This whip made of chased silver and leather was owned by a lady and would have been used to punish domestic slaves for minor transgressions in their work. The enslaved were also beaten for no reason at all, as part of the addiction to control and suppression that developed within plantation society. It was the corporal punishment of female captives, and the fact that some whippings were carried out by female plantation owners, that offended a growing number of British people and added momentum to the abolitionist movement.
Credit/copyright: © Science Museum/SSPL
Accession number: Science Museum/SSPL, A634687
Themes
Life on the Plantation
The personal accounts of former slaves were incredibly important in strengthening the case for abolition... Read more...