From a cylindrical stone vat filled with steaming liquid protrude the legs and arms of an african slave, who is being held under the surface by a fierce-looking overseer with the handle of a scourge. The overseer stands on a ladder (right), 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 with a bird, a fox, and ferrets (vermin), a black arm and two ears. Through a doorway (right) palm-trees are suggested. Beneath the title is etched: '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. ' 23 april 1791
hand-coloured etching. Date: 1791. Dimensions: Height: 247 mm; Width: 348 mm. Medium: paper. Depicted People: Charles James Fox. Collection: British Museum. Barbarities in the West Indias (BM J,3.42 1)
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