Political cartoon depicting racist caricatures of Chinese workers heckling Workingmen's Party of California leader Denis Kearney, who is in prison. In the right, shows Kearney, attired in a black-and-white-striped prison uniform with a ball and chain on his ankle, standing and grasping the bars of his cell, which is labeled, “House of Correction, 181.” In the left, a group of Chinese men workers, wearing queue hairstyles and attired in caps and hats, tunics, pants, and cloth slip-on shoes, sit and stand amongst baskets, including two filled with fish. They hold out to Kearney products associated with their employment, including a laundry worker carrying a washboard and offering socks with holes; a fishmonger holding crabs and a fish labeled, “Black Friday,” on a stick; and a man with a cigar in his mouth holding out a bundle of cigars. They mock him in pidgin English, “you sabe him? Kealney must go!” in reference to Kearney’s slogan that he ended every speech with: “The Chinese must go.” In the top left pinned to the wall is a depiction of a donkey and a cart, possibly alluding to Kearney’s draying business. Denis Kearney (1847-1907) was an Irish immigrant who lead the Workingmen’s Party of California on a platform of anti-Chinese hate, blaming the Chinese immigrants for low wages and job scarcity. He was imprisoned in 1877 for inciting a riot., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Text printed on recto: Copyright secured., RVCDC
Date
[ [ca. 1877]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1877 - Tables [P.2025.44]
