Search results

Title: Incendie du Cap. Révolte général des Nègres. Massacre des Blanca
Description: Frontispiece depicts a scene from the 1791 slave revolt in the Haitian port of Le Cap (Cap Français), now known as Cap Haitien., Frontispiece and title page for Saint-Domingue, ou Histoire des ses révolutions (A Paris: chez Tiger, imprimeur-libraire. Au Pilier littéraire, [1815?])., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
Date: [1815]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1815 Sai 66601.D frontispiece and title page, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2721

Title: "On to Orleans": the Negro Insurrection
Description: Image depicts a scene from the 1811 insurrection of slaves in the Louisiana parish of St. John the Baptist, thirty-six miles north of New Orleans. According to Thompson's history, approximately 500 slaves formed a procession, complete with flags and drums, and set out for New Orleans. Along the way, they destroyed plantations and encouraged other slaves to join them. After news spread to Baton Rouge and Fort St. Charles, the marchers were met by a garrison. Many of the them were killed instantly; others were tried and later executed., Illustration in Maurice Thompson's Story of Louisiana (Boston: D. Lothrop Company, c1888), p. 192., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
Creator: Bridgman, L. J. (Lewis Jesse), 1857-1931, engraver
Date: [c1888]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1888 Thom 25801.O p 192, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2837

Title: Revolte sur un bâtiment négrier
Description: Image depicts a revolt aboard a slave-ship. Having broken free of their shackles and chains, the slaves use them to attack the ship's crew. The crew members fight back with daggers and hatchets., Engraving in Albert Laporte's Récits du vieux marins (Paris: Librairie Théodore Lefèvre et cie 2, rue des Poitevins, 1883?), p. 267., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from the Slave Trade.
Date: [1883?]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1883 Lap 7206.Q (Lewis) p 267, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2834

Title: The humanity of the Africo-Americans
Description: The setting is St. Domingo. A slave brings a basket of provisions to his owners, Monsieur and Madame Baillon, and appraises them of an imminent revolt by other slaves. The loyal slave aids the couple, their daughter and son-in-law, and their two white servants in making an escape., 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. III (March, 1836), whole no. 15, p. 1., Curator's note: Notice here the use of the term "Africo-Americans," used infrequently but persistently by some African Americans and abolitionists from at least the early 1830s through the Civil War period. Common usage of "blacks" and "Africans" was supplanted in the 1820s with "Negro" common among whites, and "Colored" among most African Americans. As in all the terms used to described black Americans over time, there is a nationalist-assimilationist dichotomy here, with "Africo-Americans" suggesting a separate nationality and culture, and "Colored" suggesting darker-hued members of the common American nation and culture., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [March 1836]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per A 245 60026.D v 2 n 3 cover page, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2848

Title: A rebel Negro armed & on his guard
Description: Engraving was done after one of John Gabriel Stedman's own drawings. According to Stedman's account, the image depicts a rebel Surinamese negro. As he wrote, "This rebel negro is armed with a firelock and a hatchet; his hair, though woolly, may be observed to be plaited close to his head, by way of distinction from the rangers, or any other straggling negroes, who are not yet accepted amongst them; his beard is grown to a point, like that of all Africans, when they have no opportunity of shaving. The principal dress of this man consists of a cotton sheet, negligently tied across his shoulders, which protects him from the weather, and serves him also to rest on; while he always sleeps under cover in the most obscure places he can find, when detached from his companions. The rest of his dress is a camisa, tied around his loins like a handkerchief; his pouch, which is made of some animal's skin; a few cotton strings for ornament around his ancles [sic] and wrists; and a superstitious obia or amulet tied about his neck, in which he places all his confidence. The skull and ribs are supposed to be the bones of his enemies, scattered upon the sandy savannah." (vol. 2, p. 88-89), Plate 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. 2, p. 88., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
Creator: Bartolozzi, Francesco, 1727-1815, engraver
Date: Dec. 1, 1794
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1796 Sted 755.Q v 2 p 88, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2699

Title: Manner of bush-fighting by the African negroes; Gradation of shades between Europe & Africa
Description: As Stedman noted, he sketched the top diagram to better convey the African negroes' manner of bush fighting. The following explanation can be found in his text: "The two columns E and F are supposed to be first engaged, where No 1 in the column E commences the attack by firing at random in the opposite bushes; and instantly retires, by shifting his place to No 1 in the column C, where he re-loads; while No 2 in the column F, having fired at the flash of his pan, advances in the same manner, shifting his station to re-load at No 2 in the column D; and at the flash of whose pan No 3 fires in E, and receives the fire of No 4 in F, &c. &c. Thus continuing through both lines, til No 8 has fired in F, when the whole have shifted their stations; and the same manoeuvre is continued with the columns C and D, beginning again with the identical numbers 1, 2, 3, &c. at the top; while these lines, having shifted their places, still the firing is repeated by the lines A and B, and thus ad infinitum, until by sounding the horn one of the parties gives way in fight, and the battle is over." Below the diagram, a color scale shows some skin-tone gradations between black and white. Commenting on this, Stedman wrote: "Having frequently mentioned the different shades between a black and a white, the same plate represents them to the reader at one view. From the above two colours the mulatto is produced; from the mulatto and black, the sambo; from the mulatto and white, the quaderoon, & c. &c.", Plate LIV 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. 2, p. 98., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
Date: Dec. 1, 1791
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1796 Sted 755.Q v 2 p 98, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2700

