Search results

Title: [ Montage of caricatures satirizing Southern Democrats]
Description: Includes six captioned vignettes critically satirizing Southern democrats, copperheads, Jefferson Davis, and Andrew Johnson. Shows Democrats represented as an overseer forcing "Black Republicans" depicted as fleeing enslaved African American men, women, and children to vote their "Ticket in the South"; white men soldiers loading a cannon representing "General Grant giving the Rebel Copperhead Democrats some more grape"; Jefferson Davis fleeing in his "wife's petticoats"; "Johnson on a "Bender," after the Impeachment Trials; a skull and cross bones to symbolize that "Copperheads and Rebel Democrats are Poison"; and Johnson attired in torn and worn clothes and carrying a sack on his back as he is "Travelling for Tennessee." Several of caricatures also used as Civil War envelope designs., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from content., Created postfreeze., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of Civil War miscellanies. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., 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.
Date: [ca. 1868]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons [ca. 1868] - Mon [(2)5786.F.176a]

Title: The house that Jeff built
Description: Cartoon attacking slavery and Jefferson Davis as the Confederate President. Contains twelve vignettes indicative of the inhumanity of the institution of slavery with accompanying verse following the frequently used cartoons scheme of the nursery rhyme "The House that Jack Built." The vignettes starting with the house that Jeff built (a depiction of a "Slave Pen") continue to include images of bales of cotton; enslaved African Americans working in the cotton fields; an auction of enslaved African American men, women, and children; a white man auctioneer; shackles; a white man enslaver whipping an enslaved African American woman; and a portrait of "arch rebel" Davis. The vignettes end with the image of several smashed symbols of slavery, such as shackles and whips alongside a notice of Davis's execution. The accompanying verse predicts that "Jeffs infamous house is doom'd.", Title from item., Artist and publication information supplied by Reilly., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1863 by D.C. Johnson in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts., Purchase 1966., 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., David Claypoole Johnston (1779-1860), known as the "American Cruikshank," was a respected comic illustrator, engraver, and lithographer.
Creator: Johnston, David Claypoole, 1799-1865, artist
Date: 1863
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1863-9 [7549.F]

Title: Views of slavery Does the slaveholder admit the slave to be a human being? If so we would ask his interpretation of the following sentiment "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do you even so to them."
Description: Abolitionist print containing six scenes depicting the inhumanity of slavery. Scenes include enslaved African American children crying while their mothers work and a white man enslaver whips an enslaved man in a sugar plantation field; the punishment of enslaved people by flogging, whipping, and binding by white men overseers in a shack; an auction of enslaved people; a free African American woman with a child watching the destruction of her free papers as she is kidnapped from the street; an anguished enslaved mother being separated from her children by a white man involved in the slave trade; and the shipping of enslaved people to New Orleans from a Baltimore dock. Also contains an excerpt about the rights of human beings from William Ellery Channing's abolitionist text, "On Slavery," below the image., Title from item., Advertised in the New York American Anti-Slavery Society newspaper, Emancipator (March 1836), p.3., Purchase 2003., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., 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 the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., Lib. Company. Annual report, 2003, p. 45-46.
Date: [1836]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1836 Vie [P.2003.10], http://www.lcpimages.org/afro-americana/F-Views.htm

