A Ku Klux Klan party in North Carolina.
Title
A Ku Klux Klan party in North Carolina
Description
Altered photograph depicting the "Plan of the Contemplated Murder of John Campbell." Shows nine Ku Klux Klansmen (comical faces drawn on their hoods) surrounding a kneeling noosed white man - John Campbell - holding his hat. A Klansman holds the noose. Campbell was a leading member of the Republican Party in Poplar, North Carolina whose political affiliation was adjudicated a crime by the Klan. On August 10, 1871, the Klan abducted and sentenced him to be hung in the woods near his residence. A secret serviceman Joseph G. Hester had infiltrated the North Carolina order and stopped the hanging and arrested the Klansmen. Soon thereafter Hester commissioned a photograph with Campbell reenacting the Klan tribunal with "actors" attired in the Klan's confiscated regalia. The actors have been purported to be the African American acquaintances of Campbell. The photograph was distributed to the Northern press and authorities in Washington D.C. Engravings with commentary after the photograph were later issued and circulated., Title from manuscript note on verso authored by Charles E. Smith., Manuscript note on verso: A Klu Klux Klan party captured in Western N. Carolina in 1871 by a company of the 4th artillery, Captain F.G. Smith & photographed on the Spot. Charles E. Smith., Manuscript note on verso: My nephew said that the prisoner would not stand still to be photographed, as he took off their disguises & put them on some of his own men. A crowd of the natives stood around watching the operation. One of them said- "I bet that them Yankees will send that picture up North" "& lie about it & say that it is took of we uns, while it is their own men insich, all the while-" "It's just like them mean yankees to do it", Charles Emory Smith (1842-1908), a United States Minister, was also a prominent political journalist and Republican delegate who as editor-in-chief of the Philadelphia newspaper, "The Press" cemented the journal's reputation as the leading Republican paper of Pennsylvania., McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., 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., Variant photograph of the reenacted scene in the collections of Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO., See research file - Campbell, John.
Date
[1871]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo-unidentified-Associations [5779.F.153]
Jeff. Davis., the compromiser, in a tight place. [graphic]
Title
Jeff. Davis., the compromiser, in a tight place
Description
Cartoon expressing Northern exasperation with Jefferson Davis's attempt to negotiate for peace in 1865. Depicts Davis being slammed between the doors of the "United States Senate" by Uncle Sam and an armed Zouave soldier. Davis carrying on his back a bundle of "Compromise Goods. Latest Styles" begs the unsympathetic soldier to let him alone as Uncle Sam holding a noose declares that Davis has cheated him too often and deserves execution. In the left, an African American man, portrayed in racist caricature, holds a "Trinkets" box and says in the vernacular, "It pears to me, Massa Davis bring his goods to de wrong market dis time. All de better for cullored folks, Yah! Yah!", Title from item., Date of publication supplied by Weitenkampf., McAllister Collection, gift, 1886., RVCDC, 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.
Date
[1865]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1865-1W [5795.F.a]
Sunday laws : Hanging the cat on Monday for killing the mouse on Sunday. [graphic]
Title
Sunday laws hanging the cat on Monday for killing the mouse on Sunday
Description
Cartoon mocking Philadelphia's Sunday Laws depicting the moment before "Thomas" the cat will be hanged for his murder of a mouse on the Sabbath. In the center, shows the gallows surrounded by a line of white policemen, attired in uniforms and caps. In the left, three white hangmen, attired in suits, hold onto the rope and pull on the unlooped end of the noose. Two of the men smile sinisterly, while the third man wipes his tears with a handkerchief as he says, “Alas poor Tom!” To the right, an African American man, portrayed in racist caricature with exaggerated features, carries the "Blood Tub." Under the noose, a white man, possibly Philadelphia Mayor Alexander Henry, stands holding an execution order that reads, “Mayor Public Execution Tom” and the cat by the scruff of its neck. Before him stands a minister, resembling John Chambers, a champion of the Sunday Laws. He holds the dead mouse in this right hand and an open book in his left hand as he sentences the cat to death for murder. Behind the minister, an elderly white man, attired in a suit with a white bowtie, stands slightly hunched down holding an ear trumpet to his right ear. He comments, “I can’t hear a word the minister says on account of them cars,” a reference to the contested Sunday Law against the running of streetcars. A black dog runs in the left foreground., Title from item., Date from manuscript note written on recto: Aug. 1859., Place of publication inferred from content., Text printed on recto, below image: In the Dark Ages, long ago, One Horne was flogged on Monday; What for? That’s what I want you to know, He danced a horn-pipe Sunday! That was all! He but danced a horn-pipe Sunday, But he danced to the horsewhip Monday. By the roundheads, too, when Cromwell reigned, We read there was a hung on Monday, A cat who “the Sabbath day (?) profaned” By cat-ching a mouse on Sunday? Understand: She played with him first on Sunday, ‘Twas for that she was hung on Monday! And by America’s Puritan men, Mrs. Hotchkiss was punished on Monday; Cotton Mather forbade her, but once and again, She had kissed her babe on Sunday; A blow for a kiss. For so many kisses on Sunday, She got so many blows on Monday. So, too, in Brooklyn, the other day, Meyerbeer was tried on Monday; The complaint against him thus did say “He has sold lager beer on Sunday” And he had! But the jury said, on Monday! A good drink might be sold Sunday! And in the West’s “Queen city,” too, One Rudolph’s just ‘quitted on Monday; He would drive his ‘bus the whole week through And accommodate people on Sunday: And the Court, Gave the very Pruden-t decision on Monday, That “there’s more than ‘one thing needful’ on Sunday:” And so the “good time” is “coming” boys When a thing that is good on Monday—A drink, or a drive, or a joyful noise—Will be thought not bad on Sunday! Everywhere When wrong will be wrong on Monday, And right will be right on Sunday!, Accessioned 1893., 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
[Philadelphia]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1859-Sun [5656.F.24a]