Search results

Title: Fort Monroe envelope
Description: Image: A group of slaves run away from the master on the cotton plantation in the direction of Fort Monroe. The white master prepares to crack his whip while an African American, who faces him, thumbs his nose in defiance. Refers to the contraband policy that banned soldiers from returning runaway slaves to their owners once they crossed Union lines., Verse 420: Come back here, you black rascal., Caption: Can't come back no how, massa; Dis chile's CONTRABAN', Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector
Date: 1861-1865

Title: Fort Monroe envelope 2
Description: Image: A group of slaves run away from the white master on the plantation in the direction of Fort Monroe. The white master prepares to crack his whip while an African American, who faces him, thumbs his nose in defiance. Refers to the Benjamin Butler's contraband policy that banned soldiers from returning runaway slaves to their owners once they crossed Union lines., Verse 421: Come back you black rascal., Caption: Can't koershun de's colours; we's de "Butler Contrabans", Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector
Date: 1861-1865

Title: Runaway mother and child envelope
Description: Image: An African American woman, with a bundle slung over her shoulder, runs behind a little boy. Secession is equated to runaway slaves., Verse 1840: Secession., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector
Date: 1861-1865

Title: Runaway given santuary envelope
Description: Image: A runaway grasps General Benjamin Butler for protection as his former owner approaches. Butler's sword is drawn and pointing at the slave owner, who is from one of the first families of Virginia. The slave owner is portrayed as a scarecrow holding a dog leash in one hand and a cat-o'-nine-tails in the other. Scene takes place in front of Fort Monroe. Refers to the contraband policy that banned soldiers from returning runaway slaves to their owners once they crossed Union lines., Verse 1568: One of the F.F.V.'s [First Families of Virginia] after his Contraband., General Butler "can't see it.", Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector
Date: 1861-1865

Title: Runaway family envelope
Description: Image: A slave family, consisting of father, mother and two children, run toward Fort Monroe, away from the white master who is chasing them with a whip and chains. Refers to the contraband policy that banned soldiers from returning runaway slaves to their owners once they crossed Union lines., Verse 422: Come back you black rascal, Oh no, I can't come back, I'se contraband., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector
Date: 1861-1865

Title: I am a man, your brother
Description: Title page vignette to Heyrick's militant call for immediate and uncompensated abolition of slavery revises the classic antislavery symbol of the supplicant slave, kneeling prayerfully and pleading "Am I not a man and a brother." In Heyrick's version, the supplicant stands upright, with broken chains at his feet and declares "I am a man, your brother.", Title page vignette in Elizabeth Heyrick's Immediate, Not Gradual Abolution (London: printed by R. Clay, Devonshire-Street, Bishopsgate.: Sold by F. Westley, 10, Stationers' Court; & S. Burton, 156, Leadenhall Street; and by all booksellers and newsmen, 1824)., Caption reads: "He hath made of one blood all nations of men." -- Acts xvii. 26., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1824]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1824 Heyr 70373.O title page vignette, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2728

Title: Osman
Description: Illustration accompanies the narrative, "The Dismal Swamp." A fugitive slave identified only as Osman sits amidst some tangled undergrowth. Holding his gun, he appears watchful. According to the text, a "tattered blanket" is wrapped about his shoulders, and he wears "little other clothing than a pair of ragged breeches an boots." His hair and beard are described as "tipped with gray." (p 453), Illustration in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. 13, no. 76 (September 1856), p. 452., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Fugitives.
Date: [September 1856]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per H 9 62992.O v 13 n 76 September 1856 p 452, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2873

Title: Emancipated slaves
Description: From left to right, the group portrait shows: Wilson Chinn, a man of about sixty, whose forehead was branded with the initials V.B.M.; Charles Taylor, an eight year-old boy identified in the accompanying text as white; August Broujey, a nine year-old girl whose mother was "almost white;" Mary Johnson, an adult woman; Isaac Watts, a black boy of nine; Rebecca Huger, an eleven year-old, who "to all appearance . . . is perfectly white;" the Reverend Robert Whitehead, an ordained preacher; and Rosina Downs, a "fair child" of "not quite seven years." In addition to the group portrait, cartes de visite of the individual sitters were made. As the accompanying text explains, both could be purchased through the New York-based National Freeman's Relief Association; the proceeds went to support Louisiana schools., Full-page illustration in Harper's Weekly (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1864), vol. 8, no. 370 (January 30, 1864), p. 69., Small caption underneath the image reads: "Emancipated slaves, white and colored. -- The children are from the schools established in New Orleans, by order of Major-General Banes.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [January 1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare **Per H 1529.F v 8 n 370 Jan 30 1864 p 69, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2878

