The Fugitive Slave, plate 2 from Paul et Virginie
1795-97
Medium
Etching and engraving printed in yellow, blue, red, and black inks on paper
Dimensions
Image: 37.5 × 41.2 cm (14 13/16 × 16 1/4 in.); Sheet, cut within platemark: 41 × 47 cm (16 3/16 × 18 9/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
28756
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In Paul and Virginie, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre addressed the injustices of Mauritius’s slave system most openly in one early scene, which is the subject of this image: the children return a fugitive from slavery to her enslaver in the hope that their appeal will secure her pardon. The owner, shown with his cane raised in oath, assures the children that he will spare the woman, but they later discover that he did not keep his promise and the woman was brutally punished for her escape.