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- Title
- Remarks on the slave trade
- Description
- Image shows the plan of an African slave ship. From left to right, the ship is divided into the following compartments: men's room, boy's room, women's room, and girl's room. It also includes two small store rooms. Hundreds of human figures illustrate the extent to which the slaves were crowded on board, and suggest the conditions under which they made the passage., Illustration for Remarks on the Slave Trade, Extracted from the American Museum, for May, 1789. And published by order of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, &c. (Philadelphia: s.n., 1789)., A caption at the head of the engraving reads: "Plan of an African ship's lower deck, with Negroes, in the proportion of not quite one to a ton.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
- Date
- [1789]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1789 Rem 8645.F broadside, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2682
- Title
- Section of a slave ship
- Description
- Plate includes three diagrams of a slave-ship. Top diagram is a cross-section of the ship's hold, viewed from the side. The small, shallow space in which slaves were transported lies between the deck and the main body of the hold. Diagram at the left is a detail of this space with its dimensions. (It was 3 feet, 5 inches in height.) Detail illustrates the manner in which slaves were packed into the ship, one next to another, with barely enough room to sit upright. Bottom diagram is an aerial view of the ship's deck with its dimensions., Plate at the front of Matthew Carey's Letters on the Colonization Society: And on its Probable Results; under the Following Heads . . . Addressed to the Hon. C.F. Mercer (Philadelphia: E.G. Dorsey, printer [May 30, 1838])., The caption below the image reads: "From Walsh's Notes of Brazil.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from the Slave Trade
- Date
- [1838]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1838 Car 75256.O plate I, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2769
- 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
- La traite des noirs
- Description
- Image is set below the decks of a slave-ship during the middle passage. Most of the slaves wear chains and shackles on their wrists. Some try to sleep on the floor; others simply wait. In the center of the scene, a mother holds her infant child. The father buries his face in the mother's hair, and rests his hand on the shoulder of his older daughter., Engraving in Albert Laporte's Récits du vieux marins (Paris: Librairie Théodore Lefèvre et cie 2, rue des Poitevins, 1883?), p. 238., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from the Slave Trade.
- Creator
- Trichon, engraver
- Date
- [1883?]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1883 Lap 7206.Q (Lewis) p 238, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2833
- Title
- A slave-ship
- Description
- Engraving shows two slave-traders as they throw a slave overboard. Two other slaves struggle in the ocean. This woodcut is a slightly altered version of the same scene appearing in "The Liberator," January 7, 1832. The original text notes the ship is a Brazilian slaver. Brazil collected duty on all imported slaves, and slave ship captains tossed sickly and likely unsalable slaves overboard before arrival to avoid paying the duty on them., Illustration in the Slave's Friend (New York: Published by R.G. Williams, for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1836), vol. 1, no. X (1836), p. 14-15., Image is accompanied by a poem, which begins as follows: "Oh! I have don a cursed deed, / The wretched man replies, / And night and day, and every where, / 'Tis still before my eyes.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
- Date
- [1836]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per S 63 54051.D v 1 n X p 14-15, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2887
- Title
- African mother on a rock
- Description
- Yarrima, an African mother, watches in despair as her son, Yazoo, is whisked away on the white man's boat., Illustration in Lydia Childs's the Oasis (Boston: Benjamin C. Bacon: Tuttle and Weeks, printers, No. 8, School Street, 1834), p. 28., Caption underneath the illustration reads: "Yarrima climbed to the highest rock, and saw the white man's boat moving rapidly over the waves.", 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 28, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2734
- 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
- The Africans of the slave bark "Wildfire"
- Description
- Engraving shows the manner in which hundreds of African slaves were crowded on the deck of the "Wildfire," an American vessel captured off the northern coast of Cuba in April 1860. According to the accompanying text, the ship had left the Congo River thirty-six days before her capture, and had roughly five hundred Africans on board. The capture of the "Wildfire" was led by Lieutenant Craven of the United States steamer Mohawk. His experience was recounted in Harper's Weekly as follows: "Soon after the bark was anchored we repaired on boad, and on passing over the side saw, on the deck of the vessel, about four hundred and fifty native Africans, in a state of entire nudity, in a sitting or squatting posture, the most of them having their knees elevated so as to from a resting place for their head and arms. They sat very close together, mostly on either side of the vessel, forward and aft, leaving a narrow open space along the line of the centre for the crew of the vessel to pass to and fro. About fifty of them were full-grown young men, and about four hundred were boys aged from ten to sixteen years. It is said by persons acquainted with the slave-trade and who saw them, that they were generally in a very good condition of health and flesh, as compared with other similar cargoes, owing to the fact that they had not been so much crowded together on board as is common in slave voyages, and had been better fed than usual." (p. 344), Illustration in Harper's Weekly, vol. IV, no. 179 (June 2, 1860), p. 344., Caption underneath the image reads: "The slave deck of the bark 'Wildfire,' brought into Key West on April 30, 1860. -- [From a Daguerrotype.]", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from the Slave Trade.