Title: Plantation scene -- coffee
Description: Illustration is set on a coffee plantation in either South American or the West Indies. Sitting in the shade of a palm tree, a planter watches several slaves at work. To the right, two women and a child pick coffee beans and place them in baskets. In the middle, three women carry full baskets up an incline and dump the beans on the ground. Two men rake and shovel them., Plate in William Blake's The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade, Ancient and Modern (Columbus, Ohio: Published and sold exclusively by subscription J. & H. Miller, 1858), p. 288., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Creator: Felch-Riches, engraver
Date: [1858]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1858 Blake 70419.O p 288, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2803

Title: Twenty-eight fugitives escaping from the eastern shore of Maryland
Description: Engraving depicts a group of twenty-eight fugitive slaves who successfully escaped in 1857., Illustration in William Still's Underground Rail Road: a record of facts, authentic narratives, letters, &c. (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1872), p. 102., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
Creator: Osler, Wilbur, engraver
Date: [1872]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1872 Still 19214.O p 102, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2822

Title: Living in a cave
Description: Engraving shows Harry Grimes, a fugitive slave from North Carolina. During his 1857 escape, Grimes lived in the woods, taking shelter in a cave and a hollowed out poplar tree. Here, he builds a fire with some charcoal that he found., Illustration in William Still's Underground Rail Road: a record of facts, authentic narratives, letters, &c. (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1872), p. 425., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
Creator: Bensell, Edmund Birckhead, b. 1842, engraver
Date: [1872]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1872 Still 19214.O p 425, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2825

Title: Ne suis - je pas ton frere?
Description: Profile view of a half-kneeling slave figure facing right. His ankles and wrists are shackled and chained; his hands are clenched together and raised in a beseeching manner., Title page vignette in Adresse a l'Assemblée nationale, pour l'Abolition de la Traite des noirs (A Paris: De l'imp. de L. Potier de Lille, rue Favart, no. 5., 1790)., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1790]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1790 Soc 1979.O.6 title page vignette, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2683

Title: [Practical slavery and professional liberty]
Description: Image shows a reformed slave trader who reaches toward a female allegorical figure representing liberty, virtue, and independence, who is seated on a staircase above him. A harbor is visible in the background, as are four slaves (three adults and one child), two of whom appear to be bound., Frontispiece for Thomas Branagan's Penitential Tyrant (New York: Printed and sold by Samuel Wood, 1807)., Accompanied by the following description of the frontispiece: "It is intended as a contrast between Practical Slavery and Professional Liberty, and suggests to the citizens of the American States the following distich: 'Sons of Columbia, hear this truth in time, He who allows oppression shares the crime.' The temple of Liberty, with the motto of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which would as well become her sister states, is displayed; the Goddess, in a melancholy attitude, is seated under the Pillar of our Independence, bearing in her hand the Sword of Justice surmounted by the Cap of Liberty, while one foot rests on the Cornucopiae, and the Ensigns of America appear at her side. She is looking majestically sad on the African Slaves, landed on the shores of America, who are brought into view, in order to demonstrate the hypocrisy and villainy of professing to be votaries of liberty, while, at the same time, we encourage, or countenance, the most ignoble slavery.", Images in this work derived from oral testimony given before the British Parliament's Select Committee Appointed to Take the Examination of Witnesses Respecting the African Slave Trade originally published as An Abstract of the Evidence Delivered Before a Select Committee of the House of Commons in the Years 1790, and 1791; on the Part of the Petitioners for the abolition of the Slave-Trade (London: printed by James Phillips, 1791). Images also issued in a number of other printed works including Remarks on the Methods of Procuring Slaves with a Short Account of Their Treatment in the West-Indies (London: printed by and for Darton and Harvey, no. 66 Gracechurch Street, MDCCXCIII [1793]): Sclaven-Handel (Philadelphia: Gedruckt fur Tobias Hirte, bey Samuel Saur, 1794); Der Neue Hoch Deutsche Americanische Calender aur das Jahr 1797 (Baltimore: Samuel Saur, 1796); Injured Humanity: Being a Representation of What the Unhappy Children of Africa Endure From Those Who Call Themselves Christians... (New York: printed and sold by Samuel Wood, no. 362, Pearl Street, between 1805 and 1808); and The Mirror of Misery, or, Tyranny Exposed (New York: printed and sold by Samuel Wood, 1807) and later editions issued in 1811 and 1814., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Creator: Edwin, David, 1776-1841, engraver
Date: [1807]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1807 Bra 2721.D frontispiece, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2709

