This print entered the collections of the V&A Museum as part of a group of ‘illustrations of carriages’ in 1860. It depicts a white woman carried in an elaborate sedan chair by two black liveried servants. The party pauses as a man approaches seeking donations for the church. The setting is a street scene, probably a town or city 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 urban 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.