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Title: Habitation Nègre
Description: Depiction of an African home, complete with a small chapel, and, as the caption notes, "structures for the inhabitants' use." Two large horns rest on the ground in front of the home., Plate 20 in Jean-Baptiste Douville's Voyage au Congo et dans l'intérieur de l'Afrique equinoxiale: fait dans les années 1828, 1829 et 1830 (A Paris: Chez Jules Renouard, libraire, rue de Tournon, n. 6; Imprimé chez Paul Renouard, rue Garencière, n. 5, 1832)., Caption underneath the image reads: (entourée des chapelles et des edifices à l'usage des habitans)., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Creator: Noguès, lithographer
Date: 1832
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *U Afri Douv 10079.O plate 20, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2900

Title: Maisons des Negres du Cap Mezurado
Description: Accompanying chapter sixteen, "Du Cap Mesurado. Sa Description," the engraving shows a small African settlement at Cape Mesurade (in modern Liberia). The buildings include a kitchen (left), a residence, and a small hut fashioned out of red clay. A public square and a meeting-place occupy the space immediately outside the settlement's walls., Fold-out plate in Jean Baptiste Labat's Voyage du chevalier Des Marchais en Guinée, isles voisines, et a Cayenne, Fait en 1725, 1726, & 1727 (A Amsterdam: aux dépens de la Compaigne, M.DCC.XXXI [1731], vol. 1, p. 104., Key underneath the engraving reads as follows: A. Cazes des Negres du Cap de Mezurade reuetues de terre Rouge. B. Cuisine. C. Caze a mil et Rise maçonée de terre Rouge. D. Caldé ou les Negres s'assemblent pour leur Negoce et Causer pendant le jour. E. Cour. F. Place publique., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Creator: Putter, K. De, engraver
Date: 1731
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1731 Lab 1691.D v 1 p 104, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2668

Title: Manner of sleeping &c in the forest ; Rural retreat, the cottage
Description: Printed one on top of the other, these two separate engravings record John Gabriel Stedman's memories of Surinam. Entitled "Manner of sleeping &c in the forest," the above image shows the type of hammock that Stedman and the other members of his party used during their encampment. Hammock shown here is suspended from four narrow wooden poles that have been pounded into the ground, and is covered by what appears to be a rudimentary straw roof. To the right, two unclothed slave women have built a small camp-fire, which they use to heat water to do the washing. Image below bears the title "Rural retreat, the cottage." It appears to show a member of Stedman's expedition with his wife and child (quite possibly, Stedman and his wife Joanna). Seemingly, the illustration corresponds with a passage in which Stedman described the simple houses that he and the others constructed. Of his own house, he wrote, " [it] was finished without either nail or hammer, in less than six days, though it had two rooms, a piazza with rails, and a small kitchen, besides a garden, in which I sowed, in pepper-cresses, the names of Joanna and John; . . . . " (vol. 2, p 323), Plate LXXIII in John Gabriel Stedman's Narrative, of a five year's expedition, against the revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the wild coast of South America; from the year 1772 to 1777 (London: Printed for J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church Yard, & J. Edwards, Pall Mall, 1796), vol. II, facing p. 324., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
Creator: Barlow, engraver
Date: Dec. 1, 1791
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1796 Sted 755.Q v 2 p 324, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2703

Title: "Old Joseph, the Patriarch"
Description: Engraving accompanies a fictional episode described in Letter IV, "The 'Purchases' -- Old Joseph." Episode takes place on Christmas Eve in the cabin of the coachman Rafe, the slave seated on the log near the fireplace to the extreme right. Rafe has learned that he will soon be sold, and thus separated from his wife, who sits to his right, and their young child, who rests on her lap. Other slaves cluster around the couple, trying to comfort them. Leaning on his walking stick, Old Joseph (described as "the beau ideal of a patriarch, at once humble, dignified and venerable") stands and faces the group, offering words of wisdom and consolation. Interior is furnished with a bench, a chest of drawers, a large chair, and stools of varying sizes. The men's discarded top hats are placed throughout the room, as are assorted utilitarian and domestic objects, such as pots and pans, an umbrella, and an axe. In the foreground, a book, quite possibly the Bible, rests on a stool., Frontispiece for Emily C. Pearson's Cousin Franck's Household, or, Scenes in the Old Dominion (Boston: Upham, Ford, and Olmstead, 1853)., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
Creator: Hedge, Franklin, b. ca. 1830, engraver
Date: [1853]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1853 Pear 73222.O frontispiece, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2792

Title: Odumata's sleeping room ; Inner square of Apookoos house
Description: Plates are included in Chapter VI, "Architecture, Arts, and Manufactures." Top plate shows the sleeping room of Odumata, an old Ashanti aristocrat. Bowdich described the room as being "one side of an oblong area in a very retired angle of his house, about 25 feet by 8." As he continued,"The cloth suspended to the left of the door on the top of the steps, hides the bloody stools which are in the recess. The small gallery in front of the upper room is only wide enough for one person to walk in. The recess and small room below accommodate confidential slaves. The bed room was very small, about 8 feet square, but being hung round with a variety of gold and silver ornaments, had a very rich appearance. The bed is generally about 5 feet high, and composed entirely of large silk-cotton pillows piled one above another. The King of Gaman, we were assured, had steps of solid gold to ascend to his bed. A man wearing a crier's cap, is playing the sanko." (p. 307) As the title suggests, the bottom plate shows the inner square of Apokoo's house. (Apokoo was the keeper of the Ashanti royal treasury.) Describing the image, Bowdich wrote, "No. 6, is a perspective view of the entrance area to Apokoo's house; the fourth side is an open fronted building like those on the right and left for attendants to wait in, and for the hearing of palavers. The opposite closed side is a bed room. The figure is playing the bentwa." (p. 307), Two plates in T. Edward Bowdich's Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee: with a statistical account of that kingdom, and geographical notices of other parts of the interior of Africa (London: J. Murray, Albemarle-Street: printed by W. Pulmer and Co., Cleveland-Row, St. James's, 1819), p. 306., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Date: Dec. 2, 1818
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *U Afri Bowd 12983.Q p 306, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2895