Title: Am I not a man, and a brother
Description: Profile view of a half-kneeling slave figure facing right. His ankles and wrists are shackled and chained; his hands are clenched together and raised in an imploratory manner., Title page vignette in James Field Stanfield's Observations on a Guinea Voyage (London: printed by James Phillips, George-Yard, Lombard-Street, 1788)., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1788]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1788 Sta 67036.D title page vignette, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2680

Title: [Slave and flag with black and white stars]
Description: Bound at the wrists and ankles, a male slave is tied -- with his arms over his head -- to a long flagpole. At the top of the pole is an American flag. The stars in the top three rows are white, while those in the bottom three are black., Back cover of the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1843 (New York: Published by the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1842)., Accompanied by the following verse: "United States! Your banner wears /Two emblems -- one of fame; / Alas, the other that it bears / Reminds us of your shame. / The white man's liberty in types / Stands blazoned by your stars; / But what's the meaning of your stripes? / They mean you negro's scars.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1842]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1842 Ame Ant 72750.O back cover, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2772

Title: The runaway
Description: Full length, right profile view of a runaway slave dressed in a collared shirt and a buttoned jacket, and carrying a bundle on his back., Caption title vignette in the Anti-Slavery Record (New York: Published by R.G. Williams, for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1835-1837), vol. III, no. VII (July, 1937), whole no. 31, p. 1., Small caption underneath the image reads: "This picture of a poor fugitive is from one of the stereotype cuts manufactured in this city for the southern market, and used on handbills offering rewards for runaway slaves.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Fugitives.
Date: [July 1837]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per A 245 16998.D v 3 n 7 cover page, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2860

Title: A fact with a short commentary
Description: Lunging forward onto his left knee, a slaveowner points a double-barreled rifle at a male slave who is stretched out on the ground beneath him. Propping himself up with his left arm, the slave uses his right arm to gesture toward the slaveowner in a protective manner. The slaveowner's hat, which rests on the ground, and an overturned table in the background suggest that the action has proceeded quickly. In the background, the slave's child watches from the doorway of his hut., 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. I (January, 1836), whole no. 13, p. 1., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [January 1836]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per A 245 60026.D v 2 n 1 cover page, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2846

Title: The slaves of Martinique
Description: Engraving accompanies Whittier's poem "Slaves of Martinique." It shows a slave couple enjoying a brief moment of rest in the shade. She is described as "Dark, but comely, like the maiden in the ancient Jewish song." He is described as " . . . the strong one and the many, with the vassal's garb and hue, / Holding still his spirit's birthright, to his higher nature true.", Engraving in John Whittier's Poems (Boston: Benjamin B. Mussey & Co., 1849), p. 372., The following lines appear underneath the image: "Beams of noon like burning lances, through the tree-tops flash and glisten. / As she stands before her lover, with raised face to look and listen.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
Creator: Glover, De Lay, 1823-1863, engraver
Date: [1849]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1849 Whi 12099.O p 372, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2779

