Image relates to an episode that Captain John Stedman witnessed during his travels in Surinam, and went on to describe in his text, 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). In the corresponding passage, Stedman described how a beautiful Samboe girl of about eighteen was tied by both arms to a tree limb and flagellated by two overseers in such a manner that "she was from her neck to her ancles [sic] literally dyed over with blood." When Stedman arrived on the scene, the girl had already received 200 lashes, and he begged one of the overseers to let her down. At this point, the overseer explained that, in order to prevent strangers from interfering with his government, he had made an unalterable rule to double any slave's punishment when a stranger tried to intervene on his or her behalf. To Stedman's utter dismay, the girl thus received another 200 lashes. Stedman's own 1796 text included an illustration of this terrible episode: an engraving done by William Blake after one of Stedman's drawings. Like Blake's engraving, the 1809 aquatint shows the two black overseers who carried out the girl's punishment, the planter who presumably ordered it, and the slave girl herself. The aquatint, however, differs substantially in style, composition, and interpretation., Folded frontispiece for the Curious Adventures of Captain Stedman, during an expedition to Surinam in 1773 (London: Printed for Thomas Tegg [1809])., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Date
[1809]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1809 Cur 68448.D frontispiece, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2718