Title: "No higher law."
Description: Antislavery print denouncing the immorality of the Fugitive Slave Law by exploiting abolitionist Senator William H. Seward's famous quote that "a higher law" than the Constitution should exist regarding slavery. Shows "King Slavery," depicted as a bearded, bare-chested, white man, attired in a crown made of finger bones and armed with pistols in his waistband. The King sits and leans upon the arm of his throne composed of the "Fugitive Slave Bill," the Bible, and human skulls as he defiantly holds a whip of chains above his head. An American flag on a pole billows behind the throne. Below the throne, Seward, depicted as a priest, looks up and raises his left hand toward the King. He stands before a cat-faced altar inscribed "Sacred to Slavery," which rests upon a book of "Law" and pours oil from a container onto the altar fire, generating clouds of smoke. In the right, three enslaved men squat with their heads bowed. Senator Daniel Webster gestures toward them and holds a paper supporting the Fugitive Slave Bill "to the fullest extent." Near them, "Freedom," depicted as a bearded, white man and attired in a robe, displays his sense of defeat by removing his crown and lowering his liberty pole. In the left, an African American man freedom seeker fends off dogs attacking him. An African American woman freedom seeker and two children flee from two white men mercenaries on horseback and run toward a white woman with outstretched arms in front of a house. In the right background, the figure of Liberty falls from her pedestal., Title from item., Place of publication inferred from the residence of the distributor., Weitenkampf suggests date of publication as 1851., Text printed on recto: Price $3 A Hundred And Six Cents Single Copy., William Harned was an abolitionist printer in New York who also published the pamphlet, "The Fugitive Slave Bill:...." in 1850. (LCP Am 1850 Fug 16809.D.1)., A.B. Maurice and F.T. Cooper's The History of the 19th century in caricature (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1904), p. 156., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 2000, p. 40-2., Purchase 1999., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., 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.
Date: [1851]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1851 - 2W [P.9739]

Title: Handicap race presidential stakes 1844
Description: Satire of the presidential election of 1844 depicting the potential candidates; Whig Henry Clay, and Democrats Martin Van Buren, Lewis Cass, John Calhoun, Richard M. Johnson, and John Tyler on various mounts racing for the White House. Clay riding a racoon leads the pack claiming that no one can overtake him. Van Buren follows riding a fox and holding a weather vane labeled "N" (North) and "S" (South) with the slogans "Free Trade Texas" and "Abolition Oregon" attached. He acknowledges that Lewis Cass is closing in. Cass on his hound gloats that he has finally overtaken the "old fox." Calhoun, positioned fourth, rides a lion with an enslaved African American man and child, portrayed in racist caricature, on his shoulders and bemoans his extra weight. Johnson, on foot and holding a hook, follows Calhoun stating he will "hook on" to whomever gets in. Last is Tyler, who switched political parties, trying to ride the two mounts of the "Loco Foco" (radical Democrats) donkey and the "Whig" horse., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to act of Congress in year 1844 by J. Childs in the Clerk's Office in the District Court of the Southern District of N.Y., Gift of Mrs. Francis P. Garvan, 1977., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1977, p. 51-52., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., 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., Clay, born in Philadelphia, was a prominent caricaturist, engraver, and lithographer who created the "Life in Philadelphia" series which satirized middle-class African Americans of the late 1820s and early 1830s.
Creator: Clay, Edward Williams, 1799-1857, artist
Date: 1844
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political cartoons - 1844-55W [8366.F.36]

Title: A grand slave hunt, or trial of speed for the presidency, between celebrated nags Black Dan, Lewis Cass, and Haynau
Description: Cartoon criticizing presidential candidates Daniel Webster (i.e., Black Dan) and Lewis Cass's avid support for the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law during the election of 1852. Shows Webster, carrying a copy of the Fugitive Slave Law and a flag, leading a group of white men, including the lagging Michigan Senator Lewis Cass; the infamously cruel Hungarian General Baron Haynau with a pitcher of "Barclay Best" on his head (a symbolic reference to the brewery workers who attacked him in England); and President Millard Fillmore holding a Fugitive Slave Bill. They pursue an enslaved African American woman who runs clutching a baby in her arms and holding the hand of her young son. Additional figures in the background include Horace Mann, Massachusetts Congressman and opponent of the Compromise of 1850; an orator resembling Webster bombasting Mann before a group of kneeling white men admirers; a preaching white man minister with Bible in hand; and an African American woman freedom seeker with her child being tugged between a yelling man and a white man mercenary carrying handcuffs., Title from item., Date of publication supplied by Weitenkampf., Purchase 1967., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., 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.
Date: [1852]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1852-7W [P.9676]

Main menu