Title: Henry Diaz
Description: Image is set in front of the Cinco Pontas fortress in Pernambuco, Brazil. Henry Diaz, a black slave, leads a slave regiment that he assembled on behalf of the Portuguese. The slave regiment successfully captured Cinco Pontas, a former Dutch stronghold., Illustration in Lydia Childs's The Oasis (Boston: Benjamin C. Bacon: Tuttle and Weeks, printers, No. 8, School Street, 1834), p. 47., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Creator: Hall, John H., engraver
Date: [1834]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1834 Chi 70173.D.5 p 47, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2735

Title: Insurrection on board a slave ship
Description: Lithograph was copied from an engraving originally published in Carl Bernhard Wadstrom's Essay on Colonization (London: Printed for the author, by Darton and Harvey, Gracechurch-Street, 1794-95). As the title suggests, the lithograph shows an insurrection aboard a slave ship. From the vantage point of a raised barricade near the ship's stern, the crew fires upon (what looks to be) hundreds of slaves crowded upon the deck. A number of slaves jump overboard. A cloud of smoke hovers over the British vessel., Illustration in William Fox's A Brief History of the Wesleyan Missions on the Western Coast of Africa (London: Printed for the author, published by Aylott and Jones, 8, Paternoster-Row: sold also by John Mason, 66, Paternoster-Row, MDCCCLI [1851]), p. 116., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from the Slave Trade.
Creator: Walton, W. L., lithographer
Date: [1851]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1851 Fox 12623.O p 116, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2786

Title: Amistad captives
Description: From top to bottom, the three profile portraits depict: Cinque, the leader of the Amistad revolt; Grabeau, second in command; and James Covey, the interpreter. The features of Cinque and Covey are rendered in some detail; Grabeau is represented by little more than a silhouette., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1841 (New York: Published by S.W. Benedict, 1841 [i.e. 1840]), p. 22-23., Title above the three portraits reads: "Description of Cinquez, Grab-Eau, and James Covey the Interpreter.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1840]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1840 Am Ant 65752.D p 22-23, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2771

Title: Writing the Emancipation Proclamation
Description: Pro-Confederacy caricature bombasting Abraham Lincoln's legal and moral authority to write the Emancipation Proclamation. Depicts a demented Lincoln writing the Proclamation seated at a table adorned with a spectral eye; ram horned African American heads, portrayed in racist caricature; and legs ending in cloven hooves. He sits upon a chair with a back decorated with the head of an ass, the "U.S. Constitution" trampled beneath his foot. Atop the table, the devil holds his inkwell before him. A liquor decanter rests upon a sidetable nearby. On the wall, framed paintings hang depicting "saintly" St. Ossawotamie (i.e., John Brown), and the "murderous" rebellion of the enslaved in the 1790s in "St. Domingo"(i.e., Haiti). Behind Lincoln, near window drapes held back by a vulture headed tie back, a statue of liberty, her liberty cap fallen over her face, rests her shield down upon the wall pedestal on which she stands., Inscribed upper left corner: 25., Issued as plate 25 in Sketches from the Civil War in North America (London [i.e., Baltimore]: [the author], 1863-1864), a series of pro-Confederacy cartoons drawn and published by Baltimore cartoonist Adalbert John Volck under the pseudonym V. Blada. The "first issue" of 10 prints (numbered 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 15, 16, 21, 24), with imprint "London, 1863" were printed as etchings. The remaining 20 prints (numbered 4, 8, 9-11, 14, 17-20, 23, 25-27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 40, 45) headed "Second and third issues of V. Blada's war sketches" and dated "London, July 30, 1864" were printed as lithographs., Title and publication information from series at Brown University Library., Research file about artist available at repository., Accessioned 1935., RVCDC, 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: Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912, artist
Date: [1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Volck - Sketches - Volck 25 [2990.F.10]

Title: Free negroes in Haiti
Description: Racist satire promoting Confederate fears of a liberated enslaved society depicting Black Haitians portrayed as caricatures of cannibalistic savages. In a jungle setting, naked and bare-chested Black men and women participate in the sacrifice of a Black baby on a stone altar. The leader or shaman, attired in a feathered head piece, appears to pray to the gods over the headless body, as another holds a long stake ending with the baby's head. Some play drums with human bones, others eat human flesh in the background. In 1804, Haiti became the first free Black republic after a 13 year revolution emanating from a rebellion by the enslaved against the white enslaver plantation society., Inscribed upper left corner: 27., Issued as plate 27 in Sketches from the Civil War in North America (London [i.e., Baltimore]: [the author], 1863-1864), a series of pro-Confederacy cartoons drawn and published by Baltimore cartoonist Adalbert John Volck under the pseudonym V. Blada. The "first issue" of 10 prints (numbered 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 15, 16, 21, 24), with imprint "London, 1863" were printed as etchings. The remaining 20 prints (numbered 4, 8, 9-11, 14, 17-20, 23, 25-27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 40, 45) headed "Second and third issues of V. Blada's war sketches" and dated "London, July 30, 1864" were printed as lithographs., Title and publication information from series at Brown University Library., Research file about artist available at repository., RVCDC, Accessioned 1935., 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: Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912, artist
Date: [1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Volck - Sketches - Volck 27 [2990.F.18]

