Search results

Title: [Workers processing indigo]
Description: Illustration of the processing of indigo with captions describing the work. Captions read: The Negroes cutting ye indigo; the Negroes throwing ye indigo into ye water; a Negro stirring ye indigo in water; Negroes carrying indigo into chests or cafes to dry it; Overseer of ye Negroes; and Anil or indigo., Plate 35 in Pierre Pomet's A compleat history of druggs, written in French by Monsieur Pomet... illustrated with above four hundred copper cutts (London: printed for R. Bonwicke, William Freeman, Timothy Goodwin, John Walthoe, Matthew Wotton [and 5 others in London], 1712), page 90, book 5 and in later editions of the same work issued in 1725, 1737 and 1748., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project.
Date: [1737]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Il Pome 2177.Q plate 35., https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2843

Title: Negres au travail
Description: Engraving accompanies Chapter IV, "Haiti.- Géographie. - Histoire." Under the supervision of two overseers with whips, approximately thirty slaves dig a trench that may be used to irrigate sugar cane fields. Swinging sharp hoes, the slaves stand in a line that stretches far into the background., Plate in Voyage pittoresque dans le deux Ameriques (A Paris : Chez L. Tenr'e, libraire-éditeur, rue de Paon, 1; et chez Henri Dupuy, rue de la Monnaie, 11., M DCCC XXXVI. [1836]), p. 22., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Date: [1836]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1836 Orbi 6335.F p 22, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2747

Title: Fabrica del Tabacco
Description: Shows four slaves at work in a tobacco house. In the lower left-hand corner, a female slave sits on the ground and strips (?) the tobacco leaves (1). Behind her, another slave twists tobacco (2), while a third slave (3) puts it on a roll. Drying tobacco leaves hang upside down from the rafters (4). In the background, a mother and child work hanging leaves. A version of this engraving (a closely related mirror image) appears in Jean Baptiste Laban's Nouveau voyage aux isles de l'Amerique (A Paris: rue S. Jacques, chez Pierre-François Giffart, près la rue Mathurins, à l'image Sainte Therese, M.DCC.XXII [1722]), vol. 4, p. 496., Plate 21 in Il gazzettiere americano (In Livorno: Per Marco Coltellini all' inglese della verita, [1763]), vol 3, p. 202., Key at the top reads: 1. Nero che leva le Costole al Tabacco; 2. Nero che torce il Tabacco; 3. Nero che arrotola il Tabacco ; 4. Tabacco sospese per aseiugarsi., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Creator: Gregori, Ant, engraver
Date: [1763]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *Am 1763 Ameri Gaz Log 2080.F v 3 p 202., https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2677

Title: [Processing tobacco]
Description: Engraving shows four slaves at work in a tobacco house. In the lower right-hand corner, a female slave sits on the ground and strips (?) tobacco. Behind her, another slave twists tobacco, while a third slave (to the left) puts it on a roll. Drying tobacco leaves hang upside down from the house's rafters. In the background, a woman and a child work hanging leaves., Fold-out plate in Jean Baptiste Laban's Nouveau voyage aux isles de l'Amerique (A Paris: rue S. Jacques, chez Pierre-François Giffart, prés la ruë Mathurins, à l'image Sainte Therese, M.DCC.XXII [1722]), vol. 4, p. 496., The key in the upper left-hand corner reads: 1. Negre qui ejambe le tabac. 2. Negre qui torque le tabac. 3. Negre qui le met en rolle. 4. Tabac a la pente., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Date: [1722]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1722 Lab 62402.D v 4 p 496, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2665

Title: Nigritae exhaustis venis metallicis conficiendo saccharo operam dare debent
Description: This woodcut is one of the earliest known illustrations of sugar making in the New World. In the right foreground, two slaves gather and strip stalks of sugar cane. Kneeling on the ground in the center of the scene, another slave feeds the stalks into a sugar mill. In the lower left-hand corner, the sugar juice extracted from the stalks is boiled in a large cauldron; the unrefined sugar is placed in the pots next to it. In the background, numerous slaves are show at work: some cut cane in the fields, some carry it in bundles, others transport pots of unrefined sugar., Plate I Girolamo Benzoni's Americae pars quinta nobilis & admiratione plena Hieronymi Bezoni Mediolanensis, secundae sectionis h[istor]ia[e] Hispanorum: tum in Indos crudelitatem, Gallorumq[ue] pirataru[m] de Hispanis toties reportata spolia: . . . (Francofurti ad Moenum: Theodoro de Bry. Leod. cive Franc, 1595), part V of DeBry's Voyages., DeBry's illustration is based on the following passage in Benzoni's text from the translation of his work by W.H. Smith: "When the natives of this island (Espanola) began to be extirpated, the Spaniards provided themselves with blacks (Mori) from Guinea . . . and they have brought great numbers thence. When there were mines, they made them work at the gold and silver; but since those came to an end they have increased the sugar-works, and in these and in tending the flocks they are chiefly occupied, besides serving their masters in all else." (History of the New World by Girolamo Benzoni, of Milan. Shewing his travels in America, from A.D. 1541 to 1556 . . . Now first translated, and edited by Rear-Admiral W.H. Smyth (London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1857) p. 93., Illustrations in part V of Benzoni's Voyages were engraved by Theodor DeBry after drawings by Joannes Stradanus., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Creator: Bry, Theodor de, 1528-1598, engraver
Date: [1595]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *Am 1590 Har (b.w) Log 1076.F plate I, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2658

