{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O127411"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O127411/"}},"images":null,"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O127411","accessionNumber":"E.1215A-1886","objectType":"Print","titles":[{"title":"A Negro hung alive by the ribs to a gallows","type":"published title"}],"summaryDescription":"The Dutch captured the British colony of Suriname during the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1667). Under the West India Company it was developed as a plantation slave society and became a primary destination for the Dutch slave trade. The brutal regime caused high mortality; despite the import of 300,000 slaves between 1668 and 1823, the population never grew beyond 50,000. 'Maroonage' became the major form of resistance. Fugitive slaves, or 'maroons', escaped inland to form permanent communities from where they waged a campaign of guerrilla warfare against the Dutch.\r\n\r\nIn 1774 the Scottish-Dutch soldier John Gabriel Stedman witnessed the brutal oppression of slaves during a campaign against the maroons, which he described in his <i>Narrative of a Five Years Expedition Against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam</i>. The book, which included illustrations by William Blake, was adopted by those who advocated the abolition of the slave trade, though Stedman was thought to support reform rather than abolition.\r\n\r\nThis gruesome image by Blake shows a slave suspended to a gallows by means of a hook through his ribs. Stedman’s <i>Narrative</i> recounts that the slave was left to die slowly but did so without complaint. His stoicism underlines the horror of the scene, heightened further by the skulls and the slave ship just visible on the horizon.","physicalDescription":"Print depicts a black man suspended by means of a hook through his ribs, from a gallows. Skulls and human bones in the foreground, a ship sailing in the distance.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Blake, William","id":"A3132"},"association":{"text":"printmaker","id":"AAT25164"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"paper (fiber product)","id":"AAT14109"},{"text":"printing ink","id":"AAT187371"}],"techniques":[{"text":"etching (printing process)","id":"AAT53241"},{"text":"engraving (printing process)","id":"AAT53225"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Etching and engraving on paper","categories":[{"text":"Black History","id":"THES48989"},{"text":"Slavery & Abolitionism","id":"THES49008"},{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"},{"text":"Caribbean","id":"THES286921"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":[],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLF (VA)","id":"THES49656"},"free":"","case":"TOPIC","shelf":"4","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"print","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"Yes-racial-stereotyping","note":"Term 'negro' in title. Image also depicts graphic violence and is not visible on EtC"}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1796","earliest":"1796-01-01","latest":"1796-12-31"},"association":{"text":"published","id":"x30682"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"E.1215B-1886","id":"O127408"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"E.1215C-1886","id":"O127406"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"E.1215D-1886","id":"O127404"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"E.1215E-1886","id":"O127399"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"E.1215F-1886","id":"O127397"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"E.1215G-1886","id":"O127394"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"E.1215H-1886","id":"O127392"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"E.1215I-1886","id":"O127391"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"E.1215J-1886","id":"O127389"},"association":"Set"},{"object":{"text":"E.1215K-1886","id":"O127387"},"association":"Set"}],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"19.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"14.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Bottom right, the signature, Blake Sculpt.","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""}],"objectHistory":"NB The term \"negro\" was used historically to describe people of black African heritage but, since the 1960s, has fallen from usage and, increasingly, is considered offensive. The term is repeated here in its original historical context.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"'A Negro hung alive by the ribs to a gallows', illustration to the publication <i>Narrative of Five Years Expedition Against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam</i> by Gabriel Stedman, etching and engraving by William Blake, London, published 1796","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Wood, Marcus. Blind Memory: Visual representations of slavery in England and America, 1780-1865. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000. pp.38-40, p.39 (ill)"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"slave","id":"AAT17491"},{"text":"gallows","id":"x35832"}],"contentConcepts":[{"text":"Torture","id":"x38432"}],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.1215A-1886"],"accessionNumberNum":"1215","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":1886,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-02-06","recordCreationDate":"2006-08-24","availableToBook":false}}