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Title: Free negroes in Haiti
Description: Racist satire promoting Confederate fears of a liberated enslaved society depicting Black Haitians portrayed as caricatures of cannibalistic savages. In a jungle setting, naked and bare-chested Black men and women participate in the sacrifice of a Black baby on a stone altar. The leader or shaman, attired in a feathered head piece, appears to pray to the gods over the headless body, as another holds a long stake ending with the baby's head. Some play drums with human bones, others eat human flesh in the background. In 1804, Haiti became the first free Black republic after a 13 year revolution emanating from a rebellion by the enslaved against the white enslaver plantation society., Inscribed upper left corner: 27., Issued as plate 27 in Sketches from the Civil War in North America (London [i.e., Baltimore]: [the author], 1863-1864), a series of pro-Confederacy cartoons drawn and published by Baltimore cartoonist Adalbert John Volck under the pseudonym V. Blada. The "first issue" of 10 prints (numbered 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 15, 16, 21, 24), with imprint "London, 1863" were printed as etchings. The remaining 20 prints (numbered 4, 8, 9-11, 14, 17-20, 23, 25-27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 40, 45) headed "Second and third issues of V. Blada's war sketches" and dated "London, July 30, 1864" were printed as lithographs., Title and publication information from series at Brown University Library., Research file about artist available at repository., RVCDC, Accessioned 1935., 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: Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912, artist
Date: [1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Volck - Sketches - Volck 27 [2990.F.18]

Title: Slaves concealing their master from a search party
Description: Proslavery print depicting an enslaved African American family hiding their white man enslaver in their cabin from a Union search party on horseback. The enslaver, holding a pistol, hides behind the open door from which the mother, her chair turned over behind her, misdirects the search party down the road. Near the hearth, an older son holds a skillet defensively as a younger petrified sibling holds unto him for protection., Inscribed upper left corner: 12., Issued as plate 12 in Sketches from the Civil War in North America (London [i.e., Baltimore]: [the author], 1863-1864), a series of pro-Confederacy cartoons drawn and published by Baltimore cartoonist Adalbert John Volck under the pseudonym V. Blada. The "first issue" of 10 prints (numbered 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 15, 16, 21, 24), with imprint "London, 1863" were printed as etchings. The remaining 20 prints (numbered 4, 8, 9-11, 14, 17-20, 23, 25-27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 40, 45) headed "Second and third issues of V. Blada's war sketches" and dated "London, July 30, 1864" were printed as lithographs., Title and publication information from series at Brown University Library., Research file about artist available at repository., Accessioned 1935., 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Creator: Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912, artist
Date: [1863]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Volck - Sketches - Volck 12 [2990.F.3]

Title: Writing the Emancipation Proclamation
Description: Pro-Confederacy caricature bombasting Abraham Lincoln's legal and moral authority to write the Emancipation Proclamation. Depicts a demented Lincoln writing the Proclamation seated at a table adorned with a spectral eye; ram horned African American heads, portrayed in racist caricature; and legs ending in cloven hooves. He sits upon a chair with a back decorated with the head of an ass, the "U.S. Constitution" trampled beneath his foot. Atop the table, the devil holds his inkwell before him. A liquor decanter rests upon a sidetable nearby. On the wall, framed paintings hang depicting "saintly" St. Ossawotamie (i.e., John Brown), and the "murderous" rebellion of the enslaved in the 1790s in "St. Domingo"(i.e., Haiti). Behind Lincoln, near window drapes held back by a vulture headed tie back, a statue of liberty, her liberty cap fallen over her face, rests her shield down upon the wall pedestal on which she stands., Inscribed upper left corner: 25., Issued as plate 25 in Sketches from the Civil War in North America (London [i.e., Baltimore]: [the author], 1863-1864), a series of pro-Confederacy cartoons drawn and published by Baltimore cartoonist Adalbert John Volck under the pseudonym V. Blada. The "first issue" of 10 prints (numbered 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 15, 16, 21, 24), with imprint "London, 1863" were printed as etchings. The remaining 20 prints (numbered 4, 8, 9-11, 14, 17-20, 23, 25-27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 40, 45) headed "Second and third issues of V. Blada's war sketches" and dated "London, July 30, 1864" were printed as lithographs., Title and publication information from series at Brown University Library., Research file about artist available at repository., Accessioned 1935., 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 Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Creator: Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912, artist
Date: [1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Volck - Sketches - Volck 25 [2990.F.10]

Title: Free negroes in the North
Description: Caustic and racist satire depicting African American life in the North as depraved, destitute, and corrupt. On "Lovely Lane," at the dilapidated house of prostitution - "Praise the Lord Bare Bones Colored Men Home" - Union soldiers and African American prostitutes carouse, fight, and are rousted by the police. A white man wearing a cross, possibly a caricature of Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, hands a "Tract on Slavery" to an older African American man beggar who sits beneath a notice of an abolitionist talk. Two African American grave diggers display and accept money for their exhumed corpse from a white man physician with the medical newspaper, "Boston Lancet," in his pocket., Inscribed upper left corner: 26., Issued as plate 26 in Sketches from the Civil War in North America (London [i.e., Baltimore]: [the author], 1863-1864), a series of pro-Confederacy cartoons drawn and published by Baltimore cartoonist Adalbert John Volck under the pseudonym V. Blada. The "first issue" of 10 prints (numbered 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 15, 16, 21, 24), with imprint "London, 1863" were printed as etchings. The remaining 20 prints (numbered 4, 8, 9-11, 14, 17-20, 23, 25-27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 40, 45) headed "Second and third issues of V. Blada's war sketches" and dated "London, July 30, 1864" were printed as lithographs., Title and publication information from series at Brown University Library., Research file about artist available at repository., RVCDC, Accessioned 1935., 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.
Creator: Volck, Adalbert John, 1828-1912, artist
Date: [1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Volck - Sketches - Volck 26 [2990.F.17]

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