Hand-colored mezzotint on paper; after Noel Le Mire (French, 1724—93), after Jean Baptiste Le Paon (French, 1738—85), after Charles Willson Peale; sheet: 14 1/2 in x 10 3/8 in; 36.8 cm x 26.4 cm. Published in London. Five Colleges and Historic Deerfield Museum Consortium, MA.
Washington, front, is holding the Declaration of Independence; his slave-valet, Billy Lee — nearly as good a horseman as Washington — is rear.
But with the British army evacuated [from Philadelphia in 1778] and the Patriots now in charge, Philadelphia Loyalists were doubly vulnerable to censure and punishment for siding with the Crown and for having consorted with the enemy. The Philadelphia Assembly Appointed [Charles Willson] Peale and four others to be Commissioners of Forfeited Estates, and for that the commissioners would receive a 5 percent commission. Peale’s group had extraordinary power to interrogate suspected traitors, break into houses, remove property, and sell off estates. Writs were issued to seize 118 estates ...