Slave-Trade
date: label: Date made
content: after 1863
name: label: lithographer; publisher
content: Currier & Ives
label: original artist
content: Baird, Auguste Francois
notes: label: Description
content: Although the Atlantic slave trade was abolished in 1808, some slavers continued to illegally buy slaves in Africa and transport them to locations where slavery was legal. This colored print depicts a West African slave market on the coast of Sierra Leone and is based on an 1840 painting by the French artist Auguste-Francois Biard and its derivative print by British engraver, C.E. Wagstaff. The original painting was given to abolitionist, Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton and is currently owned by the Wilberforce House in the United Kingdom. Currier and Ives did not credit the original artist when producing the lithograph.
label: Description
content: At the center of the scene, two white French slave-traders inspect a potential slave who lies on his back. Another man brands a female slave. In the lower right, an African slave-dealer sits smoking a long pipe. Behind him, a white dealer reclines, apathetically watching the events in front of him. On the left, slaves are whipped and loaded onto ships. A white slaver stands in the forefront with his back to the viewer, holding a device for restraining slaves.
label: Description
content: Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888) was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and after serving an apprenticeship in Boston, he moved to New York City in 1834. In New York, he briefly partnered with Adam Stodart, but their firm dissolved within a year, and Currier went into business on his own until 1857. James M. Ives (1824-1895) was a native New York lithographer who was hired as a bookkeeper by Currier in 1852. In 1857, the two men partnered, forming the famous lithography firm of Currier and Ives, which continued under their sons until 1907.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: Subject
content: Costume
label: Subject
content: Reform Movements
label: Subject
content: Blacks
label: referenced
content: Civil War
label: Subject
content: Slavery
label: related event
content: Civil War
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
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content: American Civil War Prints
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content: Art
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content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.60.2618
label: catalog number
content: 60.2618
label: accession number
content: 228146
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Lithograph
label: Object Type
content: Lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: image: 17 in x 23 5/8 in; 43.18 cm x 60.0075 cm