Shows enslaved man, several women and children; clothing styles depicted. The English artist Eyre Crowe observed this scene while on a trip through the South (see other images of slave sales in Richmond on this website).

Captioned Slave market in Mascate (Masqat or Muscat, today the capital of Oman), shows Arab traders and onlookers with captured black Africans. This illustration accompanies a lengthy eyewitness account by Loarer (no first name given) on slavery on the east coast of Africa (pp. 135-138).

This photograph shows the front of Price, Birch & Co, Dealers in Slaves with unidentified African Americans, in Union army uniforms, in the foreground. Price, Birch, & Co. was a well-known firm that kept slaves in pens or cells before they were sold to the Lower South. Dugan does not specify the location of the photograph, but the original is in the National Archives, Washington, D.C. For a companion photo, see image NW0246 on this website.

Caption, Burning of a slave establishment by British seamen and marines, at Keonga, river Mozama, in the Mozambique Channel. The accompanying article describes the destruction in the previous June of this African-owned station which was defended by a cannon and by about 300 free natives, with muskets, besides several bowmen and spearmen.

This street scene shows enslaved children and adults with European buyers and sellers. The engraving derives from a painting made by Augustus Earle (1793–1838) was a British painter who traveled widely and lived in Rio de Janeiro between 1820 and 1824. His art provide an accurate record of European colonization during the nineteenth century. Maria Graham (née Dundas; 1785–1842), also known as Maria Lady Callcott, was a British writer of travel and children's books, as well as an illustrator. She went to Brazil on her return to England from Chile in 1823, which is the year Brazil declared their independence from Portugal. She stayed at the royal palace.

This illustration from Virginia shows the kidnapping of a free person of color to sell him as a slave. Bourne described "nothing is more common than for two of these white partners in kidnapping. . . to start upon the prowl; and if they find a freeman on the road, to demand his certificate, tear it in pieces, or secrete it, tie him to one of their horses, hurry off to some jail, while one whips the citizen along as fast as their horses can travel. There by an understanding with the jailor who shares in the spoil, all possibility of intercourse with his friends is denied the stolen citizen. At the earliest possible period, the captive is sold out to pay the felonious claims of the law . . . and then transferred to some of their accomplices of iniquity . . . who fill every part of the southern states with rapine, crime, and blood" (p. 120). The illustrations in this anti-slavery book strongly reflect its abolitionist perspective.

Bourne described this illustration by quoting from a graphic description of auctions for slaves by an unnamed native of Virginia, who said, "Here, half covered with rags, and loaded with chains, human beings are driven together in crowds, and. . . are sold and bought. Within a few days past, I have beheld in Richmond hundreds of men, women, and children, thus exposed in the open streets, and bartered off like brute animals" (p. 111). The illustrations in this anti-slavery book strongly reflect its abolitionist perspective.

This engraving shows European and African slave traders at an unknown location, likely in Africa. According to the accompanying text, "European on left examining an African; on right, African traders looking at European trade goods, and European in background with whip herding purchased Africans toward slave ship. . . Illustrates the process of slaving after Africans were captured; after examining the captives, they were chained and stowed" (see pp. 113, 127). The image was apparently not based on an eye-witness, but was fabricated by the artist. This illustration was probably derived from an earlier, unidentified, source; or it is a composite of other images. see, for example, image canot-2 on this website.

This print shows an enslaved woman being branded by a white man, while other African women were presumably waiting to be branded at an unknown location, likely in Africa. Blake used this illustration to depict the lengths to which slave traders would go in order to keep track of their merchandise. The same image is also found in later editions of Blake. In any case, this image is apparently not based on an eye-witness, but was fabricated by the artist. The illustration appears to be an embellishment of an earlier one in another source (see image H006 on this website; also, for details on branding).

"Trip Back from a Sale of Slaves, in Rio de Janeiro" (caption translation). This engraving shows a slave owner smoking a cigar and carrying an umbrella while leading a horse and a group of four enslaved adults and a child. One of the men carries household goods, including a clock and a musical instrument while the two women, one holding onto a child, are behind him. Bringing up the rear is a man who appears to be guarding the newly-bought slaves. The material goods shown suggest that the auction was not only for the purchase of slaves but household items as well. François-Auguste Biard (1799-1882), or François Thérèse Biard, was a French painter and traveler. Around 1858, he spent two years in Brazil working at the court of Emperor Pedro II. From Rio de Janeiro, he made several excursions into the interior, where he painted some of the earliest images of indigenous people in the Amazon. On his return to France, he went through North America and painted scenes depicting slavery. He published around 180 engravings and was sometimes criticized for inserting humour in otherwise serious paintings. See Ana Lucia Araujo, Brazil through French Eyes: A Nineteenth-Century Artist in the Tropics (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2015).

