File:The Alternative of Williams-burg (BM 2010,7081.350).jpg
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Captions
Captions
Summary
[edit]The Alternative of Williams-burg
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| Artist |
Attributed to: Philip Dawe
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| Title |
The Alternative of Williams-burg |
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| Description |
English: Satire; Virginian loyalists being forced to sign either the Association or the Resolutions drawn up by the Williamsburg Convention in Aug. 1774. A number of Liberty Men with large clubs are grouped round two casks on the top of which is a plank serving as a table; on this is the paper which the reluctant loyalists are being forced to sign. A man in profile to the right is in the act of igning, while a truculent-looking cook stands over him with a large knife; the cook has a cockade in his cook's cap and smokes a long pipe. On the left another loyalist is being dragged towards the gallows by a group of Sons of Liberty with clubs, his hands are clasped in supplication; one points at the gallows, another, who holds the victim by the collar, is about to cut off his hair with a pair of scissors. The gallows (right) with its swinging sack of feathers and barrel of dripping tar is inscribed 'A cure for the Refractory.' Among the spectators is a scowling woman (right) in profile to the left, holding up an infant; a little boy clings to her skirts holding a flag inscribed 'Libert' and wearing a wooden sword and a hat with a cockade. There are also a black man, and a sour-looking minister with lank hair. One of the two barrels is inscribed 'Tobacco A Present for John Wilkes Esq.r Lord Mayor of London.' The papers on it are inscribed 'The Resolves of the Congress' and 'Non Importation'. Behind, on a high pedestal inscribed 'Botetourt' is a statue of a man standing, in peer's robes, pointing towards the gallows. 1775
Mezzotint with etching |
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| Date | 1775 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Medium | paper | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dimensions |
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| Collection |
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| Current location |
Prints and Drawings |
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| Accession number |
2010,7081.350 |
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| Notes |
From the Northumberland album: see 2010,7081.344 for more information. Unusually, this impression is glued to the sheet at the corners rather than tabbed in. [Text from BM Satires] This appears to illustrate a paragraph in the 'London Chronicle' of 26 Jan. 1774: 'Many Virginians being reluctant to sign [the Association] a gibbet was erected in the capital, Williamsburg, from which was hung a barrel of tar and a barrel of feathers, each inscribed 'A Cure for the Refractory', which proved very effective in securing signatures'. Virginia and Maryland subscribed tobacco towards the fund for Wilkes initiated by the Bill of Rights Society. D.M.Clark, 'British Opinion and the War of American Independence', 1930, p. 154. For the Association see Nos. 5284, 5297. One of a series, see pp. 169, 197, and Nos. 5241, 5284. The Resolutions of Williamsburg included an undertaking to conform to every resolution of the Continental Congress which shoud (in future) be consented to by the delegates from Virginia, and one that every exporter of tobacco should be considered an enemy to the community. They were printed in full in the 'Middlesex Journal' of Sept. 1720, 1774 and reprinted by R.T.H. Halsey, in the 'Boston Port Bill', pp. 260-9. The conciliatory policy of Lord Botetourt, the popular Governor of Virginia, 1768-70, was so successful that the Virginian House of Burgesses on his death voted 'by acclamation for a statue by "the best statutary in England" as a lasting and elegant Testimony that this Country will ever pay the most distinguished regard and veneration to governors of Worth and Merit'. It was erected in 1774, and is now standing in Williamsburg. |
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| Source/Photographer | https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_2010-7081-350 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Permission (Reusing this file) |
© The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Licensing
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