Title: A Negro hung alive by the ribs to a gallows
Description: Engraving was done after one of John Gabriel Stedman's own drawings; it illustrates an incident that he learned of during his travels in Surinam. According to Stedman, a "decent looking man" explained to him, "Not long ago, . . . I saw a black man suspended alive from a gallows, by the ribs, between which, with a knife, was first made an incision, and then clinched an iron hook with a chain; in this manner he kept alive three days, hanging with his head and feet downwards, and catching with his tongue the drops of water (it being the rainy season) that were flowing down his bloated breast." (vol. 1, p. 109), Plate XI 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. 1, p. 110., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Creator: Blake, William, 1757-1827, engraver
Date: Dec. 1, 1792
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1796 Sted 755.Q v 1 p 110, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2694

Title: Preamble and resolutions
Description: Broadside continues: Whereas, the Union Leagues of Baltimore, organized ... in the spring of 1861 ... resolved, that the existence of the American nation is to be maintained above all local interests ... the Emancipation Proclamation ... ought to be made law by Congress ... traitors have to right to enforce the obedience of slaves ... the president should use all men, white or black, in the way they can most be useful ... slavery should cease to be recognized by the law of Maryland ..., Text suggests imprint prior to summer of 1863 when Maryland abolished slavery., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War.
Creator: Union Leagues of Baltimore
Date: [1863?]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare #Am 1863 Uni Lea 53074.O .16 (Smith)

Title: Union broadside, no. 1 what union men of all parties said in 1861 ... what they say in 1863 after the "Proclamation," "Conscription", &c
Description: Issued by the Loyal Publication Society, New York., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War.
Date: 1863
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare #Am 1863 Uni Bro 15743.O .18

Title: A typical negro
Description: Three engravings accompanying the article "A Typical Negro." The text identifies them as "portraits" of Gordon, a fugitive Mississippi slave who joined the Union army in Baton Rouge. According to the unnamed author, the engravings were taken from photographs by McPherson and Oliver. The engraving on the left bears the title "Gordon as he entered our lines." It shows Gordon sitting on a stool with his hands folded on his lap and one leg crossed over the other. His clothing is frayed and tattered, and he wears no shoes. As the author explains, Gordon "entered our lines, with clothes torn and covered with mud and dirt from his long race through the swamps and bayous, chased as he had been for days and nights by his master with several neighbors and a pack of blood-hounds; . . . ." The middle engraving is titled "Gordon under medical inspection." Here, Gordon is seated on a stool with his bare back facing the viewer. The image offers a detailed view of the wounds and scars that cover his back. As the author commented, the engraving "shows him as he underwent the surgical examinations previous to being mustered into the service -- his back furrowed and scarred with the traces of a whipping administered on Christmas day." The portrait on the right is titled "Gordon in his uniform as a U.S. soldier." It shows Gordon in full military uniform, with all of his gear and his musket. This engraving, the author notes, "represents him in United States uniform, bearing the musket and prepared for duty.", Illustration in Harper's Weekly, vol. 7, no. 340 (July 4, 1863), p 429., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Fugitives.
Date: [July 1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare **Per H 1529.F v 7 n 340 July 4 1863 p 429, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2877

Title: The way they "catch" men in Pennsylvania
Description: Two armed, uniformed authorities shoot at two escaped slaves in Cambria county, Pennsylvania., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1838 (Boston: Published by D.K. Hitchcock, 1837), p. 25., Caption underneath the image reads: "These men having FELT the horrors of slavery, fled to Cambria county, Pa., in April, 1837. Being pursued, one of them said he would die before he would be taken. They were shot and wounded, and then were taken with great difficulty.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1837]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1837 Ame Ant 52047.D.2 p 25, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2756

Title: [Scenes from Guinea]
Description: Three illustrations accompanying Taylor's discussion of Guinea. In figure 34, two Europeans try to kidnap an African family to sell them into slavery. Of this practice, Taylor wrote: "they [the Europeans] lie in wait near a village during the day, and catch any stragglers; but at night they come and set fire to their huts in several places; when the poor creatures run out in terror and confusion, then the soldiers seize upon all they can catch, and hurry them away to the sea-side, to sell them." (p. 62) Figure 35 shows the plan of a slave ship. Taylor described the conditions on board as follows, "only sixteen inches each, in width, are allowed for the men, and less still for women and children. There they lie, so close, that it is impossible to walk among them, without treading upon them." (p. 63) Figure 36 depicts slaves being sold at auction. Each slave, Taylor explained, was forced to stand on a hogshead, for easier inspection, while the planters offered their bids., Page of illustrations in Isaac Taylor's Scenes in Africa , for the Amusement and Instruction of Little Tarry-at-Home Travellers (New York: W.B. Gilley, 94 Broadway, 1827), p. 60., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Images from the Slave Trade.
Date: [1827]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1827 Taylor 101580.D p 60, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2729

