Art Institute of Chicago
The Fugitive Slave, plate 2 from Paul et Virginie
Charles-Melchior Descourtis (French, 1753-1820)
- Date
- 1795-97
- Medium
- Etching and engraving printed in yellow, blue, red, and black inks on paper
- Culture
- France
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
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.
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