Milk and milk products, the author explains, are provided by elderly “missies” (usually free Black women and former mistresses of White men) who own cows. These women then have their milk peddled or hawked by their own enslaved people, young Black or creole women (p. 37). Benoit (1782-1854), a French-speaking Belgian, visited Surinam around 1829/1830. The 100 coloured lithographs in his book are derived from drawings he made during his visit.
Milkmaid and Milk Sellers, Surinam, 1839; Image Reference BEN3, as shown on www.slaveryimages.org, sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia Library.
Themes
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Plantation Conditions
Understand the harshness of daily life on the plantations, the oppression used to exert control, and the profits…
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Legacies
Understand how the 1807 Abolition Act ended the British involvement in the slave trade but not slavery, how British women pushed for full…