"A Sale of Slaves, in Rio de Janeiro" (caption translation). This engraving shows a the auctioneer standing on a chair with his hammer, while a prospective buyer examines an enslaved woman with a child clinging to her arm. In the background, are three other enslaved people about to be auctioned. Various material goods, including household furniture and musical instruments, are being sold at the same auction. François-Auguste Biard (1799-1882), or François Thérèse Biard, was a French painter and traveler. Around 1858, he spent two years in Brazil working at the court of Emperor Pedro II. From Rio de Janeiro, he made several excursions into the interior, where he painted some of the earliest images of indigenous people in the Amazon. On his return to France, he went through North America and painted scenes depicting slavery. He published around 180 engravings and was sometimes criticized for inserting humour in otherwise serious paintings. See Ana Lucia Araujo, Brazil through French Eyes: A Nineteenth-Century Artist in the Tropics (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2015).

This engraving shows a man and woman (with a child in her arms) on an auction block, surrounded by white men. G. H. Andrews explained how "The auction rooms for the sale of Negroes are situated in the main streets, and are generally the ground floors of the building; the entrance-door opens straight into the street, and the sale room is similar to any other auction room. . . placards, advertisements, and notices as to the business carried on are dispensed with, the only indications of the trade being a small red flag hanging from the front door post, and a piece of paper upon which is written. . . this simple announcement - 'Negroes for sale at auction'" (p.138-140). George Henry Andrews (1816-1898) was a British engineer, marine painter, watercolourist and illustrator. In 1860, he was sent to North America to cover the Prince of Wales's tour of Canada and the U.S. He made his sketches on the spot.

"Slave market" (caption translation). This engraving made from author's description. According to Chambon, the Scenes depicted "1) Negroes for sale in a public market; 2) Negro slave examined before being purchased; 3) an Englishman licking a Negro's chin to ascertain his age, and to determine from the taste of his sweat if he is sick; 4) Negro slave with the brand of slavery on his arm. Bottom: 5) slave ship lying in the harbor waiting for the trading to be completed; 6) chaloupe loaded with newly purchased slaves transporting them to the ship; 7) Negroes on shore wailing and crying at the sight of their loved ones and friends being sent away.

Aguet did not provide a comprehensive bibliography in her book or provide titles of the images. The caption she wrote about this image explained how "The defenders of the slave trade argued that African kings themselves were only too willing to sell their Negro subjects to white men. However, without buyers, there would have been no sellers."

"Fort of Moor Fort, on the Island of Moyella" (caption translation). Moyella Island is one of the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean. This engraving shows a fort, Europeans purchasing slaves and transporting them to a waiting ship.

This engraving of a slave barracoon in the Loango Coast and Kwanza North regions shows several captive Africans, including women and children, while an African guard holds a spear. Glave lived in the Congo for six years, 1883-1889. He provided a vivid account of slaving activities in the Congo river basin. The illustration was described as captives being "hobbled with roughly hewn logs which chafe their limbs to open sores; sometimes a whole tree presses its weight on their bodies while their necks are penned into the natural prong formed by its branching limbs. Others sit from day to day with their legs and arms maintained in a fixed position by rudely constructed stocks, and each slave is secured to the roof-posts by a cord knotted to a cane ring which either encircles his neck or is intertwined with his woolly hair. Many die of pure starvation, as the owners give them barely enough food to exist upon. . . After suffering this captivity for a short time, they become mere skeletons. All ages, of both sexes, are to be seen: mothers with their babes; young men and women; boys and girls; and even babies who cannot yet walk. . . One seldom sees either old men or old women; they are all killed in the raids" (Glave, pp. 830-31). This image was reproduced in Thomas W. Knox, The Boy Travellers on the Congo (New York, 1887). A variant of this illustration, captioned for sale appears in Glave's book In Savage Africa (New York, 1892), p. 201).

"Landing" (caption translation). This image shows newly arrived Africans being landed from small boats in a harbor in Brazil. Johann Moritz Rugendas (1802–1858) was a German painter, famous for his works depicting landscapes and ethnographic subjects in the Americas, in the first half of the nineteenth century. Rugendas arrived in Brazil in 1822, hired as an illustrator for Baron von Langsdorff's scientific expedition. Rugendas remained on his own in Brazil until 1825, exploring and recording his many impressions of daily life in the provinces of Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and quickly the coastal provinces of Bahia and Pernambuco on his journey back to Europe. He produced mostly drawings and watercolors. He returned to Europe and between 1827 and 1835 he published his book with the help of Victor Aimé Huber. For an analysis of Rugendas' drawings, as these were informed by his anti-slavery views, see Robert W. Slenes, African Abrahams, "Lucretias and Men of Sorrows: Allegory and Allusion in the Brazilian Anti-slavery Lithographs (1827-1835) of Johann Moritz Rugendas," Slavery & Abolition, 23 (2002), p. 147-168. The same illustration was also published in the Illustrated London News (Aug. 6, 1842; vol. 1, p. 193), inexplicably with the caption "Hill Coolies Landing at Mauritius." The commercial house Corbis sells this image from the Illustrated London News, with the same caption, and authors/publishers who purchase from Corbis repeat the erroneous identification as a scene from the British colony of Mauritius, e.g., J. P. Rodriguez, Chronology of World Slavery (ABC-CLIO, 1999), p.142.

