A Union soldier holds a rifle with a bayonet while embracing an African-American woman. His actions cause the woman to spill the liquid in the bottle she carries on a platter. Her dress is turned up to reveal her crinoline and legs. Behind them, an African American man holds his fist up., Text: You nasty, Black Republican, / To hug the sooty African, / How sweet to you her stench must seem, / When the day Star reigns reigns surpreme; -- / That she's your equal in your creed, / To Niggerdom then quickly speed, / For such a filthy kin to swine / Shall never be my Valentine., Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
Cartoon addressing the tenuous position of Republican presidential nominee General Ulysses S. Grant as the candidate of a party whose radicals support African American civil rights and Reconstruction under military rule. Depicts Grant holding up a knife inscribed "military despotism" as he straddles the "radical platform" rope that is stretched across the "Salt River" (i.e., political disaster). One end of the rope is tied to a rifle labeled "military reconstruction." The other end is held by "Negro supremacy" depicted as an African American man, portrayed in racist caricature, barefooted, and attired in torn and worn clothes, who sits upon the tombstone of "Southern Confederacy." He asks in the vernacular, "Whar you be Massa Grant if I lef' go, yah! yah!!" Grant replies, "I'll fight it out if it takes all summer.", Title from item., Date of publication supplied by Weitenkampf., Accessioned 1979., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Date
[1868]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1868-19bW [P.2275.3b]
