustration depicting instruments used in the Transatlantic slave trade including handcuffs, ankle shackles, thumb screws, and a speculum orise which was used to force feed enslaved people., Title supplied by cataloger., Uncut plates from Thomas Clarkson's, The History of the Rise, Progress, & Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament. Vol. I (Philadelphia: James P. Parke, 1808). (LCP Am 1808 Clar, 1934.D)., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of Civil War portraits. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., 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.
Creator: Kneass, William, 1780-1840, engraver
Date: 1808
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Slavery [5755.F.17]

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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