This aquatint entered the collections of the V&A Museum as part of a group of ‘illustrations of carriages’ in 1860. It depicts a white planter on horseback followed by a black woman who carries a large disk-shaped container on her head and by two black men who carry an elaborate sedan chair, in which the planter’s wife is conveyed, by means of a pole across their shoulders. The print is one of a number which depict slavery in Brazil. Brazil imported more enslaved African people than any other colony in the Americas. Unlike other colonies where most Africans were confined to manual labour on plantations, in Brazil many worked in other occupations, including as domestic servants.

Images of the New World became available to the European public through the publication of travel narratives by Spanish, French, English, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch explorers from the 16th century. Many were accompanied by illustrations, often based on first hand observations. Hugely popular, these illustrations were widely copied during the 17th and 18th centuries.