About this sheet
Bertuch African Slave Trade & Slave Ship Engraving, 1805
Original antique hand-coloured copperplate engraving illustrating the transatlantic slave trade, published by Friedrich Justin Bertuch in his celebrated Bilderbuch für Kinder in Weimar, 1805.
The upper scene depicts a coastal landscape in Africa, where captive Africans are shown being detained and assembled by armed traders. A procession approaches an encampment near the coast, while a European sailing ship lies offshore. The deceptively picturesque landscape contrasts starkly with the subject represented.
The lower half contains three detailed diagrams illustrating the confinement and transportation of enslaved people aboard a slave ship. These include a longitudinal section, a plan of the densely packed lower deck, and a transverse section showing the extremely restricted spaces in which people were transported during the Middle Passage.
The diagrams belong to the visual tradition made famous by abolitionist representations of the British slave ship Brooks (also spelled Brookes), whose plans became one of the most influential images used to expose the conditions of the transatlantic slave trade. Bertuch's plate adapted this subject for his educational encyclopedia and demonstrates how information about the slave trade and its conditions circulated in continental Europe around 1800.
Published in Friedrich Justin Bertuch's Bilderbuch für Kinder, an ambitious illustrated encyclopedia created to introduce young readers to subjects ranging from natural history and geography to technology, cultures and contemporary events.
The combination of the hand-coloured African scene with technical diagrams of a slave ship makes this an unusually striking historical document relating to slavery, the Middle Passage, European perceptions of Africa and the abolition era.
Friedrich Justin Bertuch (1747–1822)
Bilderbuch für Kinder
Weimar, Germany
1805
Original hand-coloured copperplate engraving
This is an original antique engraving published in 1805, not a modern reproduction.
Condition:
Good antique condition with age-related toning, scattered foxing and spotting, particularly within the margins. Some minor surface marks and handling wear consistent with age. Original or early hand colouring remains attractive. Please study the photographs carefully as they form part of the condition description.
Period
Early 19th Century
Style
Neoclassical
Historical
Educational
Abolition Era
Medium
Hand-coloured copperplate engraving
Subject
Transatlantic Slave Trade
Slave Ship
Middle Passage
Africa
Maritime History
Abolition
African History
Colonial History
Keywords:
Friedrich Justin Bertuch, Bertuch, Bilderbuch für Kinder, slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, slave ship, slave ship plan, Brooks slave ship, Brookes slave ship, Middle Passage, African slave trade, slavery engraving, slavery print, abolition, abolitionist history, African history, Black history, maritime history, maritime engraving, naval history, ship diagram, ship plan, historical ship print, Africa engraving, colonial history, European colonialism, Atlantic history, 1805 engraving, antique engraving, antique print, hand colored engraving, hand coloured engraving, German engraving, Weimar, early 19th century, historical document, educational print, copperplate engraving
