This woodcut is one of the earliest known illustrations of sugar making in the New World. In the right foreground, two slaves gather and strip stalks of sugar cane. Kneeling on the ground in the center of the scene, another slave feeds the stalks into a sugar mill. In the lower left-hand corner, the sugar juice extracted from the stalks is boiled in a large cauldron; the unrefined sugar is placed in the pots next to it. In the background, numerous slaves are show at work: some cut cane in the fields, some carry it in bundles, others transport pots of unrefined sugar., Plate I Girolamo Benzoni's Americae pars quinta nobilis & admiratione plena Hieronymi Bezoni Mediolanensis, secundae sectionis h[istor]ia[e] Hispanorum: tum in Indos crudelitatem, Gallorumq[ue] pirataru[m] de Hispanis toties reportata spolia: . . . (Francofurti ad Moenum: Theodoro de Bry. Leod. cive Franc, 1595), part V of DeBry's Voyages., DeBry's illustration is based on the following passage in Benzoni's text from the translation of his work by W.H. Smith: "When the natives of this island (Espanola) began to be extirpated, the Spaniards provided themselves with blacks (Mori) from Guinea . . . and they have brought great numbers thence. When there were mines, they made them work at the gold and silver; but since those came to an end they have increased the sugar-works, and in these and in tending the flocks they are chiefly occupied, besides serving their masters in all else." (History of the New World by Girolamo Benzoni, of Milan. Shewing his travels in America, from A.D. 1541 to 1556 . . . Now first translated, and edited by Rear-Admiral W.H. Smyth (London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1857) p. 93., Illustrations in part V of Benzoni's Voyages were engraved by Theodor DeBry after drawings by Joannes Stradanus., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Work Scenes.
Creator
Bry, Theodor de, 1528-1598, engraver
Date
[1595]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *Am 1590 Har (b.w) Log 1076.F plate I, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2658
