Details
Creator Potomac, artist.
Title "I say Billy, do you know why I'm doing this? Cause, I'm going to run for Congress soon!" [graphic] / Potomac.
Publisher [United States]
Publisher UNITED STATES. 1863
Date [1863?]
Physical Description 1 print : lithograph ; sheet 36 x 32 cm (14 x12.25 in.)
Description Satire belittling the increasing rights of African Americans following the Emancipation Proclamation and depicting a white shoe shine boy shining the shoes of an African American man, portrayed as a racist caricature of a Black dandy. On the street corner, the white boy shines the shoes of the African American man, attired in a top hat with a decorative band, a white collared shirt, a black bowtie, a plaid waistcoat, a checked jacket, striped pants, and black shoes. The shoe shiner speaks to another white boy, who is barefoot and attired in torn and worn clothes, "I say Billy, do you know why I'm doing this? Cause, I'm going to run for Congress soon!" In the left, a carriage passes by.
Is referenced by Weitenkampf, p.139
Notes Title from item.
Date of publication supplied by Weitenkampf.
Lib. Company. Annual Report, 1972, p. 63.
Purchase 1972.
RVCDC
Description revised 2021.
Access points revised 2021.
Digitized by Alexander Street Press for Images of the American Civil War.
Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Subject United States. President (1861-1865 : Lincoln). Emancipation Proclamation.
African American men -- Caricatures and cartoons.
African Americans -- Politics and government.
Boys -- United States.
Dandies -- United States.
Racism in popular culture.
Shoe shiners -- United States.
Shoe shining -- United States.
Geographic subject United States -- Race relations
Genre Lithographs -- 1860-1870.
Political cartoons -- 1860-1870.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| Political Cartoons - 1863-13W [8033.F.3]
Accession number 8033.F.3