In this view of the sugar harvest on Antigua, the manager on horseback is the only European in sight. He is talking to a driver, an experienced enslaved African put in charge of a work group. Behind him, the enslaved Africans are cutting the ripe cane. They usually worked in pairs, with the man cutting the cane and the woman tying it in bundles. Speed was of the essence in harvesting and processing sugar: it had to be cut when ripe but not overripe, and taken to the crushing mill quickly once cut, as the juice deteriorated fast and would not make good sugar if left too long. So the harvest period meant long and hard work.

William Clark, an American who had led the first expedition across the United States from east coast to west coast in 1804, visited Antigua in the 1820s. He had access to all aspects of life on the plantations, and produced a series of 10 pictures showing the agricultural year. These were published and sold as a set of prints, Ten Views on Antigua, in 1823.

The Ten Views began with clearing the ground and planting the canes, and went through the year with the harvest, the work at the mill and boiling house to make sugar, and finally the loading of barrels of raw sugar and rum onto ships.