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- Title
- A Spanish planter of Porto Rico
- Description
- Set in a lush grove, the image depicts a Spanish planter in Puerto Rico, who "luxuriates" in a hammock suspended from a citrus tree. The well-dressed planter wears a large top hat and holds a pipe in his mouth; his legs hang over either side of the hammock and his arms are folded in a contented manner. He is waited on by a partially clothed male slave, whose facial features correspond to racist stereotypes. Smiling at the planter, the slave holds a tray upon which a drink rests., Illustration in John Augustine Waller's Voyage in the West Indies (London: Printed for Sir Richard Phillips, and Co. Bride Court, Bridge Street, 1820), p. 34., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
- Creator
- Neele & Son, engraver
- Date
- [1820]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Egyp Forb (b.w.) 5258.O.2.9 p 34, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2939
- Title
- Negre Manding
- Description
- Included in Chapter IX, "Mandings, Barra, Kollar, et Badibou," the engraving shows a Mandingo regent in the costume of his people. The Mandingos are a West African ethnic group; they live in the countries of Gambia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Senegal., Illustration in René Geoffroy de Villeneuve's L'Afrique, ou Histoire, moeurs, usages et coutumes des africains: Le Sénégal (Paris: Nepveu, libraire, passage des Panoramas, no. 26, 1814), vol. 3 p. 170., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
- Date
- [1814]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri R.G.V. 65954.D v 3 p 170, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2930
- Title
- Kidnapping
- Description
- Engraving relates to an incident recounted by Torrey. In the middle of the night, five men forced their way into the room of a free black woman, who was pregnant and recently widowed. They dragged her out of the bed in which she was sleeping with her child, tied a noose around her neck, and then carried mother and child to a Maryland tavern, where they were bought by a slave-dealer and brought to Washington., Plate in Jesse Torrey's A Portraiture of Domestic Slavery, in the United States (Philadelphia: Published by the author. John Bioren, printer, 1817), p. 48., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Images from the Slave Trade.
- Creator
- Goodman & Piggot, engraver
- Date
- 1817
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1817 Tor 4875.O p 48, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2723
- Title
- Chaine d'esclaves venant de l'interieur [Senegal]
- Description
- Having been captured in the country's interior, six Senegalese slaves are led by two European slave-traders who carry swords and long spears. The slaves march in a line; each wears a collar that is attached to a long pole that rests on their shoulders and extends down the line., Illustration in René Geoffroy de Villeneuve's L'Afrique, ou Histoire, meours, usages et coutumes des africains: Le Sénégal (Paris: Nepveu, libraire, passage des Panoramas, no. 26, 1814), vol. 4, p. 41., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from the Slave Trade.
- Date
- [1814]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri R.G.V. 65954.D v 4 p 40, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2931
- Title
- Vue de Ben dans le pays de Cayor près Gorée
- Description
- Engraving is set in the village of Ben in the Kingdom of Cayor (Senegal). Armed with swords, long spears, and other weapons, African slave-traders capture a mother and her three small children. In the background, two traders attack another village resident. The image includes villagers' cottages, and the central scene is framed by elements of the lush, hilly landscape., Double-page illustration in René Geoffroy de Villeneuve's L'Afrique, ou Histoire, meours, usages et coutumes des africains: Le Sénégal (Paris: Nepveu, libraire, passage des Panoramas, no. 26, 1814), vol. 3, p. 56., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from the Slave Trade.