Title: Tuning up
Description: Engraving is one of several accompanying the story "A Winter in the South." It is set in Tennesse, and shows three black musicians, who, at the request of their master, played for him and his family on Christmas Day. According to the story's unnamed author, the master's rhetorical question " . . . because we have the misfortune to be white, shall we never forget our cares and troubles?" was followed by the decisive order, "Bring in the fiddlers!" As the author then wrote, "In came the joyful musicians, grinning from ear to ear, and bowing until they sweep the floor with their greasy hats, anticipating the extra drams and half-dollars for their holiday spendings." (p. 295) In the illustration, the musicians are show with their instruments (fiddles and a tamborine). The portrayal of their facial features adheres to negative racial stereotypes., Illustration in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. 17, no. 99 (August 1858), p. 295., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Daily Life.
Date: [August 1858]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per H 9 62992.O v 17 n 99 August 1858 p 295, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2875

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: ASSU Illustration 3577
Description: Block numbered in one place: 3577, also 1244 on small adhesive label on back of block.
Date: [s.a.]
Location: ASSU Woodblocks -- Box 27

Title: [Aunt Judy's husband captured]
Description: Illustration accompanies the narrative, "Aunt Judy's Story: A Story from Real Life," by Matilda G. Thompson. According to the story, Aunt Judy's husband, John, was a Kentucky slave with a brutal master. Desperate to leave, and eager to regain contact with Judy, who lived on a different plantation, John managed to escape. He made it to the plantation of Judy's mistress, and hid there for more than a week before he was betrayed and captured by slave-hunters., Illustration in The child's anti-slavery book (Boston: American Tract Society, 28 Cornhill, Boston, 1859), p 104., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
Date: [1859]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1859 Chil 65676.D p 104, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2804

Title: A narrow escape
Description: Image depicts an event that occurred in Virginia in 1858. Having learned of his master's plan to sell him, Alfred, the slave shown in the foreground, runs away from a slave trader and a constable named William Noble, both of whom appear in the background., Illustration in William Still's Underground Rail Road: a record of facts, authentic narratives, letters, &c. (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1872), p. 453., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
Creator: Foy, engraver
Date: [1872]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1872 Still 19214.O p 453, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2826

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: Soyez libres et citoyens
Description: Allegorical figure representing liberty blesses and grasps the hand of a male slave who kneels before her. One of the slave's shackles lies broken on the ground, the other remains on his leg. Behind him, a group of enchained slaves look on as they wait to approach the figure of Liberty., Frontispiece for Benjamin-Sigismond Frossard's La Cause des esclaves nègres et des habitans de la Guinée (A Lyon: De l'imprimerie d'Aimé de La Roche, imprimeur de la Société royale d'agriculture, 1789)., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Creator: Boily, Charles-Ange, 1738 or 9-1813, engraver
Date: [1789]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1789 Fross 1971.O frontispiece, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2681

Title: Do the slaves desire their liberty?
Description: A male slave hangs from a tree by a rope tied around his wrists. He also holds a log between legs. A slaveowner moves to hit him with a large paddle. A small house and what appears to be a church are visible in the background., Caption title vignette in the Anti-Slavery Record (New York: Published by R.G. Williams, for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1835-1837), vol. I, no. 3 (March, 1835), p. 25., Caption reads: A punishment, practised in the United States, for the crime of loving liberty., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [March 1835]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per A 245 16998.D v 1 n 3 cover page, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2855

