Skip to main content
Advanced Search
1960-131, Print
THE ALTERNATIVE OF WILLIAMS-BURG.
1960-131, Print

THE ALTERNATIVE OF WILLIAMS-BURG.

DateFebruary 16, 1775
Attributed to Philip Dawe
Publisher Robert Sayer (1725-1794) & John Bennett (fl. 1760-1787)
OriginEngland, London
MediumBlack and white mezzotint engraving
DimensionsOH: 14 1/4" x OW: 10 1/3"
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1960-131
DescriptionThe lower margin reads: " THE ALTERNATIVE OF WILLIAMS-BURG./ London Printed for R. Sayer & J. Bennett N.o 53 Fleet Street, as the Act directs, 16 Feb. 1775."

In the capitol courtyard at Williamsburg, liberty fighters have suspended a plank across two tobacco barrels to serve as a table upon which the pledge has been placed for signing. One of the barrels is labeled tobacco, a gift intended for John Wilkes, lord mayor of London, in appreciation for his support of colonial causes. Some of the colonists appear reluctant to sign the pledge because curtailing the export of tobacco would cause great financial loss. The alternative is obvious: behind the table, suspended from a gallows, are barrels of tar and feathers.
In the background is a statue honoring Lord Botetourt, the highly respected royal governor of Virginia from 1768-70, which erected in 1774 as a symbol for what was then British-American unity.

Label TextThis print illustrates the colonial protest against the Intolerable Acts, passed by Parliament to punish the colonies following the Boston Tea Party. In August 1774 the Williamsburg Resolutions were passed and by February 1775 Sayer and Bennett had published this commentary on the citizens' reactions. Virginians were urged to sign a pledge of loyalty to the resolves of the Continental Congress and to withhold the export of tobacco, the colonies' major and most profitable crop, until all taxes on imported goods were repealed.

The labeled barrel of tobacco is a gift intended for John Wilkes, lord mayor of London, in appreciation for his support for colonial causes. The colonists appear reluctant to sign the pledge because curtailing the export of tobacco would cause great financial loss. The alternative is obvious: tar and feathering.

The monument erected to Lord Botetourt stands in the Earl Gregg Swem Library of the College of William and Mary.

ProvenanceEx coll: H. Dunscombe Colt. Other known copies: Halsey collection at Brown; Bemmett Collection at the New York Public Library.

Old Print Shop, New York