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Title: Negresse battant le coton au lieu de le carder
Description: 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

Title: Negresse filant le coton
Description: Included in Chapter XV, "Arts et Industrie," the engraving shows an African woman spinning cotton. She holds a spool in each hand, and sits on a mat with a large basket of cotton next to her., Illustration in René Geoffroy de Villeneuve's L'Afrique, ou Histoire, moeurs, usages et coutumes des africains: Le Sénégal (Paris: Nepveu, libraire, passage des Panoramas, no. 26, 1814), vol. 4, p. 182., 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 182, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2935

Title: View of cotton plantation and gen [sic] in West Indies in 1764
Description: According to the title, the image is set in the West Indies in 1764. The lithograph accompanies a brief discussion of the history of cotton cultivation in the New World. The featured plantation is situated near the coast, and three ships (presumably trading vessels) are visible in the background. In the right foreground, a slave picks cotton from a plant and places it in a basket. Behind him, another slave carefully cleans the picked cotton. At the far left, a female slave operates an early cotton gin, and two men pack large sacks of finished cotton. Two full sacks of cotton occupy the left foreground; one bears the label "7 No. 120 / P.R.M.", Plate in the Report on the Agriculture and Geology of Mississippi (Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo, and Co. for E. Barksdale, State Printer, 1854), plate VIII, p. 140., Engraving is based upon a print executed by Prevost and published in the first volume of Diderot's Encylcopedia (Paris: 1762) under the title "Oeconomie Rustique, Culture et Arsonnage du Coton.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Creator: Fuchs, F., lithographer
Date: [1854]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1854 Miss Sta 13287.O p 140, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2798

Title: Picking cotton
Description: 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

Title: Carrying cotton to the gin
Description: 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

Title: Cotton gin -- Ginning cotton
Description: 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

Title: Oeconomie rustique, culture et arsonnage du coton
Description: Engraving shows a cotton plantation in the West Indies. The plantation is situated near the coast, and three ships (presumably trading vessels) are visible in the background. In the right foreground, a slave picks cotton from a plant and places it in a basket. Behind him, another slave carefully cleans the picked cotton. At the far left, a female slave operates an early cotton gin, and two men pack large sacks of finished cotton. Two full sacks of cotton occupy the left foreground; one bears the label "7 No. 120 / P.R.M.", Upper portion of an engraving published in the first volume of Denis Diderot's Encyclopedie, ou, Dictionnaire Raisonne des Sciences, des Arts et des Metiers (A Paris: Chez Briasson, rue Saint Jacques, à la Science; chez David, rue & vis-à-vis la Grille des Mathurins; chez Le Breton, imprimeur ordinaire du Roy, rue de la Harpe; chez Durand, rue du Roin, vis-à-vis la petite Porte des Mathurins, 1762), n.p., Prevost's engraving reappeared as a lithograph in the Report on the Agriculture and Geology of Mississippi (Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo, and Co. for E. Barksdale, State Printer, 1854), plate VIII, p. 140., Key to the illustration is printed at the beginning of Diderot's text (p. 9) It reads as follows: "Fig. I. Une habitation des Isles de l'Amérique où l'on cultive le coton. No. 1, cotonier dans toute sa grandeur, arbuste portant le coton. 2, negre qui cueille le coton. 3, negre qui épulche le coton. 4, négresse qui passe le coton au moulin, pour en separer la graine. 5, negre qui emballe le coton en le foulant des piés, & se servant d'une pince de fer pour le même effet. 6, autre negre qui de tems en tems mouille la balle extérieurement en jettant de l'eau avec les mains pour faire resserrer la toile qui hape mieux le coton & l'empêche de gonsler & de remonter vers l'orifice de la balle. 7, balles de coton prêtes à être livrées à l'achteur. 8, petits bâtimens caboteurs qui viennent charger du coton sur la côte. 9, partie d'une plantation de cotoniers. 10, case à coton, & engard sous lequel se rangent les négresses qui passent le coton au moulin.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Creator: Prevost, engraver
Date: [1762]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *Is Dide Log 1998.F n.p., https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2845

