Proof before letters. Hand-coloured lithograph measuring 292 by 413mm. Pencilled ms. caption to lower margin. Framed & glazed. Kingston, Jamaica, Duperly, 1833.
An extraordinary survival. Adolphe Duperly's famed lithograph of a critical moment in the Baptist War, or Christmas Rebellion, an eleven-day war fought in December 1831 - January 1832.
As many as 60,000 of Jamaica's enslaved workforce revolted "after a gifted enslaved speaker named Sam Sharpe had aroused them, stressing the natural freedom of man and divulging the news that both the king and the English people were in favor of black emancipation. He told them he believed that a “free paper” had been issued but that the planters were obstinate" (Klooster, 401).
Just as news of the French Revolution with its liberté, egalité, fraternité made life in French colonies increasingly difficult for both the government and planters, the passing of the 1807 abolition act in England, made the possibility of an emancipation decree all the more tantalising. Rumours abounded. "Once hope was aroused, it was hard to defeat. Slaves often ignored the authorities’ or planters’ denial of the existence of a liberty decree. During the Baptist War in Jamaica (1831–32), one missionary vehemently dismissed the rumor, telling slaves that although some wicked people had told them that the king had set them free, that news was 'false as Hell.' And yet he found that 'the idea of freedom had so intoxicated their minds as to nullify all I said.' Apparently, some slaves overcame their natural inhibitions regarding taking up arms in the belief that the king had ordered his soldiers not to fire on enslaved people fighting for their freedom" (ibid, 406-7)
Duperly's dramatic print shows Roehampton Estate burned in one of the actions of the Baptist War in January, 1832. In the foreground the slaves are seen watching the fire celebrating. This lithograph is closely modelled on an 1833 aquatint by James Hakewill. Duperly's was to essentially superimpose the reality of life in a plantation economy over the "fantasies designed to reassure British estate owners that their investments were safe" (Brockington).
The French-born Duperly (1801-1865) spent some years in Haiti where he taught at the Lycée National of Haiti before moving to Jamaica in the early 1830s. His main business was his photography studio, Adolphe Duperly and Sons, the success of which allowed him the time to produce lithographs such as this one. Others include "A View of the Kingston Theatre (taken from the Parade)"; "A View of the Kingston Barracks, Holland Estate (St Thomas in the East)"; "Golden Grove Estate. St Thomas in the East" as well as "Commemorative of the Extinction of Slavery" which depicted emancipation celebrations in 1838.
This lithograph was recently loaned to the Fitzwilliam Museum for their 2025 exhibition Rise Up! Resistance, Revolution & Reform.
Exceedingly rare: not in OCLC, not listed in Art Price.
very, V. & Kimano, W. (eds), Rise Up! Resistance, Revolution, Abolition (Blooms-bury, 2025) item 102, p. 150; Brockington, G., "Art and Emancipation in Jamaica" in The Burlington Magazine (Feb., 2008), pp.134-135; Klooster, W., "Slave Revolts, Royal Justice, and a Ubiquitous Rumor in the Age of Revolutions" in The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 71, No. 3 (July, 2014), pp.401-424.
