The Rabbits

A copper engraving depicting a black street vendor selling rabbits to a fashionably dressed white woman. She picks up one of the dead rabbits by the leg and says ‘O la, how it smells – sure it’s not fresh’. The kneeling vendor replies, ‘Be Gar miss, dat no fair, – If Black Man take you by Leg so – you smell too’.

Object Details

ID: ZBA2559
Collection: Special collections
Type: Print
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Robert Sayer & Co
Date made: 8 October 1792
People: Robert Sayer & Co
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Michael Graham-Stewart Slavery Collection. Acquired with the assistance of the Heritage Lottery Fund
Measurements: Sheet: 251 mm x 201 mm; Image: 216 mm x 169 mm; Mount: 560 mm x 406 mm