- Date
- [1814]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri R.G.V. 65954.D v 3 p 56, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2928
- Title
- Orfevre ou forgeron negre
- Description
- Included in Chapter XV, "Arts et Industrie," the engraving shows an African goldsmith (or blacksmith) working with his hammer and anvil., Illustration in René Geoffroy de Villeneuve's L'Afrique, ou Histoire, meours, usages et coutumes des africains: Le Sénégal (Paris: Nepveu, libraire, passage des Panoramas, no. 26, 1814), vol. 4, p. 178., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
- Date
- [1814]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri R.G.V. 65954.D v 4 p 178, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2932
- Title
- Tisserand negre
- Description
- Included in Chapter XV, "Arts et Industrie," the engraving shows an African weaver with her loom. A similar loom appears in the frontispiece for the London Yearly Meeting's Report of the committee managing a fund raised by some friends for the purpose of promoting African instruction (London, 1822)., Illustration in René Geoffroy de Villeneuve's L'Afrique, ou Histoire, meours, usages et coutumes des africains: Le Sénégal (Paris: Nepveu, libraire, passage des Panoramas, no. 26, 1814), vol. 4, p. 180., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
- Date
- [1814]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri R.G.V. 65954.D v 4 p 180, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2933
- Title
- Negresse battant le coton au lieu de le carder
- Description
- Included in Chapter XV, "Arts et Industrie," the engraving shows an African woman beating cotton into threads. The cotton, which had already been ginned, was placed on a stiff mat and hit with a baton., Illustration in René Geoffroy de Villeneuve's L'Afrique, ou Histoire, meours, usages et coutumes des africains: Le Sénégal (Paris: Nepveu, libraire, passage des Panoramas, no. 26, 1814), vol. 4, p. 181., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
- Date
- [1814]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri R.G.V. 65954.D v 4 p 181, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2934
- Title
- Negresse filant le coton
- Description
- Included in Chapter XV, "Arts et Industrie," the engraving shows an African woman spinning cotton. She holds a spool in each hand, and sits on a mat with a large basket of cotton next to her., Illustration in René Geoffroy de Villeneuve's L'Afrique, ou Histoire, moeurs, usages et coutumes des africains: Le Sénégal (Paris: Nepveu, libraire, passage des Panoramas, no. 26, 1814), vol. 4, p. 182., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
- Date
- [1814]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri R.G.V. 65954.D v 4 p 182, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2935
- Title
- Negresse etudiant le jeu de Ouri
- Description
- Included in Chapter XVII, "Chasse, Pêche, Musique et Divertissemens," the engraving shows a young African woman learning to play Ouri, a popular "pit and pebble" game known throughout Africa under several names, including Oware and mancaga. In the accompanying text, Villeneuve wrote that Ouri (and similar games) were too complicated to be described simply. He noted, however, that girls usually learned to play the game around the age of ten., Illustration in René Geoffroy de Villeneuve's L'Afrique, ou Histoire, moeurs, usages et coutumes des africains: Le Sénégal (Paris: Nepveu, libraire, passage des Panoramas, no. 26, 1814), vol. 4, p. 205., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
- Date
- [1814]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri R.G.V. 65954.D v 4 p 205, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2936
- Title
- View of Negroes washing for diamonds at Mandango on the River Jigitonhonha in Cerro do Frio, Brazil
- Description
- According to Mawe, Mandango was the "greatest of the diamond works," and employed "about a thousand negroes." (p. 219) Here, under the supervision of four overseers, numerous slaves work one next to another in a long line. Each slave is bent deep over his individual trough, and rakes through sediment in search of diamonds. As Mawe explained,"there is no particular regulation respecting the dress of the negroes: they work in the clothes most suitable to the nature of their employment, generally in a waistcoast and a pair of drawers, . . . . While washing they change their posture as often as they please, which is very necessary, as the work requires them to place their feet on the edges of the trough, and to stoop considerably." (p. 225), Frontispiece for John Mawe's Travels in the Interior of Brazil (London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-Row, 1812)., Engraving is probably the work of J.G. Warnicke who completed another large plate showing a mining scene set in the bed of the River Jigitonhonha (p. 220)., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
