People who were enslaved on plantation estates inland relied on travelling handkerchief retailers.

Records suggest that much of the inland handkerchief retail business was conducted by women. According to one 18th century French source, free women in port towns purchased fabrics wholesale which they sent their own enslaved servants into the countryside to sell. The woman to the right of this painting is carrying a tray of folded textiles through the countryside.

Related Database Records

Entry no. 84: On retail sale of textiles by Black domestic enslaved servants to other Black people in the countryside in barter for crops.