Habitation de nègres
"Negro Houses" (caption translation). This engraving shows a house nestled in a jungle with a person fixing a fence out front. Benoit described how "each slave has a small house, of 9 to 10 feet high and 10 to 12 feet in diameter, with a door and a small window. Furnishings consist of one or two beds, raised about a half a foot from the ground. The house is made of bamboos on which there is a matting without a cross bar. Slaves usually cover themselves with a wool blanket, and since they are very sensitive to the nighttime dampness they make a fire in the middle of their hut which is tightly closed" (p. 53). Pierre Jacques Benoit (1782-1854) was a Belgian artist, who visited the Dutch colony of Suriname on his own initiative for several months in 1831. He stayed in Paramaribo, but visited plantations, maroon communities and indigenous villages inland.
Image Title
Habitation de nègres
RegID
SI-OB-924
Date
1831
Title
Habitation de nègres
Source
"Figure 50" in Pierre Jacques Benoit, Voyage à Surinam; description des possessions néerlandaises dans la Guyane (Bruxelles: Société des Beaux-Arts de Wasme et Laurent, 1839).
Language
French
Item sets
Plantation Scenes, Slave Settlements & Houses
Spatial Coverage
South America--Suriname--Paramaribo
Researchers
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
Last Updated
7-May-16; 3-Sep-19
Identifier
BEN-C