A racist cartoon ridiculing Kentucky congressman Richard M. Johnson, the 1836 Democratic vice-presidential candidate, for his common-law marriage to Julia Chinn, a multiracial woman. Depicts Johnson, with the "New York Courier and Enquirer" falling from his hand, as he grieves over the "scurrilous attacks in the newspapers on the mother of my children." His daughters, Adaline and Imogene, attired in evening dresses, comment on his "affected state" and hold a framed portrait of their mother, attired in a turban. Surrounding Johnson are Democrats pledging support, including a postmaster, a well-dressed African American man, who speaks in the vernacular, and a gaunt white man abolitionist holding the Connecticut newspaper the "Emancipator." Another white man supporter comments on Johnson's agitated state., Title from item., Publication information supplied by Reilly., Purchase 1958., 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.
Date
[1836]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1836-15 [6277.F]
Satiric print mocking the decadent state of West Indian plantation society containing five vignettes, one with text, depicting slothful white enslavers being lavishly catered to by Black and multiracial enslaved people. Vignettes include: "A West India Nabob" (i.e., man of wealth) as he lounges on his couch, attired in a wide brimmed hat, surrounded by his entourage of enslaved women; enslaved men being used as a "Portable Boot Jack" by their white man enslaver; the white women enslaver showing "Creolean Patience" as she waits for her enslaved marketing person to be told by her enslaved attendant to pick up her nearby fallen needle; the white women enslaver telling "Quashebah come and take my Head in again" from her open window; and a white man enslaver enjoying "One of the Luxuries" of slavery as enslaved women simultaneously comb his hair, wash his feet, fan him, and serve him goblets of wine., Title from item., Described in David Kunzle's The Early comic strip: Narrative strips and picture stories in the European broad sheet from c. 1450 to 1825 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973), p. 374-5., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 2000, p. 37-38., Purchase 2000., 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.
Date
April 1808
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political cartoons - 1808-Wes [9455.F]