Title: [The morning dream]
Description: Frontispiece accompanies Cowper's poem "The Morning Dream," which appears on the opposite page. The engraving features an allegorical figure representing Liberty/Britannia, who sailed westward to America "to make freemen of slaves." Shedding light "like the sun," this divine and beautiful figure "sung of the slave's broken chain, wherever her glory appeared." In accordance with the verse, two chained slaves kneel before her, praying for freedom. At the left, a slave-owner drops his whip. ("In his hand, as a sign of his sway, / A scourge hung with lashes he bore, / And stood looking out for his prey, From Africa's sorrowful shore. / But soon as approaching the land, / That angel-like woman he view'd, / The scourge he let fall from his hand, / With the blood of his subjects imbru'd."), Frontispiece for John Greenleaf Whittier's Poems Written during the Progress of the Abolition Question in the United States, between the Years 1830 and 1838 (Boston: Published by Isaac Knapp, No. 25, Cornhill, 1837)., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1837]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1837 Whi 51405.D frontispiece, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2759

Title: West Indies Agreeable to the most approv'd maps and charts
Description: Map showing the West Indies including the Bahama Isles, Carribe Isles, Great Antilles, and Little Antilles as colonies of the European nations of England, France, Spain, Denmark, and the Netherlands., Relief shown by landform drawings., Depth shown by soundings., Shows the Tropic of Cancer., Cartouche depicts a bare-chested, bare-footed, Black enslaved man, attired in knee-length pants, moving crates near a white planter and trader engaging in business by the shore. A tall ship sails in the distance., Also shows Cape of Florida and part of South America., Prime Meridians: London and Ferro., Variant published in editions of George Henry Millar's The new and universal system of geography...(London: Alex. Hogg, 1782, 1783, and 1785?)., Acquired before 1950., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Kitchin, a premier English cartographer, was known for his detailed title cartouches.
Creator: Kitchin, Thomas, 1718-1784, engraver
Date: [178-]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *maps [319 M 1]

Title: La Batugue à San-Paulo
Description: In an open, outdoor space, two couples dance to music performed by the two men at the left. One musician appears to play a percussion instrument, while the other seems to play a string instrument. The dancing women are bare-breasted, and some of their facial features correspond to racist stereotypes, particularly in the case of the woman closest to the right. On the left, a third woman sits underneath a pole that supports a straw roof. Some pieces of tropical fruit lie on the ground near her feet. Batugue, a type of dance still practiced today, is an Afro-Brazilian circle dance., 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. 210., 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 210, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2749

Title: A proclamation by the President of the United States I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare ... Done in the city of Washington this twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two
Description: Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook., Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War.
Creator: United States, President (1861-1865 : Lincoln)
Date: [1862?]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare #Am 1862 Uni Sta Pres 5792.F.30b (McAllister)

Title: The fugitives
Description: Engraving depicts an episode from Chapter XIV, "How the Flight Ended." Here, the fictional characters Maum Guinea, Rose, and Hyperion, fugitive slaves hiding in a cavern, are discovered by a party of whites that includes a colonel and a judge., Illustration in Metta Victoria Fuller Victor's Maum Guinea, and her plantation "children" (London: Beadle and Company,44 Paternoster Row; New York: Beadle and Company, 141 William Street, 1861), p. 206., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
Creator: N. Orr & Co., engraver
Date: [1861]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1861 Victo 70421.O p 206, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2807

Title: [K stands for kidnapper]
Description: Image is accompanied by a verse, which begins as follows: "K Stands for Kidnapper. Whoso receives / What others have stolen, is leagu'd with the thieves. /." In this night-time scene, a bearded kidnapper uses one knee to pin a fugitive slave to the ground in a face-down position. With a dagger between his teeth, the kidnapper leans over the slave, and bends his left arm behind his back. Handcuffs lie on the ground next to him., Illustration in Abel C. Thomas's Gospel of Slavery (New York: Published by T.W. Strong, 1864), n.p., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Fugitives.
Date: [1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1864 Thoma 50969.D vignette K, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2816

