Topic: Labor

Media  ›  document

Stowage of the British Slave Ship

This image shows how captured Africans were to be stowed on British slave ships. Published in an abolitionist pamphlet, it was intended to evoke the horrors of the slave trade....
Media  ›  image

The Old Plantation

This painting shows slaves dancing on a southern plantation. African music and dance traditions survived in America, where they also influenced the culture of southern whites. In real life, however,...
Media  ›  document

To the British Settlements in America upon Slave-keeping

In this 1773 pamphlet, Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia condemned slavery as morally wrong. He also insisted that the continued existence of slavery endangered the liberty and prosperity of white people....
Media  ›  image

Tobacco Houses

This print shows how tobacco was produced and marketed. The leaves were picked, sorted, dried, placed in barrels, and then inspected and sold at a public warehouse. On large plantations...
Media  ›  image

Tobacco Label

Tobacco labels appeared on packages of tobacco or snuff. Within a decade of Virginia’s founding, tobacco was the colony’s major export. This label reflects stereotypes about the enslaved African laborers...