Title: Cinque The chief of the Amistad captives
Description: Bust portrait of the enslaved leader after a painting by New Haven, Connecticut artist, Nathaniel Jocelyn, engraved by Philadelphia artist and Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society member, John Sartain, to raise funds for the enslaved ship mutineers' defense before the Supreme Court. Sartain reproduced the painting, commissioned in 1841 by Philadelphia African American abolitionist and Amistad Committee defense fund member, Robert Purvis, following the refusal of the Artist Fund Society to display the original at the society's 1841 exhibit. Depicts the West African, attired in a toga, walking cane in hand, slightly facing left, in front of a background of African landscape., Title from printed signature of sitter below image., Date inferred from content., Printed on recto: fac simile of the original autograph., Original painting in the collections of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, New Haven, CT., LCP exhibition catalogue: Negro history, p. 34., LCP exhibition catalogue: Made in America, #61., See Ann Katherine Martinez's The Life and career of John Sartain (1808-1897): A nineteenth century Philadelphia printmaker (Ph.D dissertation, The George Washington University, 1986), p. 75-78., See Hugh Honour's The Image of the Black in western Art (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989), part 2, vol. IV, p. 159-161., See Katherine Martinez's and Page Talbott's, eds. The Sartain family legacy (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000), p. 66-67., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of engravings. 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: Sartain, John, 1808-1897, engraver
Date: [ca. 1841]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Portrait prints-C [5306.F.35]

Title: Cinque The chief of the Amistad captives
Description: Bust portrait of the enslaved leader after a painting by New Haven, Connecticut artist, Nathaniel Jocelyn, engraved by Philadelphia artist and Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society member, John Sartain, to raise funds for the enslaved ship mutineers' defense before the Supreme Court. Sartain reproduced the painting, commissioned in 1841 by Philadelphia African American abolitionist and Amistad Committee defense fund member, Robert Purvis, following the refusal of the Artist Fund Society to display the original at the society's 1841 exhibit. Depicts the West African, attired in a toga, walking cane in hand, slightly facing left, in front of a background of African landscape., Title from printed signature of sitter below image., Date inferred from content., Printed on recto: fac simile of the original autograph., Original painting in the collections of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, New Haven, CT., LCP exhibition catalogue: Negro history, p. 34., LCP exhibition catalogue: Made in America, #61., See Ann Katherine Martinez's The Life and career of John Sartain (1808-1897): A nineteenth century Philadelphia printmaker (Ph.D dissertation, The George Washington University, 1986), p. 75-78., See Hugh Honour's The Image of the Black in western Art (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989), part 2, vol. IV, p. 159-161., See Katherine Martinez's and Page Talbott's, eds. The Sartain family legacy (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000), p. 66-67., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of engravings. 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: Sartain, John, 1808-1897, engraver
Date: [ca. 1841]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Portrait prints-C [5306.F.35]

Title: Immediate emancipation illustrated
Description: Critical satire of the American Anti-Slavery Society, which was founded on the principle of immediate abolition by Arthur Tappan and William Lloyd Garrison, who are depicted discussing the society's principles with an unnamed abolitionist, possibly Lewis Tappan. Above their heads is the banner "Anti Slavery Society Founded Anno Domini MDCCCXXXIII." The seated Garrison comments on the origin of the bundle of Italian linen at his feet, which is to be used for his newspaper "the Emancipator." In the right, the figure of a leopard rests upon a pedestal marked "Fanaticism. Brought the Inquisition upon Spain. Beggary upon Italy. And may drench America in blood!!" (an allusion to the idiom a leopard cannot change its spots and to the Spain and the Iberian War, 1807-1814). In the left, a Black man, labeled "Emancipated Slave," is portrayed in racist caricature and is naked except for a leaves wrapped around his waist. He chases an insect calling, "Food," while carrying a knife. In the background, a scene labeled "Insurection (sic) in St. Domingo! Cruelty, Lust, and blood!" depicts Black people using swords and axes to kill white people, including a white woman on the ground. A building burns behind them., Title from item., Date supplied by Weitenkampf., Probably the "A Caricature" cited in the Emancipator (New York, N.Y.), October 19, 1833 and Liberator (Boston, Mass.), November 2, 1833., The "Emancipated Slave" figure is similar to the figure depicted in the lithograph by Alfred Ducôte, "An Emancipated Negro" ([London]: Thomas McLean, 1833). Copies in the collections of National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London., Purchase 1986., RVCDC, 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: [1833]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1833 - 27W [P.9140]

Main menu