As the caption suggests, the image is set on the island of St. Croix in early May 1769, and it shows a group of black baptismal candidates being led into the "Negro church," for baptism. Dressed in long white robes, trousers, and turban-like head-dresses, the men file into the church first. They are followed by the women, who are dressed in long white dresses and white caps. In front of the long, simple hall that serves as the church, some black women sit in a courtyard bordered by trees and shubbery. According to the caption, the ceremony takes place around noon. Missionaries, soldiers, and black citizens (all men) meet and converse in the open space in front of the church. Others watch the procession of baptismal candidates;some appear to pray, holding their palms upward. The missionaries' quarters appear in the background of the image, while the Negroes' quarters are seen to the right., Folded plate at the back of Christian Georg Andreas Oldendorp's Geschichte der Mission der Evangelischen Brüder auf den caraibischen Inseln S. Thomas, S. Croix, und S. Jan (Barby: Bey Christian Friedrich Laux, und in Leipzig in Commission bey Weidmanns Erben und Reich, 1777), n.p., Caption underneath the image reads: "Friedenstahl in St. Croix an einem Bettage, da die Täuflinge zur Taufe in Kirche geführt werden, 1768 zu Anfang May und zu Mittage, da die Sonne übern Scheitel steht, aller Schatten senckrecht faellt, überhaupt weing Schatten ist. Hinten das Wohnhaus, zur linken die Neger Kirche, zur rechten Negerhaeufer." The text can be translated as follows, "Friedenstahl in St. Croix on a day of prayer, on which the baptismal candidates are led into church for baptism, Wednesday, the beginning of May, 1769, because the sun is at its apex, all shadows fall perpendicular to the ground, there is little shade. In the background, the missionaries' quarters; to the left, the Negro church; to the right, Negro quarters.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
Creator
Nusbiegel, Georg Paul, 1713-1776, engraver
Date
[1777]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1777 Olde 69802.O n.p., https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2678
