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Title: The execution of breaking on the rack
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. According to Stedman, the man on the rack was sentenced to death for having shot and killed an overseer. As Stedman wrote, "Informed of the dreadful sentence, he composedly laid himself down on his back on a strong cross, on which, with arms and legs expanded, he was fastened by ropes; the executioner, also a black man, having now with a hatchet chopped off his left hand, next took up a heavy iron bar, with which, by repeated blows, he broke his bones to shivers, till the marrow, blood, and splinters flew about the field; but the prisoner never uttered a groan nor a sigh." (vol. 2, p. 295), Plate LXXI 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. II, p. 296., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Date: Dec. 2, 1792
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1796 Sted 755.Q v 2 p 296, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2702

Title: Flogging the Negro
Description: According to this account, the engraving shows a court-ordered public flogging that took place in Lexington, Missouri in 1856. The slave's offense was defending his wife (seen on the ground to the left) from an abusive blacksmith. In response, the court ruled that the slave was to receive 1,000 lashes. These were to be administered by three citizens, including the blacksmith, who was allowed to initiate the punishment. Here, the blacksmith flogs the slave with a paddle, while two other men (seen to the left and right) crack their whips. A small black girl prays at the feet of the flogged slave; others look on., Illustration in the Suppressed Book about Slavery! (New York: Carleton, 1864), p. 240., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Imagery.
Creator: Van Ingen & Snyder, engraver
Date: [1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1864 Suppr 15191.D p 240, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2811

Title: A slave caught without a pass
Description: This night-time scene depicts an overseer, who, having come upon a slave who left his plantation without a pass, forces the slave to dance for the amusement of himself and his two companions. As the slave dances, the overseer cracks a whip at his feet., 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. V (May, 1836), whole no. 17, p. 1., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [May 1836]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per A 245 60026.D v 2 n 5 cover page, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2850

Title: A freeholder's court
Description: Engraving portrays an episode described in Hildreth's fictional narrative. A court of five Carolina freeholders, selected "at hap-hazard," falsely convicted a slave named Billy for plundering the rice-fields of a neighboring plantation, and sentenced him to death. As Hildreth wrote, "the sentence was no sooner pronounced than preparations were made for its execution. An empty barrel was brought out, and placed under a tree that stood before the door. The poor fellow was mounted upon it; the halter was put about his neck, and fastened to a limb over his head. The judges had already become so drunk as to have lost all sense of judicial decorum. One of them kicked away the barrel, and the unhappy victim of Carolina justice dropped struggling into eternity." (p. 197), Frontispiece for Richard Hildreth's Archy Moore, the White Slave; or Memoirs of a Fugitive (New York and Auburn: Miller, Orton & Mulligan, 1855)., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Creator: Fox, Frederick E., engraver
Date: [1855]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1855 Hildr 72210.O frontispiece, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2800

Title: John Bull's monarchy a refuge from Brother Jonathan's slavery
Description: Image criticizes a resolution adopted in the U.S. House of Representatives on May 10, 1828, which called for the President to initiate an agreement with the British Government whereby fugitive slaves taking refuge in Canada would be surrended to their masters, given proof of ownership., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1839 (New York: Published for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838), p. 9., 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 9, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2761

Title: [Benjamin F. Butler]
Description: Reproduction of a bust-length portrait print of the Massachusetts Governor, abolitionist legislator, and Civil War Major General. Butler, attired in uniform, sits facing slightly left. As commander of Fort Monroe, Virginia, he declared freedom seekers as "contraband of war," providing the impetus for Congress to enact the Confiscation Act of 1861., Title supplied by cataloger., Date based on depicted age of the sitter., Accessioned 1979., 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.
Date: [ca. 1861]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department cdv portraits- sitter - Butler [P.2282.107]

Title: The disappointed abolitionists
Description: Anti-abolition print distortedly portraying the events of the New York freedom seeker episode, "The Darg Case." The case involved a freedom seeker of enslaver John Darg who stole $7000 from him, fled, and was harbored and assisted by African American abolitionist and writer David Ruggle, Quaker arbitrator Barney Corse, and Quaker abolitionist Isaac T. Hopper. Corse had arbitrated a deal with Darg that in exchange for the return of Darg's stolen money, the enslaved man's freedom would be granted, and a small stipend would be paid to Corse. The arbitration was discovered and annulled by the New York police who then arrested Ruggles and Corse. Depicts Darg's sitting room where Hopper is requesting a reward. Ruggles says, "I don't like the looks of this affair. I'm afraid my pickings will not amount to much!" Corse replies, "Yea verily I was but thy instrument Brother Hopper as Brother Ruggles here knoweth!" They are threatened by Darg with a chair to whom they have returned "$6908" of his stolen money, and who bitterly exclaims that they deserve prison., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entd accordd to Act of Congress in the year 1838 by H.R. Robinson, in the Clerk's office of the Distt Court of the U. States, for the southern District of New York., Purchase 1968., 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., Clay, born in Philadelphia, was a prominent caricaturist, lithographer, and engraver who created the "Life in Philadelphia" series which satirized middle-class African American Philadelphians in the late 1820s and early 1830s.
Creator: Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, artist
Date: 1838
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1838-40W [7779.F]

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