[Post-emancipation life]
Publisher: Printed by Edward Suter, printer to the Infant School Society, 19, Cheapside, London, for the Ladies' Negro Education Society
Published: 1833
Place of publication: London]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 12
Subjects: Enslaved persons; Pictorial works; Freed persons; Black people; Education
Notes: Imprint from foot of letterpress text leaf "No. I - Holeing the cane-piece"

Foot of letterpress text leaves No. II-VI give imprint: Printed by Edward Suter, printer to the Infant School Society, 19. Cheapside, London, for the Ladies' Society for Promoting the Early Education of Negro Children. Probably never bound, each letterpress leaf is divided into 2 sheets, printed on recto only, the first sheet measuring 26 x 38 cm., and the other 50 x 38 cm. Letterpress leaves have titles: No. I: Holeing the cane-piece, No. II: Planting the sugar-cane, No. III: Cutting the canes, No. IV: The cane mill, No. V: The boiling house, No. VI: Shipping the sugar.

Date of publication must be between 1833, when slavery was abolished in the British colonies, and 1837, when Queen Victoria ascended the throne of Great Britain.

Consists of 6 colored lithographs, each 29 x 40 cm., numbered 1-6, and 12 leaves of unnumbered corresponding text with very large type, probably meant to be hung along side the illustrations and read aloud. Illustrations have titles: No. 1: Holeing a cane-piece, No. 2: Planting the sugar-cane, No. 3: Cutting the sugar-cane, No. 4: A mill yard, No. 5: Interior of a boiling house, No. 6: Shipping the sugar. All plates have imprint of: Infant School Society Depository, 19, Cheapside, London.

Aquatints first appeared in London, printed 1823 in "Ten views in the island of Antigua" by William Clark, when slavery was very much alive in the British West Indies. Possibly the Infant School Depository obtained the original lithographic stones and reprinted 6 of them for the Ladies' Society for Promoting the Early Education of Negro Children. Another work, "An historical and descriptive account of Antigua illustrated by numerous engravings, coloured in imitation of drawings taken on the spot, delineating the character of the country, the costume of the Negroes, &c., accompanied by a map of the island, exhibiting the names and positions of the different estates, and principal dwellings, with a list of the proprietors, number of slaves, &c. and chronological table of events connected with the colony", printed London, 1830 lists nine illustrations that sound like the views given in William Clark's "Ten views in the island of Antigua". These views given with the text of the world by the Ladies' Society for Promoting the Early Education of Negro Children show what appears to be the work of slaves in the field, although the text clearly describes the workers as being emancipated. For a detailed account of this work, please see Report of the Annual Meeting of the JCB Associates, 1975.

Digital version of plates available on Luna Imaging.