The earliest porcelain figures were made for the dessert course of grand dinners and replaced the sugar paste and wax figures made since medieval times for royal feasts. Originally intended as expressions of dynastic power and to celebrate political allegiances, allegorical themes had been introduced into these table settings by the 16th century. By the 18th century many were entirely decorative. Meissen in Germany was the first factory to make porcelain figures for the dessert. It set the sculptural conventions followed by porcelain factories elsewhere.

During the 18th century dessert was the course on which the greatest effort and expense were lavished. The food served and the fine porcelain which accompanied it reflected the wealth and good taste of the host but it also signified the colonial power structures at play given that many of the objects and foods on the dessert table were the direct products of slavery. In particular, the sugar industry was dependent on the labor of enslaved people who were heavily exploited and overworked. Here the exploitation of the Black body has been aestheticised into a luxury and decorative product to adorn the dessert table. In fact, a shocking estimated 75% of all enslaved Africans crossing the Atlantic were destined, at least at the beginning, to work in sugar, this object must be understood within this wider global context of the British Empire and its colonial power structures.

This figure, in the form of a Black man naked except for a feathered headdress and skirt, represents a highly exoticised and homogenous view of America from a colonial Western perspective. These objects were produced frequently during the eighteenth century, they show an orientalised fantasy of Black enslaved people who were exploited through the production of sugar, a product of slavery. Here they are transformed into ornamental commodities and luxury products which aestheticizes the exploitation of Black people during this time. The companion figure of a woman represents Africa. Both objects aestheticize the exploitation of black people and is deemed offensive and discriminatory.

They were originally modelled by J.F. Eberlein in 1741, who recorded that he modelled male and female 'Moors ... standing by a sugar box.' The bowls they stand next to could have been used for both sugar and dry sweetmeats served during the dessert course of a grand meal. This pair of figures were originally intended for table centrepieces from which no other Continents are known.