Title: Tread-wheel
Description: Under the overseer's whip, a group of Jamaican slaves power a large tread-wheel that is presumably used in sugar manufacturing. In the foreground, two slaves have collapsed from heat and exhaustion; they are tended to by others. To the left, another overseer flogs a slave while two white men look on. As Phillippo explained, the slave's labor, "under the fervent heat of a tropical sun, was indeed excessive, sufficient, during a comparatively short period of time, to expend the vigour and exhaust the spirits of the strongest and most energetic frame, inasmuch as they had to perform by manual operation those processes, which, in every other country, are performed by horses, oxen, and machinery." (p. 159-60), Illustration in James Phillippo's Jamaica: its Past and Present State (London: John Snow, Paternoster Row, MDCCCXLIII [1843]), p. 172, Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Date: [1843]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1843 Phill 7675.D p 172, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2777

Title: Intérieur de salle à manger à Ste. Marthe
Description: Dining room on the plantation of Ste. Marthe. As a planter dines with his family, a female slave serves them, while a male slave fans the family (?) with a contraption that swings from the ceiling., Plate in Voyage pittoresque dans le deux Ameriques (A Paris : Chez L. Tenr'e, libraire-éditeur, rue de Paon, 1; et chez Henri Dupuy, rue de la Monnaie, 11., M DCCC XXXVI. [1836]), p. 46., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
Date: [1836]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1836 Orbi 6335.F p 46, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2748

Title: View of Negroes washing for diamonds at Mandango on the River Jigitonhonha in Cerro do Frio, Brazil
Description: According to Mawe, Mandango was the "greatest of the diamond works," and employed "about a thousand negroes." (p. 219) Here, under the supervision of four overseers, numerous slaves work one next to another in a long line. Each slave is bent deep over his individual trough, and rakes through sediment in search of diamonds. As Mawe explained,"there is no particular regulation respecting the dress of the negroes: they work in the clothes most suitable to the nature of their employment, generally in a waistcoast and a pair of drawers, . . . . While washing they change their posture as often as they please, which is very necessary, as the work requires them to place their feet on the edges of the trough, and to stoop considerably." (p. 225), Frontispiece for John Mawe's Travels in the Interior of Brazil (London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-Row, 1812)., Engraving is probably the work of J.G. Warnicke who completed another large plate showing a mining scene set in the bed of the River Jigitonhonha (p. 220)., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Date: [1812]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1812 Mawe 1555.Q frontispiece, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2719

Title: Oeconomie rustique, culture et arsonnage du coton
Description: Engraving shows a cotton plantation in the West Indies. The plantation is situated near the coast, and three ships (presumably trading vessels) are visible in the background. In the right foreground, a slave picks cotton from a plant and places it in a basket. Behind him, another slave carefully cleans the picked cotton. At the far left, a female slave operates an early cotton gin, and two men pack large sacks of finished cotton. Two full sacks of cotton occupy the left foreground; one bears the label "7 No. 120 / P.R.M.", Upper portion of an engraving published in the first volume of Denis Diderot's Encyclopedie, ou, Dictionnaire Raisonne des Sciences, des Arts et des Metiers (A Paris: Chez Briasson, rue Saint Jacques, à la Science; chez David, rue & vis-à-vis la Grille des Mathurins; chez Le Breton, imprimeur ordinaire du Roy, rue de la Harpe; chez Durand, rue du Roin, vis-à-vis la petite Porte des Mathurins, 1762), n.p., Prevost's engraving reappeared as a lithograph in the Report on the Agriculture and Geology of Mississippi (Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo, and Co. for E. Barksdale, State Printer, 1854), plate VIII, p. 140., Key to the illustration is printed at the beginning of Diderot's text (p. 9) It reads as follows: "Fig. I. Une habitation des Isles de l'Amérique où l'on cultive le coton. No. 1, cotonier dans toute sa grandeur, arbuste portant le coton. 2, negre qui cueille le coton. 3, negre qui épulche le coton. 4, négresse qui passe le coton au moulin, pour en separer la graine. 5, negre qui emballe le coton en le foulant des piés, & se servant d'une pince de fer pour le même effet. 6, autre negre qui de tems en tems mouille la balle extérieurement en jettant de l'eau avec les mains pour faire resserrer la toile qui hape mieux le coton & l'empêche de gonsler & de remonter vers l'orifice de la balle. 7, balles de coton prêtes à être livrées à l'achteur. 8, petits bâtimens caboteurs qui viennent charger du coton sur la côte. 9, partie d'une plantation de cotoniers. 10, case à coton, & engard sous lequel se rangent les négresses qui passent le coton au moulin.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Creator: Prevost, engraver
Date: [1762]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *Is Dide Log 1998.F n.p., https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2845

