Marie Pape-Carpantier (1815-1878) [author]; Victor Odilon Maurin (1832- ?) [artist].

Martha la bonne négresse. Revue par Madame Marie Paper Carpantier. 1053.

Épinal, Pellerin, [1863].

Woodcut coloured by hand or stencil and letterpress on paper, 41 x 27 cm.

First edition catchpenny print from the prolific French Pellerin printing factory in Épinal, telling the popular story of Martha la bonne négresse, a colonial narrative that portrays Martha, an enslaved woman from Martinique, as the idealized loyal servant. Following the death of her enslaver, she voluntarily accompanies his heiress to France, later returning to Martinique. The story presents her as devoted, obedient, and self-sacrificing — qualities praised by colonial ideology but rooted in the dehumanizing logic of slavery.

This depiction fits within a broader literary and political tradition in which enslaved or formerly enslaved Black women were romanticized as morally pure and grateful, thereby reinforcing the paternalistic myth that slavery was benevolent and that Black subjugation was natural or even virtuous. The title itself, with the phrase "bonne négresse" (a deeply racialized and now offensive term), encapsulates this ideological framing: "goodness" is defined by her service to the colonizer and her lack of resistance.

Based on this design, the Pellerin printing factory later produced a lithograph, Pellerin n° 907 (after 1863 and between 1889 and 1921) and Imagerie Pellerin n° 907 (after 1921) and translations published by Pellerin in English n° 54 (after 1888) and in Dutch n° 52 (after 1902).

Condition: In very good condition. Ink stamp on the blank verso.

Reference: Epinal, Musée de l’Image, 2010.5.4765 B.