- Date
- [1812]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1812 Mawe 1555.Q frontispiece, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2719
- Title
- Captain in his war dress
- Description
- Arriving in Coomassie, Bowdich and his party encountered an enormous crowd -- "upwards of 5000 people," most of whom were warriors. Amidst smoke, martial music, and a "confusion of flags," the military captains performed a dance. "The dress of the captains," Bowdich explained, "was a war cap, with gilded ram horns projecting in front, the sides extended beyond all proportion by immense plumes of eagles feathers, and fastened under the chin with bands of cowries. Their vest was of red cloth, covered with fetishes and saphies (scraps of Moorish writing, as charms against evil) in gold and silver; and embroidered cases of almost every colour, which flapped against their bodies as they moved, intermixed with small brass bells, the horns and tails of animals, shells, and knives; long leopards tails hung down their backs, over a small bow covered with fetishes. They wore loose cotton trowsers, with immense boots of a dull red leather, coming half way up the thigh, and fastened by small chains to their cartouch or waist belt; these were also ornamented with bells, horses tails, strings of amulets, and innumerable shreds of leather; a small quiver of poisoned arrows hung from their right wrist, and they held a long iron chain between their teeth, with a scrap of Moorish writing affixed to the end of it. A small spear was in their left hands, covered with red cloth and silk tassels; their black countenances heightened the effect of this attire, and completed a figure scarcely human." (p. 32), Plate in T. Edward Bowdich's Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee: with a Statistical Account of that Kingdom, and Geographical Notices of Other Parts of the Interior of Africa (London: J. Murray, Albemarle-Street: printed by W. Pulmer and Co., Cleveland-Row, St. James's, 1819), p. 32., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
- Date
- Dec. 2, 1818
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *U Afri Bowd 12983.Q p 32, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2893
- Title
- Odumata's sleeping room ; Inner square of Apookoos house
- Description
- Plates are included in Chapter VI, "Architecture, Arts, and Manufactures." Top plate shows the sleeping room of Odumata, an old Ashanti aristocrat. Bowdich described the room as being "one side of an oblong area in a very retired angle of his house, about 25 feet by 8." As he continued,"The cloth suspended to the left of the door on the top of the steps, hides the bloody stools which are in the recess. The small gallery in front of the upper room is only wide enough for one person to walk in. The recess and small room below accommodate confidential slaves. The bed room was very small, about 8 feet square, but being hung round with a variety of gold and silver ornaments, had a very rich appearance. The bed is generally about 5 feet high, and composed entirely of large silk-cotton pillows piled one above another. The King of Gaman, we were assured, had steps of solid gold to ascend to his bed. A man wearing a crier's cap, is playing the sanko." (p. 307) As the title suggests, the bottom plate shows the inner square of Apokoo's house. (Apokoo was the keeper of the Ashanti royal treasury.) Describing the image, Bowdich wrote, "No. 6, is a perspective view of the entrance area to Apokoo's house; the fourth side is an open fronted building like those on the right and left for attendants to wait in, and for the hearing of palavers. The opposite closed side is a bed room. The figure is playing the bentwa." (p. 307), Two plates in T. Edward Bowdich's Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee: with a statistical account of that kingdom, and geographical notices of other parts of the interior of Africa (London: J. Murray, Albemarle-Street: printed by W. Pulmer and Co., Cleveland-Row, St. James's, 1819), p. 306., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
- Date
- Dec. 2, 1818
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *U Afri Bowd 12983.Q p 306, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2895
- Title
- Part of a piazza in the palace [No. 7] ; Part of a piazza in the palace [No. 8]
- Description
