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Title: A new way of passing a bad Nebraska bill
Description: Antislavery cartoon criticizing the abuse of political power by President Franklin Pierce, his cabinet, and Stephen Douglas in their attempt to force the ratification of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854. Depicts antislavery Senator Thomas Hart Benton, holding the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which prohibited the extension of slavery into the Western Territories, arguing against slavery in Nebraska. Pierce, who holds the Nebraska Bill, threatens that any political opposition to the bill shall be severely punished. Douglas, with the President's cabinet, sits at a table behind Pierce and observes that acquiescence to "Southern Institutions" will get him the Presidency next term. Members of the cabinet comment upon Nebraska's suitability for slavery. A white man enslaver reviewing a paper labeled "Auction: sale of slaves" comments that if a man cannot make enough money by "selling young Niggers" than he must be greedy., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Originally part of American political caricatures, likely a scrapbook, accessioned 1899. Collection primarily comprised of gifts from Samuel Breck, John A. McAllister, and James Rush., 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., Sinclair was a Philadelphia lithographer who received awards from the Franklin Institute for his work.
Creator: Sinclair, Thomas S., approximately 1805-1881, lithographer
Date: [1854]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1854 - New [5760.F.86]

Title: Southern chivalry - argument versus club's
Description: Cartoon critically addressing the Brooks-Sumner Affair in which Southern Congressman Preston S. Brooks caned antislavery Senator Charles Sumner in the Senate on May 26, 1856. Brook's "chivalrous" attack on Sumner was a reprisal for Sumner's two-day speech, "The Crime against Kansas," which attacked the violence occurring in Kansas over the issue of slavery; the South; and Brook's uncle, Andrew Butler. Depicts Sumner, head bloodied, quill in his raised hand and clutching a paper symbolically inscribed "Kansas.," He is held to the ground by Butler whose face is obscured by his raised arm and hand that holds his cane above his head. Butler is posed in mid-strike. Members of Congress observe in the background, some laughing, some scowling, with one member raising his hands in surrender from another who has his fist and cane raised., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Originally part of American political caricatures, likely a scrapbook, accessioned 1899. Collection primarily comprised of gifts from Samuel Breck, John A. McAllister, and James Rush., 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., Magee was a Philadelphia lithographer who established his own lithographic firm in Philadelphia in 1850.
Creator: Magee, John L., artist
Date: [1856]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1856-3W [5760.F.105]

Title: A proslavery incantation scene or Shakespeare improved
Description: Antislavery print using an allegory of the cauldron scene from Macbeth to depict James Buchanan and the Democrats' contempt for the freesoilers following the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Depicts Buchanan, Stephen Douglas, and several animated Democrats, speaking in Shakespearian rhyme, gathered around a boiling cauldron labeled, "Double double, Free State trouble, Till Fremont men are straw & stubble." In the foreground, a white man kneels and blows on the fire, with a pistol labeled "Laws of Kansas" in his back pocket. The fire is fueled with anti-slavery literature, including "Beecher Sermons," "N.Y. Tribune," "Quincy’s Letters," "N.Y. Post," and "Boston Atlas." Buchanan, standing on a platform, states he endorses the laws of Kansas now in force and holds a paper labeled "Ostend Conference," (an attempt by the United States to negate an agreement with France and Great Britain to not annex enslaved-holding Cuba), over the cauldron. Beside him Douglas, holding a whip and shackles, calls for the blood of freemen and revels in the woe caused by his Kansas-Nebraska bill. Shackles, including one marked “Chattel Stock,” also rest at his feet. Many of the Democrats gathered around the kettle are depicted as pro-slavery, white men Southerners and refer favorably to Preston Brook's caning of Charles Sumner while others call out items to be thrown into the pot, such as "fillet of a Free Soil Frog" and the "Ostend conference plot.", Title from item., Date of publication supplied by Weitenkampf., Originally part of American political caricatures, likely a scrapbook, accessioned 1899. Collection primarily comprised of gifts from Samuel Breck, John A. McAllister, and James Rush., 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: [1856]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1856-5W [5760.F.91]

Title: Southern ideas of liberty. New method of assorting the mail, as practised by southern slave-holders, or attack on the post office, Charleston, S.C
Description: Print portraying the violent suppression of Southern abolitionism. Depicts a riotous mob around a gallows from which a white man hangs. It is overseen by Judge Lynch, depicted with donkey's ears and holding a whip while stepping on the Constitution. He is seated upon bales of cotton, sugar, and tobacco and sentences a white man abolitionist to be hanged by the neck. The abolitionist is grabbed and drug to the gallows by two white men., Print portraying a raid of anti-abolitionists on the Charleston Post Office in July 1835. Depicts white men removing and then pilfering mail-bags from the ransacked post-office and throwing to the ground abolitionist newspapers including "The Liberator," "Atlas," and "Commercial Gazette" while a riotous mob burns the papers. Posted on the Post Office is a broadside titled "$20,000 Reward for Tappan" referring to the bounty placed by the city of New Orleans upon Arthur Tappan, founder and president of the American Anti-Slavery Society., Title from item., Advertised in 1836 editions of the abolitionist newspapers The Liberator, published in Boston, and Emancipator, published in New York., Text printed on recto: Sentence passed upon one for supporting that clause of our Declaration viz. All men are born free &equal. “Strip him to the skin! give him a coat of Tar & Feathers! Hang him by the neck, between the Heavens and the Earth!!! as a beacon to warn the Northern Fanatics of their danger!!!!”, Purchase 1981., 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: [ca. 1835]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1835-2 & 3 [P.8658]

