Racist caricature portraying a middle-class African American man-woman couple as snobs who slight a working-class African American man shoeshiner and former acquaintance. Depicts the African American shoeshiner greeting the African American couple who feign ignorance of the man's acquaintance after their return from "de Springs." The laborer, attired in a rumpled top hat, torn overcoat with tails, and patched pants holds his rod of boots in his left hand, and uses his right one to grab the hand of "Cesa." "Cesa," dressed in a flat-top cap, and heavy, long overcoat with handkerchief in the pocket, and plaid pants, looks suspiciously at their joined hands. He holds a walking stick and his companion's parasol in his other hand. He states that the shoeshiner has mistaken his identity (You must be mistaking in de person black man!). His companion, her hand around his elbow, and dressed in a Dunstable bonnet, dark-colored overcoat, and button-down shirtwaist with a collar, agrees. With her hand placed on her hip and holding a purse, she declares, "What does the imperdent nigger mean?" Figures are depicted with oversize and exaggerated features., Sarah Hart was a Jewish Philadelphia stationer who assumed printing of the "Life in Philadelphia" series in 1829. She reprinted the entire original series of 14 prints in 1830., Pendelton, Kearny, & Childs, in operation from 1829 until 1830, was the first successful lithographic firm in Philadelphia. The firm's partners were John Pendleton, Frances Kearny, and Cephas G. Childs., Nancy Reynolds Davison's E.W. Clay: American Political Caricaturist of Jacksonian America (PhD. diss., The University of Michigan, 1980), p. 80-81. (LCP Print Room Uz, A423.O)., Described in Daily Chronicle, December 26, 1829, 2 and “The Dead Cut,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 31, 1829, 2., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Acquired in 1970.
Creator
Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, etcher
Date
1829
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Set) [7893.F.1]