Title: La figure des moulins a sucre
Description: Set on a plantation, the illustration features a sugar mill and shows the initial phases of sugar production. Mill is powered by oxen (Fig. A), who rotate a large axel that turns the rollers (Figs. C and G) into which slaves feed stalks of sugar cane (Fig. L). The juice that has been extracted from the process flows into a basin (Fig. E). Once collected, the juice is heated in vats (Fig. K). Slaves skim off impurities in the presence of planters., Double-page plate in Charles de Rochefort's Histoire naturelle et morale Iles Antilles de l'Amerique (Rotterdam: Chez Reinier Leers, M.DC.LXXXI [1681], p. 332., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Date: [1681]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1681 Roche 214.Q p 332, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2661

Title: Cotton pressing in Louisiana
Description: Engraving shows the pressing of cotton, which, according to the unnamed author of an accompanying article, represents "one of the most interesting of the various stages of preparation of cotton for the market." After being picked and harvested, the cotton was compressed into bales similar those shown in the left foreground. The press (center) was described as being "supported by a heavy frame of timber" and "about nine feet in depth." As the author explained, the work proceeded as follows: "Into this, the light, the fleecy substance is poured, and the capstan bar being set to work, it is gradually compressed to the required size, the cords are fastened round the bale, and it leaps out ready for transportation." Commenting on the slaves' labor, the author remarked, "In our sketch, a party is busily filling the press, and two stout hands are removing the bales under the direction of the overseer. But the life and soul of the party is at the capstan, in the person of the lively darky [third from right] engaged in extravagant imitations of the overseer, and jeers at the expense of the solemn figure next to him. This mercurial 'culled passion,' a fair specimen of his light-hearted race, by his jokes and high spirits, almost doubles the motive power at the bars. Though apparently solely occupied with attempts upon the facial muscles of his fellow-servants, yet at the exact moment, he will turn a somerset, kick the shins of his next neighbors, like a playful donkey, and run round with the bars, the loudest in singing the monotonous but not unmusical chant by which the black accompany their labor." (p. 236), Illustration in Ballou's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, vol. X, no. 15 (April 12, 1856), p. 236., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Creator: Pierce, William J., engraver
Date: [1856]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *Per B 1 5919.F v X n 15 April 12 1856 p 236, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2862

Title: View of cotton plantation and gen [sic] in West Indies in 1764
Description: According to the title, the image is set in the West Indies in 1764. The lithograph accompanies a brief discussion of the history of cotton cultivation in the New World. The featured plantation is situated near the coast, and three ships (presumably trading vessels) are visible in the background. In the right foreground, a slave picks cotton from a plant and places it in a basket. Behind him, another slave carefully cleans the picked cotton. At the far left, a female slave operates an early cotton gin, and two men pack large sacks of finished cotton. Two full sacks of cotton occupy the left foreground; one bears the label "7 No. 120 / P.R.M.", Plate in the Report on the Agriculture and Geology of Mississippi (Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo, and Co. for E. Barksdale, State Printer, 1854), plate VIII, p. 140., Engraving is based upon a print executed by Prevost and published in the first volume of Diderot's Encylcopedia (Paris: 1762) under the title "Oeconomie Rustique, Culture et Arsonnage du Coton.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Creator: Fuchs, F., lithographer
Date: [1854]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1854 Miss Sta 13287.O p 140, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2798

