Description:

FULL TITLE: Representation du feu terrible a Nouvelle Yorck

Printed: Rue St. Jacques au dessus de la Fontaine St. Severin avec 2 Colonnes no. 257, Paris, c. 1777

Vue d'optique or lantern print. The print shows several buildings along a street engulfed in flames at the intersection of Broadway and Wall St. during fire on September 19, 1776, citizens being beaten by Redcoats, and looting by African slaves. It includes two lines of text in French that list some of the buildings destroyed by the fire; near the Exchange, in ‘Broock’ St., near Kings College, the Trinity church, the Lutheran chapel and the school for the poor.

‘… At a little past midnight, on the 21st September 1776, a fire broke out in a low drinking-place and brothel -a wooden building on the wharf, near White-hall Slip. The wind was brisk from the southwest, and the flames spread rapidly, unchecked, for there were few inhabitants in the city. Every building between White-hall and Broad streets up to Beaver Street was consumed, when the wind veered to the southeast and drove the flames towards Broadway. The buildings on each side of Beaver Street to the Bowling Green were burned. The fire crossed Broadway and swept all the buildings on each side as far as Exchange Street, and on the west side to Partition (Fulton) Street, destroying Trinity Church. Every building westward towards the Hudson River perished. The Tories and British writers of the day charged the destruction of the city to Whig incendiaries. Some of these citizens who came out of the gloom to save their property were murdered by British bayonets or cast into the flames. Even General Howe in his report made the charge, without a shadow of truth, that the accident was the work of Whig conspirators. About 500 buildings (almost a third part of the city) were laid in ashes. Mr. Grim's Account of the Great Fire 1776 …’

The Great Fire was a devastating fire that burned through the night of September 21 – 22, 1776 on the west side of what then constituted New York City at the southern end of the island of Manhattan. It coincided with the military occupation of the city by British forces during the American Revolutionary War.

American General George Washington had recognized the inevitability of the capture of New York City, which then only consisted of the southern end of Manhattan, and had withdrawn the bulk of his army. Washington and some of his counsel proposed to burn the city as a means to deny the city's lodging, provisions and supplies from the British. However, Congress rejected the idea and the Continental Army left the city intact and marched north to Harlem Heights at the opposite end of Manhattan Island, about 10 miles from the enemy. Major General James Robertson confiscated surviving uninhabited homes of known Patriots and assigned them to British officers. Non–Church of England churches were converted into prisons or sick infirmaries. Some of the common soldiers were billeted with civilian families. There was a great influx of Loyalists refugees into the city resulting in further overcrowding. The fire convinced the British to put the city under martial law rather than returning it to civilian authorities. With resources being diverted to the occupying military force and favored Loyalist collaborators, many residents were unable to adequately recover from the devastation, and forced to live in squalor. (Wikipedia).

The engraving has been cleaned and deacidified.

Conditon: GG

Cartographer: Chereau. J,

Date: 1776

Technique: Copper Engraving

Colour: Coloured

Width (cms) x Height (cms): 38.8 x 23.4

Ref: JJB1239