The Slave Sale
The Slave Sale
Usage conditions apply
- Description
- This undated print depicts a scene from Chapter 30 of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, “The Slave Warehouse,” in which the fifteen-year-old Emmeline is separated from her mother and sold to the villainous Simon Legree. A group of white men are gathered in a circular inspecting a selection of slaves who are up for auction. On the left, a young boy is examined by a group of prospective buyers, while Emmeline stands on the auction block on the right. Her mother makes a pleading gesture towards Legree, who raises his hand to place the winning bid. A caption below the illustration, a caption reads, “The Hammer Falls…’he has got the girl body & soul unless God help her,’” revealing the man’s sexual desire towards the girl. In this illustration, Emmeline has been given distinctively white skin, to emphasize that she is a quadroon, one-fourth black, and thereby garner extra sympathy from white Northerners.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- Lithograph
- Object Type
- Lithograph
- Date made
- ca 1855
- maker
- unknown
- place made
- World
- Physical Description
- paper (overall material)
- ink (overall material)
- Measurements
- image: 7 1/2 in x 12 in; 19.05 cm x 30.48 cm
- ID Number
- DL.60.2419
- catalog number
- 60.2419
- accession number
- 228146
- Credit Line
- Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
- subject
- African American
- Reform Movements
- Blacks
- Civil War
- Slavery
- See more items in
- Cultural and Community Life: Domestic Life
- Domestic Furnishings
- Art
- American Civil War Prints
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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