"Boutique on Val-Longo Road" (caption translation). This engraving shows slaves in a building on the street of the slave market in Rio de Janeiro. Adults ranged along benches, children were playing on the floor; two Europeans present. Jean-Baptiste Debret (1768–1848) was a French painter, who produced lithographs depicting people during his residence in Brazil from 1816 to 1831. The Portuguese court commissioned Debret to paint their portraits, but he took a particular interest painting enslaved Africans and indigenous peoples. See also Jean Baptiste Debret, Viagem Pitoresca e Historica ao Brasil ([Paris, 1854]; Editora da Universidade de Sao Paulo, 1989).

This image depicts a row boat filled with Africans being landed from a slave ship at anchor at an unidentified port in the Americas. Appears to be nineteenth century rendition of a seventeenth century event. Perhaps painted by Howard Pyle (1853-1911), who was an American illustrator and author, primarily for young people. He is credited with creating what has become the modern stereotype of pirate dress. See images H007 and H009.

This scene on a beach shows a woman on her knees being branded on her back by a white man with several African and European onlookers with a ship in the background. Neither the location of the scene nor the original source were identified. Perhaps the drawing was done specifically for the Works Project Administration in Virginia. For details on branding, see image H006.

The location of these items was not given in the source, but the originals are in the Wilberforce Museum, Hull, England. For details on branding, see image H006.

This imagined image shows a group of emaciated captives on shore, surrounded by Dutch sailors with a slave ship in the background. Howard Pyle (1853-1911) was an American illustrator and author, primarily for young people. He is credited with creating what has become the modern stereotype of pirate dress. See also, Engel Sluiter, New Light on the '20. and Odd Negroes' Arriving in Virginia, August 1619, William and Mary Quarterly (April 1997), pp. 395-398.

"Slave Market" (caption translation). This image shows men, women and children being sold. Some are cooking food over an open fire. Johann Moritz Rugendas (1802–1858) was a German painter, famous for his works depicting landscapes and ethnographic subjects in the Americas, in the first half of the nineteenth century. Rugendas arrived in Brazil in 1822, hired as an illustrator for Baron von Langsdorff's scientific expedition. Rugendas remained on his own in Brazil until 1825, exploring and recording his many impressions of daily life in the provinces of Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and quickly the coastal provinces of Bahia and Pernambuco on his journey back to Europe. He produced mostly drawings and watercolors. He returned to Europe and between 1827 and 1835 he published his book with the help of Victor Aimé Huber. For an analysis of Rugendas' drawings, as these were informed by his anti-slavery views, see Robert W. Slenes, African Abrahams, "Lucretias and Men of Sorrows: Allegory and Allusion in the Brazilian Anti-slavery Lithographs (1827-1835) of Johann Moritz Rugendas," Slavery & Abolition, 23 (2002), p. 147-168. Daniel Mannix, Black Cargoes (New York, 1962; after p. 146), erroneously captions this illustration as "A slave market in Martinique, early nineteenth century."

This image shows the estate sale involving enslaved Africans in New Orleans. James Silk Buckingham (25 August 1786 – 30 June 1855) was a Cornish-born author, journalist and traveller, who fought for a liberal press in India. Following his retirement from parliament, in October 1837, Buckingham began a four-year tour of North America. James Buckingham visited New Orleans for about a month in early 1839. During this period he went to one of the city's grander hotels, the St. Louis hotel, sometimes called the French Exchange. Within this hotel was the Rotunda, a very large and ornate room in which auctions are held for every description of goods. During his visit several auctioneers were competing with each other and selling various goods, among them slaves. These consisted, he wrote, "of an unhappy negro family, who were all exposed to the hammer at the same time. Their good qualities were enumerated in English and in French, and their persons were carefully examined by intending purchasers, among whom they were ultimately disposed of, chiefly to Creole buyers. . . The middle of the Rotunda was filled with casks, boxes, bales, and crates; the negroes exposed for sale were put to stand on these, to be the better seen by persons attending the sale" (pp. 334-335).

A broadside, To be sold. . . a cargo of ninety-four prime, healthy Negroes; men, women, and children from Sierra Leone.