Included in Chapter XV, "Arts et Industrie," the engraving shows an African woman beating cotton into threads. The cotton, which had already been ginned, was placed on a stiff mat and hit with a baton., Illustration in René Geoffroy de Villeneuve's L'Afrique, ou Histoire, meours, usages et coutumes des africains: Le Sénégal (Paris: Nepveu, libraire, passage des Panoramas, no. 26, 1814), vol. 4, p. 181., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Date
[1814]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri R.G.V. 65954.D v 4 p 181, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2934
Engraving is one of several accompanying T.B. Thorpe's article "Cotton and its Cultivation." It shows several black field hands picking cotton, and corresponds with the following passage: "The season of cotton picking commences in the latter part of July, and continues without intermission to the Christmas holidays. The work is not heavy, but becomes tedious from its sameness. The field hands are each supplied with a basket and a bag. The basket is left at the head of the 'cotton-rows;' the bag is suspended from the 'picker's' neck by a strap, and is used to hold the cotton as it is taken from the boll. When the bag is filled it is emptied into the basket, and this routine is continued through the day." (p. 455), Illustration in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. 8, no. 46 (March 1854), p. 456., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Creator
Orr, John William, 1815-1887, engraver
Date
[January 1854]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per H 9 62992.O v 8 n 46 March 1854 p 456, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2864
Engraving is one of several accompanying T.B. Thorpe's article "Cotton and its Cultivation." It shows seven African American plantation hands walking with large baskets of cotton on their heads. The men and women walk in a perfect line, leaving three or four paces between them. The illustration corresponds with the following passage, "Among the most characteristic scenes of plantation life is the returning of the hands at nightfall from the field, with their well-filled baskets of cotton upon their heads. Falling unconsciously "into line," the stoutest leading the way, they move along in the dim twilight of a winter day with the quietness of spirits rather than human beings." (p. 455-56), Illustration in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. 8, no. 46 (March 1854), p. 457., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Creator
Orr, John William, 1815-1887, engraver
Date
[January 1854]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per H 9 62992.O v 8 n 46 March 1854 p 457, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2865
Engraving is one of several accompanying T.B. Thorpe's article "Cotton and its Cultivation." Set in a gin-house, it shows two plantation hands working at a cotton gin. While a man pushes cotton out of the "packing-room" (a loft space) and down a chute, a woman uses a rake-like tool to guide it through the gin. Standing nearby, a woman with a bucket on her head watches the process, and a man peeks into the gin-house through an open window. Two large baskets used for carrying cotton can be seen in the left foreground., Illustration in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. 8, no. 46 (March 1854), p. 459., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Date
[January 1854]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per H 9 62992.O v 8 n 46 March 1854 p 459, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2866