Title: Emancipated slaves can take care of themselves
Description: At the left, the illustration depicts a free black man, or a "paid" laborer. He works vigorously with a hoe, and is dressed in a suit and top hat. At the right, a slave, or an "unpaid" laborer, is shown. He also works with a hoe, but unlike his counterpart, he is barely dressed, and looks weak and despondent., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1839 (New York: Published for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838), p. 21., 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 21, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2765

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: [The manner of making sugar in the sugar-mills, Brazil]
Description: Engraving accompanies Section VII. (Bahia de Todos los Sanctos), in which Montanus describes sugar-cane planting and sugar-making in Brazil. Scene features a hydo-powered sugar-mill, which, as Montanus explains, "consist[s] of three great Iron Bars, between which the Canes are squeez'd." Here, under the inspection of two European planters, several slaves feed stalks of sugar cane into the mill. The extracted juice (which Montanus calls Caldo) runs through a gutter into a keetle, where it is boiled. Afterwards, the sugary syrup is boiled a second and third time until nears the consistency of sugar. As Montanus noted, the "dross which remains" is given to the slaves, "which work for half a year together Night and Day like Horses." (p. 504), Illustration Arnoldus Montanus's America: Being the Latest, and Most Accurate Description of the New World; Containing the Original of the Inhabitants, and the Remarkable Voyages Thither. . . (London: Printed by the author [i.e. translator], and are to be had at his house in White Fryers, M.DC.LXXI. (1671)], p. 504., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Works Scenes.
Date: [1671]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1671 Mon 15.F p 504, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2660

Title: Carrying cotton to the gin
Description: Engraving is one of several accompanying T.B. Thorpe's article "Cotton and its Cultivation." It shows seven African American plantation hands walking with large baskets of cotton on their heads. The men and women walk in a perfect line, leaving three or four paces between them. The illustration corresponds with the following passage, "Among the most characteristic scenes of plantation life is the returning of the hands at nightfall from the field, with their well-filled baskets of cotton upon their heads. Falling unconsciously "into line," the stoutest leading the way, they move along in the dim twilight of a winter day with the quietness of spirits rather than human beings." (p. 455-56), Illustration in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. 8, no. 46 (March 1854), p. 457., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Creator: Orr, John William, 1815-1887, engraver
Date: [January 1854]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per H 9 62992.O v 8 n 46 March 1854 p 457, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2865

Title: Cotton gin -- Ginning cotton
Description: Engraving is one of several accompanying T.B. Thorpe's article "Cotton and its Cultivation." Set in a gin-house, it shows two plantation hands working at a cotton gin. While a man pushes cotton out of the "packing-room" (a loft space) and down a chute, a woman uses a rake-like tool to guide it through the gin. Standing nearby, a woman with a bucket on her head watches the process, and a man peeks into the gin-house through an open window. Two large baskets used for carrying cotton can be seen in the left foreground., Illustration in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. 8, no. 46 (March 1854), p. 459., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Date: [January 1854]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per H 9 62992.O v 8 n 46 March 1854 p 459, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2866

Title: Nigritae in scrutandis venis metallicis ab Hispanis in Insulas Abelgantur
Description: This mining scene is one of the earliest known illustrations of slave labor in the New World. Under the supervision of the Spaniards, several slaves pour buckets of molten metal onto the ground; others work in the caves seen in the background., Plate II in Girolamo Benzoni's Americae pars quinta nobilis & admiratione plena Hieronymi Bezoni Mediolanensis, secundae sectionis h[istor]ia[e] Hispanorum: tum in Indos crudelitatem, Gallorumq[ue] pirataru[m] de Hispanis toties reportata spolia: . . . (Francofurti ad Moenum: Theodoro de Bry. Leod. cive Franc, 1595), part V of DeBry's Voyages., DeBry's illustration is based on the following passage in Benzoni's text from the translation of his work by W.H. Smyth: "When the natives of this island (Espanola) began to be extirpated, the Spaniards provided themselves with blacks (Mori) from Guinea . . . and they have brought great numbers thence. When there were mines, they made them work at the gold and silver; but since those came to an end they have increased the sugar-works, and in these and in tending the flocks they are chiefly occupied, besides serving their masters in all else." (History of the New World by Girolamo Benzoni, of Milan. Shewing his travels in America, from A.D. 1541 to 1556 . . . Now first translated, and edited by Rear-Admiral W.H. Smyth (London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1857) p. 93., Illustrations in part V of DeBry's Voyages were engraved by Theodor DeBry after drawings by Joannes Stradanus., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Creator: Bry, Theodor de, 1528-1598, engraver
Date: [1595]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *Am 1590 Har (b.w) Log 1076.F plate II, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2659

