Slave Girl of the Cape

Signed with initials on border l.r.: F .Y. (?) M, and inscribed l.c.: Slave Girl of the Cape, watercolour on wove paper, with a laid paper border watermarked 1801

Drawing size 20.3 x 14.6 cm.; 8 1/8 x 5 ¾ inches, with border 25.8 x 20.2 cm.; 10 1/8 x 8 inches

This drawing came from a now disbound English album which contained works on paper from the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Slavery in South African began around 1650 when the Cape colony was controlled by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) when Cape Town was founded as a supply port for their shipping. The trade continued until the eventual abolition of slavery in the Colony, by then under British rule, in 1834. The British had banned trading in slaves between her colonies in 1807 but the final emancipation was delayed until 1834.