The Slave Deck on the Bark ‘Wildfire,’ 1860
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Image Reference
E027
Source
Engraved from daguerreotype, published in Harper’s Weekly (June 2, 1860), vol. 4, p. 344 (Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library; also, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-41678)
Comments
Emaciated survivors of the Middle Passage on top deck of the slave ship Wildfire, an American vessel which carried 510 Africans. It was captured by the U.S. Navy for violating the law prohibiting the slave trade and brought into Key West on April 30, 1860. A detailed account of the incident is in Harper’s Weekly, June 2, 1860. Details relating to the voyage of this ship can be found in D. Eltis, S. Behrendt, D. Richardson and H. Klein, "The Transatlantic Slave Trade: A Database on CD-ROM" (Cambridge University Press, 1999), VOYAGEID 4362. (see also image HW007)
Hanging a Slave, South Carolina, 1865