- Date
- [June 1860]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare **Per H 1529.F v IV n 179 June 2 1860 p 344, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2651
- Title
- [Plan and sections of a slave ship]
- Description
- Abolitionist book illustration used to illustrate the inhumane transit conditions for enslaved people during the midddle passage across the Atlantic. Depicts aerial, horizontal, and vertical cross sections of the multi-decked ship tightly packed with prostrate enslaved figures. The proportional diagram, based on the dimensions of the English slave ship, "Brooke," and space calculations, based on a report to the House of Commons in London in 1798, contains fewer figures than the number of humans routinely transported on the actual ship., Title from earlier plate in C.B. Wadstrom's An Essay on Colonization (London: C.B. Waldstrom, 1794). (LCP *U Afr Wads, 728.Q)., Plate from Thomas Clarkson's The History of the Rise, Progress, & Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament. Vol. II (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.11]
- 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
- [Frontispiece for Histoire philosophique et politique]
- Description
- In the central foreground, a female slave is purchased by a European planter (left), who completes the transaction by giving a sack of coins to a slave merchant. Chained and shackled, the slave leans over and covers her face in despair. Behind her, several Europeans congregate in the tropical landscape. A vessel, presumably a slave-ship, is docked in the background., Frontispiece for Guillaume-Thomas-François Raynal's Histoire philosophique et politique des établissements & du commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes (A Maestricht: Chez Jean-Edme Dufour & Philippe Roux, imprimeurs & libraires, associés, M.DCC.LXXVII [1777])., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Images from the Slave Trade.
- Creator
- Delaunay, Nicolas, 1739-1792, engraver
- Date
- 1773
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1777 Ray 62416.D frontispiece, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2679
- Title
- Branding a female slave
- Description
- Set on the coast of Haiti, the image shows a slave-trader branding a female slave on the shoulder. The unclothed slave kneels on the sand with her hands chained behind her back. Other slaves await their turn, covering their eyes or looking away. In the lower right-hand corner, a second slave-trader sits on a barrel with a rifle resting on his knee. A slave-ship is visible in the background., Plate in John W. Cromwell's The Negro in American History: Men and Women Eminent in the Evolution of the American of African Descent (Washington, D.C.: The American Negro Academy, 1914), p. 2., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from the Slave Trade.
- Date
- [1914]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1914 Cromw 78796.O p 2, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2671
- Title
- Scene in the hold of the "Blood-Stained Gloria." (Middle Passage)
- Description
- As the title suggests, the engraving shows the hold of the Gloria, a Brazilian slave-ship upon which the author travelled. In Chapter XV of his Revelations, Drake described the conditions on board: "our slaves," he wrote, "were crammed in hold, cabin, and peak, and packed like herrings, on the shelves, around our vessel's sides; and what was worse, gratings were kept down half the time." (p. 88-89) Continuing to describe the "horrors of this dreadful passage," he added, "The sick and dying were chained together. I saw pregnant women give birth to babes, whilst chained to corpses, which our drunken overseers had not removed. The blacks were literally jammed between decks, as if in a coffin; and a coffin that dreadful hold became, to nearly one-half of our cargo, before we reached Bahia." (p. 89) In the engraving, Ruiz, the ship's captain, has entered the hold with one of his mates. In addition to a lantern, the captain carries a large sword, while his mate carries a rifle. A cat-o'-ninetails can be seen on the floor., Fold-out plate in Richard Drake's Revelations of a Slave Smuggler: Being the Autobiography of Capt. Rich'd Drake, an African Trader for Fifty-Years from 1807 to 1857; during which Period He Was Concerned in the Transportation of Half a Million Blacks from African Coast to America (New York: Robert M. De Witt, publisher, [c1860]), p. 28., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from the Slave Trade.
- Creator
- Andrew & Filmer, engraver
- Date
- [c1860]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1860 Dra 72735.O p 28, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2806
- Title
- Wreck of the slave ship
- Description
- According to Hildreth's narrative, the plate shows a domestic slave ship that was caught in a storm while travelling down the Atlantic coast to Charleston. After the captain and crew fled in a jolly-boat, the slaves worked the pumps in the hopes of saving themselves. They were eventually rescued and brought to a jail in Norfolk, Virginia., Illustration in Richard Hildreth's The White Slave: or, Memoirs of a Fugitive (London: Ingram, Cooke, & Co., 227 Strand, MDCCCLII, 1852), p. 80., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Images from the Slave Trade.
- Date
- [1852]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1852 Hildr 70799.O p 80, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2787