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Title: The whitewasher
Description: Illustration shows a familiar Philadelphia character: a black, female whitewasher. The woman is dressed in work-clothes and coarse shoes; her sleeves are rolled-up and the illustrator emphasizes her muscular forearms. According to the accompanying text, the bucket on the floor contains a mixture of lime and water, with a little salt and indigo to make it clear. In the course of her work, the whitewasher dips long-handled brushes (like those seen here) into the mixture and rubs it onto the walls for cleaning., Illustration in City characters, or, familiar scenes in town (Philadelphia: Geo. S. Appleton; New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1851), p. 12., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Date: [1851]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1851 Cit 68429.D p 12, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2782

Title: The wood-sawyer
Description: Illustration shows a familiar Philadelphia character: a black wood-sawyer. As the text explains, "This is a hard occupation, followed generally by coloured people. They are old men, and have little ones to support, so that they have to work very hard." Shown in full profile, this mature wood-sawyer carries an axe in his hand and a "Horse" on his back. According to the text, when the wood-sawyer cuts his logs, he puts them on this "curious-four legged machine," which is "very strong, and made of oak or hickory wood." Holding the logs down with one knee, the wood-sawyer cuts off one piece at a time., Illustration in City characters, or, familiar scenes in town (Philadelphia: Geo. S. Appleton; New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1851), p. 96., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Date: [1851]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1851 Cit 68429.D p 96, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2785

Title: A free negress and other market-women
Description: Illustration accompanies Chapter III, "Province of Rio de Jainero." As the title suggests, it depicts a free negress (presumably the woman closest to the left) and three market women. A small child, not mentioned in the title, is visible at the far left. Sheltered by a small canopy, the four women sell fruits and vegetables: pineapples occupy a basket in the right foreground, melons and squash (?) are scattered on the ground, and two women balance baskets on their heads. Three large sacks contain additional market-goods, possibly beans. While it is ultimately unclear, the image appears to show a conflict between the negress and the market-woman seated on the bench., Illustration in James Henderson's A History of Brazil: Comprising its Geography, Commerce, Colonization, Aboriginal Inhabitants, &c. &c. (London: Printed for the author, and published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orne, and Brown, Paternoster-Row, 1821), p. 70., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Creator: Shoosmith, C., artist
Date: [1821]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *Am 1821 Hender 1814.Q p 70, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2724

Title: The laundress
Description: Illustration shows a familiar Philadelphia character: a black laundress. She is neatly dressed in a long, flowing skirt; and her head is covered with an untied bonnet. "This woman," as the accompanying text explains, "is engaged by rich people to wash and iron clothes, which have been soiled by wearing." The text continues, "The woman in the picture looks as though she had just finished a hard day's work and was taking clothes home to the owners; she what a large basket she carries. It is full of articles of clothing neatly folded up; and this shows how much the woman has done in one day.", Illustration in City Characters, or, Familiar Scenes in Town (Philadelphia: Geo. S. Appleton; New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1851), p. 32., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Date: [1851]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1851 Cit 68429.D p 32, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2783

Title: The rag-picker
Description: Illustration shows a familiar Philadelphia character: a black, male rag-picker. He wears a coarse, loose-fitting smock, trousers, and a cap. He carries a basket fastened to a stick over his shoulder and a hooked instrument in his hand. The accompanying text explains, "You see him with his hooked stick exploring heaps of rubbish, and carefully selecting whatever he finds which may be turned to good account, and storing all away in his basket.", Illustration in City characters, or, familiar scenes in town (Philadelphia: Geo. S. Appleton; New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1851), p. 80., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Date: [1851]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1851 Cit 68429.D p 80, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2784

Title: "The auctioneer's young man"
Description: This portrait is included in Chapter X, "A Visit to Houston," where it accompanies the section "Types from Negro-Life." The engraving depicts the auctioneer's "young man," a black man carrying a bell and a flag that reads "AUCTION SALE." Describing him and other Houston "types", King wrote: "The street life is interesting; the negro on his dray, racing good-humoredly with his fellows; the ragged urchin with his saucy face and his bundle of magnolia-blossoms; and the auctioneer's "young man," with his mammoth bell and brazen voice, are all interesting types, which, as the reader will observe, the genial and careful artist has faithfully reproduced." (p. 116), Illustration in Edward King's The great South: a record of journeys in Louisiana, Texas, the Indian territory, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland (Hartford, CT: American Publishing Company, 1875), p. 116., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Daily Life.
Creator: King, engraver
Date: [1875]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1875 King 3379.Q p 116, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2827

Title: Scene in a Lynchburg tobacco factory
Description: Illustration is included in Chapter LXI, "A Visit to Lynchburg in Virginia," and corresponds with the following passage, which clearly aims to present the tobacco factories in a positive, and even romantic light: "It [Lynchburg] has thirty-five tobacco factories, employing great numbers of negroes, men, women, and children. These negroes earn good wages, work faithfully, and turn out vast quantities of the black, ugly compound known as "plug," which has enslaved so many thousands, and promoted such a sublime disregard for the proprieties in the matter of expectoration. . . . In the maufacturies the negro is the same cheery, capricious being that one finds him in the cotton or sugar-cane fields; he sings quaintly over his toil, and seems entirely devoid of the sullen ambition which many of our Northern factory laborers exhibit. The men and women working around the tables in the basements of the Lynchburg tobacco establishments croon eccentric hymns in concert all day long; and their little children, laboring before they are hardly large enough to go alon, join in the refrains." (p. 556) Correspondingly, the engraving shows four small children stripping tobacco leaves alongside the adults., Illustration in Edward King's The Great South (Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, 1875), p. 557., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Date: [1875]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1875 King 3379.Q p 557, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2828

Title: Emancipated slaves can take care of themselves
Description: At the left, the illustration depicts a free black man, or a "paid" laborer. He works vigorously with a hoe, and is dressed in a suit and top hat. At the right, a slave, or an "unpaid" laborer, is shown. He also works with a hoe, but unlike his counterpart, he is barely dressed, and looks weak and despondent., Illustration in the American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1839 (New York: Published for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838), p. 21., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Anti-Slavery Movement Imagery.
Date: [1838]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1838 Ame Ant 16996.D.3 p 21, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2765

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