"Milkmaid and Negro Women Carrying Milk" (caption translation). This engraving shows a group of women standing in front of thatched-roof shack with pots and bowls on their head, while a woman kneels before a cow. Benoit explained that "milk and milk products are provided by elderly missies who own cows. These women then have their milk peddled or hawked by their own slaves, young black or creole women" (p. 37). 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.
Laitière et négresses portant du lait
SI-OB-948
1831
Laitière et négresses portant du lait
"Figure 66" in Pierre Jacques Benoit, Voyage à Surinam; description des possessions néerlandaises dans la Guyane (Bruxelles: Société des Beaux-Arts de Wasme et Laurent, 1839).
French
Miscellaneous Occupations & Economic Activities
South America--Suriname--Paramaribo
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
20-Dec-11; 4-Sep-19
BEN3