3-074-645 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

American Fisheries: shad-fishing on the Delaware, 1883. 'Recreation; the haul; putting out the net; hauling in the net; planked shad...[These fish] come up the great rivers on the Atlantic coast...to lay their spawn at the approach of summer, [and] produce altogether a yield reckoned worth a million and a half of dollars...The vessels, boats, and fishermen engaged in this pursuit are often those from the New England States...but their assistants on shore are commonly the n*gro freedmen, who help to haul in the nets and perform various subordinate labours. Some of these lively "d*rkies" are represented in the Sketches diverting their leisure with a tuneful banjo,...in the common room of a public-house. The net used is an ordinary seine, which is put out from the boat, to sweep a sufficient piece of water close to the shore, and is then hauled in by a fixed windlass. An excellent method of cooking shad, in which some of the old n*gro women are very skilful, is that of splitting the fish asunder, taking out the bones, and spreading the upper and under sides together upon a well-buttered board, with plenty of pepper, in which state, being "planked " as they call it, the shad is toasted on a gridiron, making a delicious and wholesome repast'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.