[Practical slavery and professional liberty] [graphic] / Barralet del. ; Edwin sc.
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