Under the overseer's whip, a group of Jamaican slaves power a large tread-wheel that is presumably used in sugar manufacturing. In the foreground, two slaves have collapsed from heat and exhaustion; they are tended to by others. To the left, another overseer flogs a slave while two white men look on. As Phillippo explained, the slave's labor, "under the fervent heat of a tropical sun, was indeed excessive, sufficient, during a comparatively short period of time, to expend the vigour and exhaust the spirits of the strongest and most energetic frame, inasmuch as they had to perform by manual operation those processes, which, in every other country, are performed by horses, oxen, and machinery." (p. 159-60), Illustration in James Phillippo's Jamaica: its Past and Present State (London: John Snow, Paternoster Row, MDCCCXLIII [1843]), p. 172, Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Date
[1843]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare Am 1843 Phill 7675.D p 172, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2777