Title: Part of a piazza in the palace [No. 7] ; Part of a piazza in the palace [No. 8]
Description: Plates included in Chapter VI, "Architecture, Arts, and Manufactures." As the title suggests, the top image shows part of a piazza in the palace of the King of Gaman. (The Gaman peoples live in modern Ghana.) "No. 7," Bowdich explained, "is a part of a piazza, which lines the interior of the wall secluding the palace from the street. The piazza is 200 yards long and inhabited by captains and other attendants on the King; above is a small gallery. Piles of skulls, and drums ornamented with them, are frequent in this piazza. The figure is a common soldier of the Ashantee, his belt ornamented with red shells, and stuck full of knives." The bottom image is another piazza view. "No. 8, is the upper end of the piazza, which is more ornamented, and appropriated to the superior captains, who have each a suite of rooms, marked by the small doors under the piazza. A woman is dancing whilst a man plays the flute and rattle.", Two plates in T. Edward Bowdich's Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee: with a Statistical Account of that Kingdom, and Geographical Notices of Other Parts of the Interior of Africa (London: J. Murray, Albemarle-Street: printed by W. Pulmer and Co., Cleveland-Row, St. James's, 1819), p. 308., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Date: Dec. 2, 1818
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *U Afri Bowd 12983.Q p 308, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2896

Title: Part of Adoom street [No. 9]
Description: As the title suggests, the plate shows part of Adoom-street in Gaman (now part of Ghana). In the accompanying text, Bowdich wrote, "No. 9, is a view of part of Adoom-street: each open front denotes the residence of a captain, being used for talking palavers, receiving strangers, observing or superintending customs, and evening recreation The dwelling is entered by the small door at the side, which generally leads through a narrow passage or court to a large area like No. 6, and thence by various intricate ways to smaller and more retired areas like No 4. and No. 5. A fetish woman has just quitted the centre house; she has on a white cloth, and various pieces of rich silk are hanging round her girdle, her breasts are confined with a scarf, a fillet encircles her head, in each hand she waves a horse's tail, and she continues yelling and swinging round and round until she is quite stupified. A weaver and loom are on her right, and a market woman under her shed on the left.", Fold-out plate in T. Edward Bowdich's Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee: with a Statistical Account of that Kingdom, and Geographical Notices of Other Parts of the Interior of Africa (London: J. Murray, Albemarle-Street: printed by W. Pulmer and Co., Cleveland-Row, St. James's, 1819), p. 308., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Date: Dec. 2, 1818
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *U Afri Bowd 12983.Q p 308, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A3141

Title: The kraals and hutts of the Hottentots ; The Hottentot skinner
Description: Top engraving accompanies Chapter XVIII, "Of the Kraals, or Villages, of the Hottentots; their Huts and Hut-Furniture." It shows a Khoikhoin kraal, or village, in the background. As Kolb wrote, "I have seen Hundreds of Kraals, and never saw one that consisted of less than Twenty Huts. There are many so large that the Huts are not easily counted: And it is, in the Eye of a Hottentot, a very contemptible Kraal that contains not more than a Hundred Souls. The Generality of the Kraals contain each from Three Hundred to Four Hundred Souls. Some contain about Five Hundred. On the Area of a Kraal they can and do sometimes lodge several Thousands of Small Cattle." (p. 218) The foreground of the engraving features two oval-shaped Khoikhoin huts, one only partially built. According to Kolb, these huts usually ranged from ten to fourteen feet in diameter. They were built with flexible wooden sticks, which were then covered with animal skins. As Kolb explained, the top of the hut was rarely "so high that a man could stand under it erect." (p. 221) Bottom engraving shows a Khoikhoin skinner, and accompanies Chapter XIX, "Of Certain Handy-Crafts the Hottentots exercise among themselves." Referring to the engraving, Kolb wrote: "I shall now let the Reader into the Art and Mystery of a Hottentot Skinner. He takes a Sheep Skin, fresh and reeking from the Back of the Sheep, and rubs into it as much Fat as he can. At this Work he takes Abundance of Pains; and the Effect is, that the Skin is thereby render'd tough and smooth, and the Wool or Hair is secur'd from Falling off. This is All he does if he dresses a Sheep-Skin for an European: And he does the same, and no more, if he dresses the Skin of a Wild Beast for him. And, whatever the Reader may think of the Matter, a Skin dress'd in this Manner by a Hottentot is a very curious Piece of Work." (p. 232), Page from Peter Kolb's The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope (London: Printed for W. Innys and R. Manby, at the west end of St. Paul's, MDCCXXXVIII [1738]), vol. 1, p. 218., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Date: [1738]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri Kolb 532.O v 1 p 218, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2919

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