- Plates included in Chapter VI, "Architecture, Arts, and Manufactures." As the title suggests, the top image shows part of a piazza in the palace of the King of Gaman. (The Gaman peoples live in modern Ghana.) "No. 7," Bowdich explained, "is a part of a piazza, which lines the interior of the wall secluding the palace from the street. The piazza is 200 yards long and inhabited by captains and other attendants on the King; above is a small gallery. Piles of skulls, and drums ornamented with them, are frequent in this piazza. The figure is a common soldier of the Ashantee, his belt ornamented with red shells, and stuck full of knives." The bottom image is another piazza view. "No. 8, is the upper end of the piazza, which is more ornamented, and appropriated to the superior captains, who have each a suite of rooms, marked by the small doors under the piazza. A woman is dancing whilst a man plays the flute and rattle.", Two plates in T. Edward Bowdich's Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee: with a Statistical Account of that Kingdom, and Geographical Notices of Other Parts of the Interior of Africa (London: J. Murray, Albemarle-Street: printed by W. Pulmer and Co., Cleveland-Row, St. James's, 1819), p. 308., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
- Date
- Dec. 2, 1818
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *U Afri Bowd 12983.Q p 308, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2896
- Title
- Part of Adoom street [No. 9]
- Description
- As the title suggests, the plate shows part of Adoom-street in Gaman (now part of Ghana). In the accompanying text, Bowdich wrote, "No. 9, is a view of part of Adoom-street: each open front denotes the residence of a captain, being used for talking palavers, receiving strangers, observing or superintending customs, and evening recreation The dwelling is entered by the small door at the side, which generally leads through a narrow passage or court to a large area like No. 6, and thence by various intricate ways to smaller and more retired areas like No 4. and No. 5. A fetish woman has just quitted the centre house; she has on a white cloth, and various pieces of rich silk are hanging round her girdle, her breasts are confined with a scarf, a fillet encircles her head, in each hand she waves a horse's tail, and she continues yelling and swinging round and round until she is quite stupified. A weaver and loom are on her right, and a market woman under her shed on the left.", Fold-out plate in T. Edward Bowdich's Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee: with a Statistical Account of that Kingdom, and Geographical Notices of Other Parts of the Interior of Africa (London: J. Murray, Albemarle-Street: printed by W. Pulmer and Co., Cleveland-Row, St. James's, 1819), p. 308., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
- Date
- Dec. 2, 1818
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *U Afri Bowd 12983.Q p 308, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A3141
- Title
- The first day of the yam custom
- Description
- Depicts the annual yam festival, a large public ceremony held at the beginning of the yam harvest in September. It includes a vast and diverse array of figures: the King, his warriors, dancers, musicians, officers of the foreign mission, Moors, and various onlookers. Toward the center of the scene, the King sits underneath the state umbrella, which is bright red, topped by a golden elephant, and flanked by the flags of Great Britain, Holland, and Denmark. The children of the nobility sit at the King's feet, waving elephant tails. A procession of dancers approaches the King; those at the front beat skulls decorated with thyme. Farther to the left, a bloody prisoner is being led by two of the King's messengers. In the background, Odumata, an aged aristocrat, is being carried in the state hammock. At the extreme left, a group of captains dance in a circle, firing their guns. At the far right, a group of Moors watch the festivities. Closer to the center, officers of the mission can be seen. Their linguists sit in front of them; their soldiers and servants stand behind them., Fold-out plate in T. Edward Bowdich's Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee: with a Statistical Account of that Kingdom, and Geographical Notices of Other Parts of the Interior of Africa (London: J. Murray, Albemarle-Street: printed by W. Pulmer and Co., Cleveland-Row, St. James's, 1819), p. 274., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
- Creator
- R. Havell & Son, engraver
- Date
- Dec. 2, 1818
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *U Afri Bowd 12983.Q p 274, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2894
- Title
- Pirogues des Negres
- Description
- Included in Chapter IV, "Cayor" the engraving shows pirogues, or the boats of the Africans., Illustration in René Geoffroy de Villeneuve's L'Afrique, ou Histoire, moeurs, usages et coutumes des africains: Le Sénégal (Paris: Nepveu, libraire, passage des Panoramas, no. 26, 1814), vol. 3 p. 60., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
- Date
- [1814]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri R.G.V. 65954.D v 3 p 170, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2929
- Title
- [Justice and Britannia.]
