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James Gillray
1756-1815
Barbarities in the West Indias
[London] : Pubd. April 23d. 1791, by H. Humphrey N. 18. Old Bond Street, [1791]
etching, hand colored
image: 238 x 341 mm; sheet: 316 x 456 mm
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
1986.176
Notes
The print depicts an infamous incident described during William Wilberforce's motion for the abolition of the slave trade in 1791.
Below caption title: Mr "Frances [sic] relates "Among numberless other acts of cruelty daily practised, "an English Negro Driver, because a young Negro thro sickness was unable to "work, threw him into a copper of Boiling-Sugar-juice, & after keeping him, "steeped over head & Ears for above Three Quarters of an hour in the boiling "liquid, whipt him with such severity, that it was near Six Months before he "recover'd of his Wounds & Scalding"------Vide Mr Frances Speech, corroborated by Mr Fox, Mr Wilberforce &c &c.
Below caption title: Mr "Frances [sic] relates "Among numberless other acts of cruelty daily practised, "an English Negro Driver, because a young Negro thro sickness was unable to "work, threw him into a copper of Boiling-Sugar-juice, & after keeping him, "steeped over head & Ears for above Three Quarters of an hour in the boiling "liquid, whipt him with such severity, that it was near Six Months before he "recover'd of his Wounds & Scalding"------Vide Mr Frances Speech, corroborated by Mr Fox, Mr Wilberforce &c &c.
Provenance
From the library of Gordon N. Ray.
Summary
Print shows a Black man held under the surface of a boiling vat of sugar water with the handle of a scourge by a brutal overseer. The overseer stands on a ladder, saying, "B-t your black Eyes! what you can't work because you're not well? - but I'll give you a warm bath, to cure your Ague, & a Curry-combing afterwards to put Spunk into you." On the wall above his head are nailed up, in a row, a bird, a fox, and ferrets, accompanied by a severed human arm and two ears. Cf. George.
Associated names
Humphrey, Hannah, active 1774-1817, publisher.
Ray, Gordon Norton, 1915-1986, former owner.
Ray, Gordon Norton, 1915-1986, former owner.
Bibliography
Wood, Marcus. Blind Memory : visual representations of slavery in England and America, 1780-1865. New York : Routledge, c2000, page 155 (reproduced)
Artist
Classification
Department
Century prints
Catalog link