Suriname, Paramaribo, Kwasi, Stedman, 1798, Le Celebre Graman Quacy

Rare engraving showing Graman Kwasimukambe - also known as Kwasi, Quasi, Quassi and Quacy.

Graman Quassi (c. 1692 – 12 March 1787) was a Surinamese physician, botanist and planter. Born in present-day Ghana, Quassi was taken to the Dutch colony of Surinam via the Atlantic slave trade, where he was initially enslaved on a sugar plantation before managing to emancipate himself. Assisting the Dutch colonial authorities in suppressing the activities of local maroons, he managed to rise to the top of the colony's small community of free people of color and eventually became a plantation owner himself. He gave his name to the plant genus Quassia.

The engraving was made by Tardieu (signed) and published in 1798 in a French edition of J.G. Stedman's famous book on Suriname.

John Gabriel Stedman (Dendermonde, 1744 – Devonshire, 5 March 1797) was a Scots-Dutch officer in the Scots Brigade of the Dutch army. He helped suppress a slave revolt in Suriname. He fell in love with a slave woman and attempted to ransom her. He wrote about his experiences in the influential book "Reize naar Surinamen en door de binnenste deelen van Guiana" (Real Journeys to Suriname and Through the Innermost Parts of Guiana). In it, he openly addressed the rights of slaves, particularly the question of whether they should be treated as human beings. His account of the murder of a mulatto girl evolved over time into a legend about the slave Alida.

Good-very good condition. Never folded, wide margins.

Image 18,5x13,5cm, page 29x21,5cm