Details
Creator Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, etcher.
Contributor Hart, Sarah, publisher.
Title Life in Philadelphia. "Well brudder what 'fect you tink Morgan's deduction...?" [graphic] / C[lay], fec.
Publisher Philadelphia: Published by S. Hart, 65 So. 3d St
Publisher PA. Philadelphia. 1830
Date [1830]
Physical Description 1 print: hand-colored etching; 21 x 18 cm (8.25 x 7 in.)
Description Racist caricature depicting two African American masons in regalia, shaking hands, and discussing the abduction of William Morgan, a white New York mason who threatened to expose the organization's secrets. In the right, the one mason, a short, rotund man is attired in a long, green waistcoat, blue pants, a masonic apron, a red sash, yellow gloves and black slip on shoes. He holds a top hat in his left hand and shakes with his right. In the left, the other mason, a tall, thin man is attired in a long, green waistcoat with a blue collar, a tan cravat, blue stirrup pants over black shoes, and a masonic apron. He holds a top hat in his left hand and shakes with his right. The figures are portrayed with oversized and exaggerated features. Their skin tone is depicted with black hand coloring. The men are shown standing on a patch of ground hand-colored in blue watercolor.
Notes Inscribed: Plate 6.
Title from item.
Date inferred from content and name of publisher.
Contains four lines of dialogue in the vernacular and dialect below the image: “Well brudder what ‘fect you tink Morgan’s deduction gwang to hab on our siety of free masons?” “Pon honour I tink he look radder black, fraid we lose de ‘lection in New York!”
Sarah Hart was a Jewish Philadelphia stationer who with her son, Abraham Hart, a future eminent Philadelphia publisher, assumed publication of the "Life in Philadelphia" series in 1829. She alone reissued the entire series of 14 prints in 1830.
Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American Political Caricaturist of the Jacksonian Era (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 97. (LCP Print Room Uz, A423.O).
RVCDC
Description revised 2021.
Access points revised 2021.
Subject Morgan, William, d. 1828.
African Americans -- Caricatures and cartoons -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
African American freemasons -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
African American men -- Caricatures and cartoons -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
African Americans -- Clothing & dress -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Conversation.
Freemasons -- New York (State)
Middle-class -- Clothing & dress -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Racism in popular culture.
Genre Caricatures -- 1820-1830.
Etchings -- Hand-colored -- 1820-1830.
Printer Hart, Sarah, publisher.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Set) [P.9700]
Accession number P.9700