Castor Bean Sorter
This image shows a woman sorting castor beans. Hazard observed how "the castor bean grows in great quantities all over these mountains, and is prepared by the superannuated negro women, who select the beans and clean them ready for extracting the oil. . . an old woman, perfectly blind, who seemed to pick out the perfect and imperfect seeds with the greatest facility, while she sat croning over her task on the stone floor" (p. 469). Samuel Hazard (1834-1876) was an American publisher and bookseller from Pennsylvania, who collected engravings and prints. After joining the union army, he rose through the ranks as brevet major until he resigned on surgeon's certificate of disability in 1865. After, he traveled to Cuba and Santo Domingo as a correspondent of the Philadelphia Press during protracted conflict related to the decolonization of the Spanish Caribbean.
Image Title
Castor Bean Sorter
RegID
SI-OB-203
Date
1871
Title
Castor Bean Sorter
Source
Samuel Hazard, Cuba with pen and pencil (Hartford, Conn., 1871), p. 469.
Language
English
Item sets
Miscellaneous Occupations & Economic Activities
Spatial Coverage
Caribbean--Cuba
Reproduced In
Samuel Hazard, Cuba with pen and pencil (Hartford, Conn., 1871), p. 469.
Researchers
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
Last Updated
4-May-12
Identifier
Hazard8