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Title: Harvest in Wanyamézi
Description: Illustration included in Chapter V, "Unyamuezi." Unyamuezi [i.e., Unyamwezi] was one of the largest kingdoms in East Africa; its people are called Wanyamezi. As the title suggests, the engraving shows a Wanyamezi harvest in 1861. Corn, which grew abundantly on the richly cultivated land, is shown at the top. In the center, four men thrash the corn with long-handled paddles. At the bottom, women are shown cutting, separating, and grinding the corn., Illustration in John Hanning Speke's Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1864), p. 129., According to a note on the title-page, the book's illustrations are "chiefly from drawings by Captain Grant.", Caption reads: "1, 2, 3, 4. Grain. Maize, etc., stacked for the season. 5. Men with long rackets thrashing Kafir corn (sorghum). 6. Woman in the field cutting "sorghum" with a knife, and depositing it in a basket. 7. Women separating the corn from the chaff by means of a wooden pestle and mortar. 8. Woman grinding corn upon a single slab of stone.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Date: [1864]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1864 Speke 15863.O p 129, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2810

Title: Females hoeing
Description: Engraving accompanies Chapter XXIV of Livingstone's travel narrative. It shows four women working in the Ngabi district: one carries a basket on her head, while three others (including one woman with a child on her back) till the soil with hoes."The only instrument of husbandry here," Livingstone noted, "is the short-handled hoe; and about Tette the labour of tilling the soil, as represented in the woodcut, is performed entirely by female slaves." (p. 499), Illustration in David Livingstone's Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries: and of the Discovery of the Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, 1858-1864 (London: John Murray, 1865), p. 499., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Date: [1865]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri Livin 16307.O p 499, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2926

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: Tobacco plantation
Description: Engraving accompanies the lead article "The History and Mystery of Tobacco." It is set on a tobacco plantation, and shows a large field of tobacco plants, as well as two surrounding buildings. In the foreground, three black men use hoes to break up the soil and pull the grass around the growing plants., Illustration in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. 11, no. 61 (June 1855), p. 8., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Date: [June 1855]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Per H 9 62992.O v 11 n 61 June 1855 p 8, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2867

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

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: 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

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