Red Set-Girls, and Jack-in-the-Green
This lithograph shows an elaborate procession with women holding umbrellas encircling a masquerader. Belisario wrote how "Their jewelry is not as elaborate as the Queen's, but they always wear earrings and bracelets, such lovers are they of ornaments. They start dancing in the late mornings and parade the town with little intermission till night, when they are invited to enter private houses to dance and sing. . . Refreshments and a gratuity are presented them. . . and they retire to repeat the same elsewhere till a late hour. The Jack-in-the-Green wears a costume composed of the leaves of the cocoa-nut tree, attached to hoops, diminishing in circumference to the top, which is crowned by a large bow with the addition of a couple of flags." 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. See also image Belisario04.
Image Title
Red Set-Girls, and Jack-in-the-Green
RegID
SI-OB-911
Date
1837
Title
Red Set-Girls, and Jack-in-the-Green
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; 4-Sep-19
Identifier
Belisario02