Gold Works of Itacolumi, Brazil - Gold Washing

Description

This engraving depicts a group of enslaved men and woman mining in Brazil near Ouro Preto. According to the accompanying text, "to the left a party of slaves is catching the gold dust by immersing fleeces in the running water; on the right, two other slaves are beating out the dust from a fleece into a large wooden dish placed on the ground to receive it; behind them a European is weighing the gold dust in scales, and men and women are seen bringing down pieces of quartz containing gold to be broken up by others" (p. 208).

Source

Anonymous, "Scenes in Brazil," in Ballou's Pictorial, vol. IX (Sep. 29, 1855), p. 208.

Language

French

Rights

Image is in the public domain. Metadata is available under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International.

Identifier

Ballou9-208

Spatial Coverage

South America--Brazil--Minas Gerais

Item sets

Miscellaneous Occupations & Economic Activities

Citation

"Gold Works of Itacolumi, Brazil - Gold Washing", Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora, accessed March 20, 2023, http://www.slaveryimages.org/s/slaveryimages/item/2274
This engraving depicts a group of enslaved men and woman mining in Brazil near Ouro Preto. According to the accompanying text, "to the left a party of slaves is catching the gold dust by immersing fleeces in the running water; on the right, two other slaves are beating out the dust from a fleece into a large wooden dish placed on the ground to receive it; behind them a European is weighing the gold dust in scales, and men and women are seen bringing down pieces of quartz containing gold to be broken up by others" (p. 208).
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