Racist cartoon reflecting the Northern fear that Britain's economic ties with Southern cotton growers would cause the British government to relinquish its abolitionist stance in order to support the Confederacy. Depicts a plump John Bull, representing Great Britain, centered between a kneeling enslaved African American man and a bale of cotton in a storage shed. Bull touches the hair of the African American man with his right hand and holds a piece of the cotton from the bale in the other. He declares, "it is certain that Cotton is more useful to me than Wool!!" In the left background, two African American men stand and cry. In the right background, a Southern white man plantation owner looks on and smiles., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Possible publisher supplied by Murrell., 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.
Creator
Currier & Ives
Date
[1861]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1861-40R [5780.Fa]
