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).
Branding Slaves
SI-OB-979
1900s
Branding Slaves
William O. Blake, The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade (Columbus, Ohio, 1857), p. 97.
English
Slave Sales & Auctions: African Coast & the Americas
Africa
William O. Blake, The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade (Columbus, Ohio, 1857), p. 97.
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
2-Jun-16
Blake1