Title: "The Sabbath among slaves"
Description: Engraving depicts the author's experience of the Sabbath among slaves. As Bibb explained, having no moral or religious instruction, slaves generally "resort to the woods in large numbers on that day to gamble, fight, get drunk, and break the Sabbath." This behavior, Bibb noted, was encouraged by the slaveholders, who viewed the slaves' activities as a form of entertainment, and who liked to watch them fight, "dance, 'pat juber,' sing, and play the banjo." To this end, the slaves were often provided with whiskey. Accordingly, the illustration shows a slaveholder pouring a libation into a slave's glass. In the background left, a group of white men and women observe the Sabbath festivities., Illustration in Henry Bibb's Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb: an American Slave (New York: Published by the author, 5 Spruce Street, 1849), p 23., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes of Slave Life.
Creator: Strong, Thomas W., engraver
Date: [1849]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1849 Bibb 65732.D p 23, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2778

Title: Creole de la Martinique
Description: Outdoors on the island of Martinique, a well-dressed Creole couple is waited on by a black male slave who carries a serving tray upon which rests a bottle and small drinking vessel. The woman sits stiffly in a chair; a book rests upon her lap. The man stands next to a tree and holds one of its branches., Illustration in Abel Hugo's France pittoresque ou Description pittoresque, topographique et statistique des départements et colonies de la France (A Paris: Chez Delloye, éditeur de la France militaire, place de la Bourse, rue des Filles-Saint-Thomas, 13, 1835), vol. 3, p. 292., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
Date: [1835]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1835 Hugo 10039.Q v 3 p 292, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2744

Title: [The freeman's defense]
Description: Engraving depicts an episode from chapter 17. Atop a rocky embankment, George and Phineas defend themselves, Eliza and Harry, and Jim Selden and his aged mother from an approaching group that includes Marks, Uncle Tom, and two constables., Illustration in the first German translation of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (Oheim Tom's Hütte) printed in America (Boston: John P. Jewett and Company; Cleveland, Ohio: Jewett, Proctor, and Worthington, 1853), p. 79., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Fugitives.
Creator: Baker & Smith, engraver
Date: [1853]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1853 Stow 71311.O p 79, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2794

Title: Flagellation of a female Samboe slave
Description: Engraving was done after one of John Gabriel Stedman's own drawings; it illustrates an incident that he witnessed during his travels in Surinam. According to Stedman's account, the image shows a beautiful Samboe girl of about eighteen, who 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 reached her, she had already received 200 lashes, and he begged one of the overseers to let her down. At this point, however, 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. The girl thus received another 200 lashes., Plate XXXV 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. I, facing p. 326., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Creator: Blake, William, 1757-1827, engraver
Date: [between 1791 and 1796]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1796 Sted 755.Q v 1 p 326, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2697

Title: A female negro slave, with a weight chained to her ancle [sic]
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. In Port Amsterdam, Stedman encountered a young female slave dressed in a scanty loin-cloth, which, like her skin, bore the traces of a whip. As punishment for failing to complete a task to which she was unequal, the young woman was forced to wear a chain around her ankle to which a hundred pound weight was also affixed. This she wore for some months., Plate IV 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. I, facing page 15., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Punishment Scenes.
Creator: Bartolozzi, Francesco, 1727-1815, engraver
Date: Dec. 1, 1795
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1796 Sted 755.Q v 1 p 15, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2693

Title: Manner of sleeping &c in the forest ; Rural retreat, the cottage
Description: Printed one on top of the other, these two separate engravings record John Gabriel Stedman's memories of Surinam. Entitled "Manner of sleeping &c in the forest," the above image shows the type of hammock that Stedman and the other members of his party used during their encampment. Hammock shown here is suspended from four narrow wooden poles that have been pounded into the ground, and is covered by what appears to be a rudimentary straw roof. To the right, two unclothed slave women have built a small camp-fire, which they use to heat water to do the washing. Image below bears the title "Rural retreat, the cottage." It appears to show a member of Stedman's expedition with his wife and child (quite possibly, Stedman and his wife Joanna). Seemingly, the illustration corresponds with a passage in which Stedman described the simple houses that he and the others constructed. Of his own house, he wrote, " [it] was finished without either nail or hammer, in less than six days, though it had two rooms, a piazza with rails, and a small kitchen, besides a garden, in which I sowed, in pepper-cresses, the names of Joanna and John; . . . . " (vol. 2, p 323), Plate LXXIII 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, facing p. 324., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
Creator: Barlow, engraver
Date: Dec. 1, 1791
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1796 Sted 755.Q v 2 p 324, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2703

