3-057-268 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Dutch map of Brazil, with view of a sugar plantation, c1720. 'Praefectura Paranambucae Pars Borealis, una cum Praefectura de Itamaraca' (Prefecture of Paranambuca [ie Pernambuco], Northern Part, together with the Prefecture of Itamaraca). Sugar cane is harvested and brought to the mill by enslaved people, who feed it into the press which is driven by water power. This was back-breaking and dangerous work. Whites can be seen in the house to the left of the sugar mill. At bottom right is a fleet of ships on fire.