Edward Kennion, 1743–1809, BritishFormerly attributed to unknown artist
Title:
A View of Hall-head Sugar Plantation, Jamaica
Date:
ca. 1780
Materials & Techniques:
Watercolor and graphite on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 6 3/4 × 9 5/8 inches (17.1 × 24.4 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B2006.2
Gallery Label:
Halse Hall estate was founded by Thomas Halse, or Hals, an army officer who was granted land by Oliver Cromwell after he participated in the capture of Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655. This late-eighteenth-century watercolor provides a detailed account of the sugar works, flanked by cane fields. The foreground includes a rare depiction of a slave house and garden, with a woman cooking on an open fire. The enslaved usually lived in compounds on estates and built their own houses, which were mainly of wattle and daub with thatched roofs, and generally cramped and inadequate. They grew their own food and were allocated land adjacent to their homes for cultivation during short breaks from fieldwork or at night, as well as provision grounds, usually situated at some distance from the estate and tended on Sundays and holidays. Gallery label for Art and Emancipation in Jamaica: Isaac Mendes Belisario and his Worlds (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-09-27 - 2007-12-30)