Title: Female quadroon [sic] slave of Surinam
Description: Engraving was done after one of John Gabriel Stedman's own drawings, which record his impressions of Surinam. It offers a detailed frontal view of female slave from Surinam, who, being a quaderoon, belonged to a "class . . .much respected for their affinity to Europeans." (A quaderoon, as Stedman explained, is "the offspring of a white and a mulatto;" and there were many in Surinam.) The plate is accompanied by a lengthy passage, which reads as follows: "To give the reader a more lively idea of these people, I shall describe the figure and dress of a Quaderoon girl, as they usually appear in this colony. They are mostly tall, straight, and gracefully formed; rather more slender than the Mulattoes, and never go naked above the waist, like the former. Their dress commonly consists of a sattin petticoat, covered with flowered gauze; a close short jacket, made of best India chintz or silk, laced before and shewing about an hand-breadth of a fine muslin shirt between the jacket and the petticoat. As for stockings and shoes, the slaves in this country never wear them. Their heads are adorned with a fine bunch of black hair in short natural ringlets; they wear a black or white beaver hat, with a feather, or a gold loop and button: their neck, arms, and ancles are ornamented with chains, bracelets, gold medals, and beads. All these fine women have European husbands, to the no small mortification of the fair Creolians; yet should it be known that an European female had an intercourse with a slave of any denomination, she is for ever detested, and the slave loses his life without mercy." (vol. 1, p. 297), Plate XXXII 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. I, facing p. 296., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
Creator: Perry, engraver
Date: [between 1791 and 1796]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1796 Sted 755.Q v 1 p 296, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2696

Title: The runaway
Description: In the center of the image, a black barber from Buffalo urges a white ferryman to launch the boat that will carry a runaway Georgia slave and his family across the Niagara River to Canada. Just as the boat leaves shore, the slave's master arrives on horseback. Brandishing a pistol, he attempts to prevent their passage., 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. IV [VI] (June, 1836), whole no. 18, p. 1., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Fugitives.
Date: [June 1836]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per A 245 60026.D v 2 n 6 cover page, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2851

Title: [Slave and bald eagle in front of Capitol]
Description: Lying on the ground, a female slave holds and protects her small child. A large bald eagle is perched on the mother's back, and she turns to look at it. In the background, the U.S. Capitol is visible with a flag flying at full-mast., Front cover of the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1843 (New York: Published by the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1842)., Accompanied by the following verse: "Oh, hail Columbia! Happy Land! / The cradle land of Liberty! / Where none but negroes bear the brand, / Or feel the lash of slavery. / Then let the glorious anthem peal! / And drown, 'Britannia rules the waves' -- / Strike up the song that men can feel -- / 'Columbia rules three million slaves!'", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1842]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1842 Ame Ant 72750.O front cover, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2773

Title: History of the slave, James
Description: Image is set in the Philadelphia-area household of a family of freed and escaped slaves. Having located the family, the slaves' owner, shown in the center, has come with two assistants to reclaim a slave named James, the man who is being forced out of the door in the background right. James's mother, an elderly freed slave named Harriet, battles with her former owner in the center of the scene. She bears the breast she once used to nurse him and begs for mercy. Harriett's husband and James's wife appear to the left, while James and Harriett's newborn baby sleeps in a cradle to the right., 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. II (February, 1836), whole no. 14, p 1., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [February 1836]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per A 245 60026.D v 2 n 2 cover page, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2847

Title: What has the North to do with slavery?
Description: Image is set in the North. It appears to show Southern slaveowners forcibly removing escaped slaves from their homes, and returning them into their custody., Title page illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1839 (New York: Published for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838)., Two captions underneath the image read: "What has the North do to with slavery?" and "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.", 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 title page, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2768

Title: Southern arguments to stop the mouths of Northern guests
Description: According to the caption, this domestic interior shows a Northern man who moved to the South and married into a slave-owning family. Seated at a lavish table, the man and his family enjoy the fruits of slave labor. Through the left-hand window, a slave is being whipped by an overseer. A few other slaves can be seen through the window on the right., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1839 (New York: Published for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838), p. 23., 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 23, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2766

Main menu

Pages