- Description
- An allegorical figure representing Justice hovers over the figure of Britannia, who is seated on a throne with a slave kneeling and praying at her feet. Although the slave wears shackles around his wrists and ankles, it is unclear whether his chains have been broken or remain intact. Behind him, a mother and child gesture toward Britannia. Ostensible subject of the engraving is Britain's renounciation of slavery. It accompanies the following lines in Montgomery's poem: "Britannia, -- she who scathed the crest of Spain, / And won the trident sceptre of the main, / When to the raging wind, and ravening tide, / She gave the huge Armada's scatter'd pride, / Smit by the thunder-wielding hand that hurl'd / Her vengeance round the wave-encircled world; / -- She shared the gain, the glory, and the guilt, / By her were Slavery's island-altar's built, / And fed with human victims; -- till the cries / Of blood, demanding vengeance from the skies, / Pierced her proud heart, too long in vain assail'd; / But justice in one glorious hour prevail'd : / Straight from her limbs the tyrant's garb she tore, / Spotted with pestilence,and thick with gore; / O'er her own head with noble fury broke / The grinding fetters, and the galling yoke, / Then plunged them in th' abysses of the sea, / And cried to weeping Africa -- 'Be free!' (p. 19-20), Plate in James Montgomery's Abolition of the Slave Trade: A Poem, in Four Parts (London: Printed by T. Bensley, for R. Bower, the proprietor, 1814), p. 18., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Imagery.
- Creator
- Worthington, William Henry, ca. 1795-ca. 1839, engraver
- Date
- Dec. 1, 1809
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *Am 1814 Mon 13197.Q p 18, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2720
- Title
- Datura stramonium b
- Description
- Book illustration containing three figures depicting the plant from the nightshade family commonly known as jimsonweed or thorn apple. "Fig. I" shows a "branch" of the medicinal and hallucinogenic plant with a thick, brown stem; green toothed leaves; and two lilac-colored, trumpet-shaped flowers; Fig. "II" shows the "stamen and style"; and Fig. III shows the "transverse section of the pericarp, showing the cells, receptacle and seeds.", From Jacob Bigelow, American medical botany: being a collection of the native medicinal plants of the United States, containing their botanical history and chemical analysis, and properties and uses in medicine, diet and the arts, with coloured engravings (Boston: Published by Cummings and Hilliard, at the Boston Bookstore, No. 1, Cornhill. University Press--Hilliard and Metcalf, 1817), vol. 1., Pl. 1., See William S. Reese's Stamped with a National Character: Nineteenth Century American Color Plate Books (New York: The Grolier Club, 1999) entry #10.
- Creator
- Annin, William B., 1791?-1839, engraver
- Date
- [1817]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Books | Rare Am 1817 Bigel Log.2142.O.1 (Collins)
- Title
- View of the Capitol of the United States after the conflagration in 1814
- Description
- Abolitionist allegorical book illustration juxtaposing a coffle of enslaved Black men and boys standing before the ruins of "a monument to liberty," the United States Capitol, following the British occupation of the city during the War of 1812. Author suggests that the destruction of the Capitol was a sign of divine displeasure to promote the abolition of slavery. In the foreground, two white men enslavers lead shackled men and boys pass the ruin. Two allegorical white female figures, one of Liberty, hover in the clouds above. Enslaved people were traded in Washington, D.C. and used in the reconstruction of the Capitol., Title from item., Frontispiece from Jessey Torrey, Jr.'s, A Portraiture of domestic slavery in the United States (1817)., Torrey was a Philadelphia physician, abolitionist, and author of tracts on morals and the diffusion of knowledge., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of views of the District of Columbia. 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
- Lawson, Alexander, 1773-1846, engraver
- Date
- 1817
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department GC - Government Buildings - Washington, D.C. [5740.F.9b], http://www.lcpimages.org/afro-americana/F181.htm