Sujet

The Ashantee War: cutting and making a road to Coomassie, from a sketch by our special artist, 1874. Creator: Unknown.

Légende

The Ashantee War: cutting and making a road to Coomassie [ie Kumasi], from a sketch by our special artist, 1874. Third Anglo-Ashanti War. The British Army in West Africa. 'The labour of cutting a road or path through the dense forest is much increased by the swampy ground in some places, and near Sutah the engineers found it needful to construct three miles and a half of "corduroy road." This work, performed by 150 natives, is the subject of our Artist's sketch. After cutting side channels or gutters for the water to run off, a number of trees were felled and divided into logs; these were laid side by side upon the marshy ground, and were covered with twigs and earth or sand, to make a road for the troops. The natives, however, found such a road very painful to their feet, and would prefer wading through mud or water up to their knees. It required constant vigilance and incessant commands or threats on the part of the engineer to keep the labourers at their task; if he turned aside for a moment they would all sit down and do nothing. But the work was finished in very good time'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.

Crédit

Photo12/Heritage Images/The Print Collector

Notre référence

HRM25A32_351

Model release

NA

Property release

NA

Licence

Droits gérés

Format disponible

54,3Mo (5,2Mo) / 44,5cm x 30,6cm / 5250 x 3615 (300dpi)

Mots clés

nature forest Europe river Africa tree road Caucasian wood log logs people black male work job man men cutting timber plant plants arts worker country construction site body bodies white art guy occupation jungle continent British tools tool geography feet foot European African wooden war lumber building site workmen workman location Armed Forces century Britain profession newspapers press barefoot print Ghana expedition concept controversy B&W chopping axe europeans bare feet africans Army axes warfare controversial engraved engraving Thoroughfare Gold Coast 19th century black & white black and white B W armed services British Army machete machetes nineteenth century workers trees The Print Collector Asante Ashanti geographical feature Ghanaian Illustrated London News liana TGN the body wood engraving ILN newspaper Unknown rainforest working man Anglo-Ashanti Wars lianas 19th-century The Illustrated London News Third Anglo-Ashanti War First Asante Expedition Sagrenti War Third Anglo-Asante War