Title: Scenes on a cotton plantation
Description: According to the accompanying commentary (p. 69), these scenes show the Buena Vista plantation in Clarke County, Alabama. As the text suggests, "The four sketches in the centre [i.e., sowing, ploughing, hoeing, and picking] show the principal operations of the cotton culture; and around figure other scenes appropriate to a cotton plantation." Moving clockwise from the upper right, the outer scenes are titled: the cotton gin, the planter and his overseer, prayer meeting, Saturday evening dance, plantation graveyard, the call to labor, and the cotton press. The text describes these scenes as follows: "The cotton-gin; the picturesque cotton-press, to whose long lever the mules are harnessed to create the power which compresses the ginned staple into bales; the morning call, performed upon a cow-horn; the owner and his overseer, figure here; as well as the weekly distribution of rations; the dance which closes the week's labor, and the plantation burying-ground. Here the defunct negroes are buried, a rail-fence being raised above the graves to keep off marauding hogs, calves, etc.", Double-page illustration in Harper's Weekly, vol. XI, no. 527 (February 2, 1867), p. 72., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
Date: [February 1867]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare **Per H 1529.F v XI n 527 February 2 1867 p 72, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2879

Title: [Manufacturing cigars for the poodles. A sketch from the Havannah.]
Description: Print depicting West Indian Black men cigarmakers, portrayed in racist caricature, and their English customers criticizing the use of tobacco and the corrupt nature of enslaved labor. The cigarmakers, attired in sarongs or loinclothes and some with caps, speak in the vernacular, "You mak'a nice ting for Massa Poodle to suck." They soak tobacco, which is dripping wet and giving off a stench, in a large barrel labeled "hospital tub," and in their own urine and vomit to produce "high flavored" cigars. In the left, a Black man vomits into a basin filled with tobacco leaves and says, "What a tink! de smell mak'a me sick." In the right, a man squats and urinates into another basin filled with tobacco. Horrified British dandies look on while one comments, "Oh the Negers, is that the way they make the high flavored cigars, I'll never Suck another.", Title from duplicate copies at the William L. Clements Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan and The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut., Purchase 1991., 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: October 5, 1827
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1827 [P.9345]

Title: Here is a picture of some slaves at work Reward of merit. This may certify that [Mr. George Snow] by diligence and attention to study, merits the approbation of [his] friends and teacher
Description: School token illustrated with a scene showing enslaved men and women working in a tobacco field near a shack. In the right, three younger enslaved men hoe and gather a bundle of tobacco. In the left, an enslaved man stands and converses with an enslaved woman, seated on a bale. They each hold the handles of farming implements. A large sack and crate rest to the left of the bale. In the left background, an enslaved woman stands in the doorway of the shack. Wooden buildings and harvested fields are visible in the right background. The young men wear short sleeves and shorts. The women wear dresses and the man wears short sleeves and pants. Rewards of merit were popular with teachers during the 19th century and were given to reward students who had excelled in their school work. The addition of pictures made a reward of merit card a more special acknowledgement of a pupil’s success., Title from illustration caption and text printed on verso., Date inferred from content of image and graphic medium., Verso contains decorative border surrounding the text., Purchased with the Davida T. Deutsch African American History Fund., Illustrated in Patricia Fenn and Alfred Malpa, Rewards of merit (Charlottesville, Va.: Ephemera Society of America, 1994), 118., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., RVCDC
Date: [ca. 1830- ca. 1850]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Rewards of Merit - Slaves [118555.D]

Title: The house that Jeff built
Description: Cartoon attacking slavery and Jefferson Davis as the Confederate President. Contains twelve vignettes indicative of the inhumanity of the institution of slavery with accompanying verse following the frequently used cartoons scheme of the nursery rhyme "The House that Jack Built." The vignettes starting with the house that Jeff built (a depiction of a "Slave Pen") continue to include images of bales of cotton; enslaved African Americans working in the cotton fields; an auction of enslaved African American men, women, and children; a white man auctioneer; shackles; a white man enslaver whipping an enslaved African American woman; and a portrait of "arch rebel" Davis. The vignettes end with the image of several smashed symbols of slavery, such as shackles and whips alongside a notice of Davis's execution. The accompanying verse predicts that "Jeffs infamous house is doom'd.", Title from item., Artist and publication information supplied by Reilly., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1863 by D.C. Johnson in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts., Purchase 1966., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War., 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., David Claypoole Johnston (1779-1860), known as the "American Cruikshank," was a respected comic illustrator, engraver, and lithographer.
Creator: Johnston, David Claypoole, 1799-1865, artist
Date: 1863
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1863-9 [7549.F]

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