Search results

(1 - 3 of 3)

Title: Manner of bush-fighting by the African negroes; Gradation of shades between Europe & Africa
Description: As Stedman noted, he sketched the top diagram to better convey the African negroes' manner of bush fighting. The following explanation can be found in his text: "The two columns E and F are supposed to be first engaged, where No 1 in the column E commences the attack by firing at random in the opposite bushes; and instantly retires, by shifting his place to No 1 in the column C, where he re-loads; while No 2 in the column F, having fired at the flash of his pan, advances in the same manner, shifting his station to re-load at No 2 in the column D; and at the flash of whose pan No 3 fires in E, and receives the fire of No 4 in F, &c. &c. Thus continuing through both lines, til No 8 has fired in F, when the whole have shifted their stations; and the same manoeuvre is continued with the columns C and D, beginning again with the identical numbers 1, 2, 3, &c. at the top; while these lines, having shifted their places, still the firing is repeated by the lines A and B, and thus ad infinitum, until by sounding the horn one of the parties gives way in fight, and the battle is over." Below the diagram, a color scale shows some skin-tone gradations between black and white. Commenting on this, Stedman wrote: "Having frequently mentioned the different shades between a black and a white, the same plate represents them to the reader at one view. From the above two colours the mulatto is produced; from the mulatto and black, the sambo; from the mulatto and white, the quaderoon, & c. &c.", Plate LIV 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. 2, p. 98., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Resistance.
Date: Dec. 1, 1791
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1796 Sted 755.Q v 2 p 98, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2700

Title: Female quadroon [sic] slave of Surinam
Description: Engraving was done after one of John Gabriel Stedman's own drawings, which record his impressions of Surinam. It offers a detailed frontal view of female slave from Surinam, who, being a quaderoon, belonged to a "class . . .much respected for their affinity to Europeans." (A quaderoon, as Stedman explained, is "the offspring of a white and a mulatto;" and there were many in Surinam.) The plate is accompanied by a lengthy passage, which reads as follows: "To give the reader a more lively idea of these people, I shall describe the figure and dress of a Quaderoon girl, as they usually appear in this colony. They are mostly tall, straight, and gracefully formed; rather more slender than the Mulattoes, and never go naked above the waist, like the former. Their dress commonly consists of a sattin petticoat, covered with flowered gauze; a close short jacket, made of best India chintz or silk, laced before and shewing about an hand-breadth of a fine muslin shirt between the jacket and the petticoat. As for stockings and shoes, the slaves in this country never wear them. Their heads are adorned with a fine bunch of black hair in short natural ringlets; they wear a black or white beaver hat, with a feather, or a gold loop and button: their neck, arms, and ancles are ornamented with chains, bracelets, gold medals, and beads. All these fine women have European husbands, to the no small mortification of the fair Creolians; yet should it be known that an European female had an intercourse with a slave of any denomination, she is for ever detested, and the slave loses his life without mercy." (vol. 1, p. 297), Plate XXXII 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. I, facing p. 296., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
Creator: Perry, engraver
Date: [between 1791 and 1796]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1796 Sted 755.Q v 1 p 296, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2696

Title: A mulatto woman of the Gold Coast
Description: Portrait of a mulatto woman walking with a parasol on the coast. Hutton's general description of "superior black women and mulattoes" on the Gold Coast also applies to this subject. As he wrote, "They wear a cloth either of silk or cotton, which they fasten round their waist with a handkerchief, from which is suspended a large bunch of silver keys, about thirty-two in number. Under their cloth they wear a girdle that goest several times round their loins, and forms into a large pad behind, just at the small of their backs, which is called a cankey, and on which they carry their children. This cankey, which has a very unseemly appearance, possesses the advantage of keeping the cloth loose, and thus prevents their shape from being exposed. The young girls in general are proud of showing their bosoms, but the mulatto women conceal theirs by wearing a linen shirt." (p. 93-94), Plate in William Hutton's A Voyage to Africa: Including a Narrative of an Embassy to One of the Interior Kingdoms, in the year 1820 . . . (London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-Row, 1821), p. 92., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Creator: Clark, J., 1789-1830, engraver
Date: 1821
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare U Afri Hutton 5536.O p 92, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2915

Main menu