print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 2007,7058.2
- Title
- Object: Cruelty and Oppression Abroad
- Description
-
Satire on the campaign to end the British slave trade: a Caribbean scene with enslaved Africans dancing happily watched by two white men and a white woman, while in the foreground an abolitionist admits to a man in military uniform that accounts of cruelty are merely the products of his own "vile imagination". May 1792
- Production date
- 1792
- Dimensions
-
Height: 388 millimetres
-
Width: 512 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This print was published within six weeks of William Wilberforce's first motion for the abolition of the slave trade (see 2007,7058.1) and demonstrates how the West India interest began to cast doubts on the abolitionist cause. It is a pair to "Justice and Humanity at Home" (impression in the Huntington Library, San Marino, California) where William Wilberforce is seen to be ignoring the cruel flogging of British sailors ("This is so near home it is beneath our notice").
For another related print, see 2007,7058.3.
The print was advertised on "Wonderful News from Seringapatam" (BM Satires 8090), published by Holland on 18 May 1792: "Three Prints on the Slave Trade - Justice and Humanity at Home - Cruelty and Oppression Abroad; and, the Blind Enthusiast. Price Half a Guinea." There is another impression in the collection of the New York Historical Society.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2008 Jan-Mar, BM Gallery 90 display
- Acquisition date
- 2007
- Acquisition notes
- In 1970 Andrew Edmunds purchased from Folio Fine Art the remnant of an album of British satirical prints assembled in the late 18th century; the remaining contents included this print and another by Newton (2007,7058.1).
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 2007,7058.2
