(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION) Uncle Toms Cabin pictorial bandanna

Sale 2534 - Lot 55

Unsold

Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500

(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) Uncle Tom's Cabin pictorial bandanna. Printed textile, 15 x 19 inches; light folds, moderate staining in upper right corner only, minimal wear. [England?], circa 1852-60

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Additional Details

An abolitionist textile with 25 vignettes from Uncle Tom's Cabin. The central image of an enslaved woman in chains being whipped is captioned "Scenes daily and hourly acting under the shadow of American law." This caption and image seem to have originated with an 1852 London edition of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which drew a stern rebuke from Harriet Beecher Stowe: "You will observe that there is not one scene of bodily torture described in the book--they are purposely omitted" (see McInnis, Slaves Waiting for Sale: Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade, pages 51-52). Thus we can guess that this may be an English printing. It is listed in Collins, Threads of History, 361 with a circa 1870 date, but we strongly suspect it was issued before abolition.