Beadle's Pocket Library No. 446

# Black Panther, the Half-Blood; or, The Slaves of the Silver Mines

This opening installment of the adventure serial by Jos. E. Badger Jr. is set in Old Arizona around Spanish silver mines near the Colorado River. The narrative follows Pablo, a half-blood Tejua Indian chief and mine overseer, who defies Don Manuel, a Spanish mine owner, refusing degrading labor. After striking Don Manuel when threatened with a whip, Pablo is arrested and tried before Spanish judges. Though one judge, Don Cavella, advocates leniency, Pablo is sentenced to sixty lashes at the whipping post and imprisonment in an underground cell. The tale establishes a backdrop of Indian slave labor, Spanish colonial oppression, and simmering insurrection. Garcia, a giant Indian executioner who has sided with the Spanish, prepares to administer Pablo's punishment as armed soldiers and cannon stand ready to suppress any slave uprising.