Title: Cotton pressing in Louisiana
Description: Engraving shows the pressing of cotton, which, according to the unnamed author of an accompanying article, represents "one of the most interesting of the various stages of preparation of cotton for the market." After being picked and harvested, the cotton was compressed into bales similar those shown in the left foreground. The press (center) was described as being "supported by a heavy frame of timber" and "about nine feet in depth." As the author explained, the work proceeded as follows: "Into this, the light, the fleecy substance is poured, and the capstan bar being set to work, it is gradually compressed to the required size, the cords are fastened round the bale, and it leaps out ready for transportation." Commenting on the slaves' labor, the author remarked, "In our sketch, a party is busily filling the press, and two stout hands are removing the bales under the direction of the overseer. But the life and soul of the party is at the capstan, in the person of the lively darky [third from right] engaged in extravagant imitations of the overseer, and jeers at the expense of the solemn figure next to him. This mercurial 'culled passion,' a fair specimen of his light-hearted race, by his jokes and high spirits, almost doubles the motive power at the bars. Though apparently solely occupied with attempts upon the facial muscles of his fellow-servants, yet at the exact moment, he will turn a somerset, kick the shins of his next neighbors, like a playful donkey, and run round with the bars, the loudest in singing the monotonous but not unmusical chant by which the black accompany their labor." (p. 236), Illustration in Ballou's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, vol. X, no. 15 (April 12, 1856), p. 236., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Creator: Pierce, William J., engraver
Date: [1856]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *Per B 1 5919.F v X n 15 April 12 1856 p 236, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2862

Title: Scenes on a cotton plantation
Description: According to the accompanying commentary (p. 69), these scenes show the Buena Vista plantation in Clarke County, Alabama. As the text suggests, "The four sketches in the centre [i.e., sowing, ploughing, hoeing, and picking] show the principal operations of the cotton culture; and around figure other scenes appropriate to a cotton plantation." Moving clockwise from the upper right, the outer scenes are titled: the cotton gin, the planter and his overseer, prayer meeting, Saturday evening dance, plantation graveyard, the call to labor, and the cotton press. The text describes these scenes as follows: "The cotton-gin; the picturesque cotton-press, to whose long lever the mules are harnessed to create the power which compresses the ginned staple into bales; the morning call, performed upon a cow-horn; the owner and his overseer, figure here; as well as the weekly distribution of rations; the dance which closes the week's labor, and the plantation burying-ground. Here the defunct negroes are buried, a rail-fence being raised above the graves to keep off marauding hogs, calves, etc.", Double-page illustration in Harper's Weekly, vol. XI, no. 527 (February 2, 1867), p. 72., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
Date: [February 1867]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare **Per H 1529.F v XI n 527 February 2 1867 p 72, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2879

Title: Must have their baskets full
Description: Illustration included in Chapter XXVII, "Compromise of 1850." Set on a plantation, it shows two slaves, a man and a woman, at work in a cotton-field. Woman balances a basket of cotton on her head, while the man carries his on his shoulders. Image relates to the following description of slave life: "From the auction-room they went to the plantation to work in the cotton-fields, beneath the broiling sun, driven by a brutal overseer sitting on a horse, with a whip in his hand, which he delighted to crack over them, or to bring down upon the back of any one that lagged. The weak and feeble must keep up with the strong in wielding the heavy hoe. When the fields were snow-white with the bursting bolls they must perform their allotted tasks in picking; the baskets must be full and running over: the number of pounds specified for a day's work to be tipped by the steel-yards, or in default they would be flogged." (p. 387), Engraving in Charles Coffin's Building the Nation: Events in the History of the United States from the Revolution to the Beginning of the War between the States (New York: Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square, 1883), p. 388., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Date: [1883]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1883 Cof 23709.O p 388, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2832

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