Comments
Caption: "Left to Die." Included in a lengthy chapter on the slave trade, this scene illustrates an incident from a novel wherein an illegal slaving vessel was consumed by fire before it could be boarded by British sailors who intended to liberate the slaves. The fire spread rapidly and many of the slaves drowned; others were swept into the sea and ultimately made it to the shore (pp. 443-44). Although this illustration is sometimes reproduced in secondary sources on slavery which erroneously give the impression it is based on an eye-witness drawing, the illustration is the late nineteenth century artist's imaginative rendering and is a complete fabrication.