French Set-Girls
This lithographs shows women and men dancing, while a man sits on top of large circular drum. Belisario explained how these African and Creole enslaved people came to Jamaica with their owners from St. Domingue during the Haitian Revolution. He described how “the French Sets are invariably observers of taste and decorum, considering it derogatory to dance elsewhere than in dwelling-houses, or within walled premises. . . They have their Queen and allow male companions to join in their dances, during which two drums or ‘Tamboos’ are played, and an instrument shaken, called a ‘Shaka.' . . The tasteful style in which the French Girls tie their kerchiefs on their heads, has ever been the envy of the Creole [women] of Jamaica, who make ineffectual efforts to imitate it.” Isaac Mendes Belisario (1795–1849) was a Jamaican artist of Jewish descent and active in Kingston Jamaica around British emancipation in 1833. The image shown here, as well as others of “John-Canoes,” was drawn from life by Belisario in 1836. This lithograph is one of twelve originally published in three parts, four plates at a time.
Image Title
French Set-Girls
RegID
SI-OB-910
Date
1838
Title
French Set-Girls
Source
Isaac Mendes Belisario, Sketches of character, in illustration of the habits, occupation, and costume of the Negro population, in the island of Jamaica: drawn after nature, and in lithography (Kingston, Jamaica: Published by the artist, 1837-1838).
Language
English
Item sets
Music, Dance & Recreational Activities
Spatial Coverage
Caribbean--Jamaica--Kingston
Researchers
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
Last Updated
13-May-16; 29-Aug-19
Identifier
Belisario01