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: Arms of ye confederacie
Description: Civil War print using the allegory of a coat of arms to criticize slavery and Southern culture. Depicts the shield adorned with symbolic Southern imagery, including a mint julep, pistol, whip and manacles, and enslaved African Americans, including a woman with a baby, working in the field. The shield is flanked by a white man plantation owner, attired in spurs and smoking a pipe, and a bare-chested, barefooted, enslaved African American man in manacles. Above the shield stands a rooster between the Confederate flag and a flag with a skull, cross-bones, and the number 290. Above the rooster is a streamer inscribed "Servitudo Esto Perpetua." In the background, white men plantation owners play cards, two white men duel, and an auction of enslaved people is in progress., Title from item., Possible date of publication supplied by Reilly., RVCDC, Accessioned 1979., 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.
Creator: Tilley, H. H., engraver
Date: [1862?]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1862-13R [P.2275.9]

Title: John Bull makes a discovery
Description: 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]

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: The question settled
Description: Cartoon depicting Abraham Lincoln as "Old Abe," a white cat who drives "Jeff," (i.e., Jefferson Davis) depicted as a grey striped cat with a noose around his neck from the "United States" food dish. The black cat, "Contraband," (i.e., African American Civil War freedom seeker) makes his way into the dish from the other side. The plate rests upon the Union flag and a map depicting the lower Southern States blockaded by figures of Union ships., Title from item., Possible date of publication supplied by Weitenkampf., During the Civil War, the U.S government declared African American freedom seekers as "contraband of war.", Purchase 1970., 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: [1862?]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department political cartoons - 1862-12W [7870.F]

Title: The resurrection of Henry Box Brown at Philadelphia Who escaped from Richmond Va. in a box 3 feet long 2 1/2 ft. deep and 2 ft. wide
Description: Antislavery print celebrating the moment freedom seeker Henry Box Brown emerged from his crate in Philadelphia. Brown, with the assistance of the Vigilance Committee of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, escaped slavery by having himself shipped to Philadelphia where he emerged in the presence of abolitionists Professor Charles D. Cleveland, J. Miller M'Kim, William Still, and printer Lewis Thompson. Depicts Brown just emerging from his box with Still holding the crate's lid labeled, "Wm. Johnson, Arch St. Philadelphia, This side up with Care;" Cleveland with a saw in his right hand; M'Kim with a hatchet in one hand and using his other hand to help Still hold the lid; and Thompson pointing to Brown with his right hand as he holds in his free hand a walking stick., Title from item., Date inferred from variant described in Reilly and LCP copy described by Jeffrey Ruggles, The unboxing of Henry Box Brown (Richmond: The Library of Virginia, 2003), 114. Ruggles notes copies of the print had been received and advertised by the "Anti-Slavery Bugle" of Ohio before March 8, 1851., Variant reproduced in William Still, The underground railroad (1872) p.70. [LCP Am 1872 Still, 56405.O]., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 1975, p. 59-60., Purchase 1975., 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., Call number in location based on Reilly entry., Kramer was a German born painter and lithographer who worked with the Rosenthals, a prominent Philadelphia family of lithographers, by 1850 and through the early 1850s.
Creator: Kramer, Peter, 1823-1907, artist
Date: [ca. 1850 - ca. 1851]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1850-4R variant [8183.F]

Title: 'Conquering prejudice,' or 'fulfilling a constitutional duty with alacrity.'
Description: Antislavery print depicting the pursuit of a freedom seeker in accordance with the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Shows a barefooted, enslaved African American woman, portrayed with exaggerated features, and attired in a head kerchief and a short-sleeved dress. She runs holding her child and screams for help, "My God! My child! Will no one help! Is there no mercy!" Chasing her are Daniel Webster admiring himself for performing a "disagreeable duty," a marshal holding a gun and handcuffs and exclaiming a sense of relief over Webster's interpretation of the Constitution, and two dogs. In the background is a church and courthouse., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Lib. Company. Annual Report, 1978, p. 54-5., Purchase 1978., 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., Kramer was a German born painter and lithographer who worked with the Rosenthals, a prominent Philadelphia family of lithographers from 1850 and through the early 1850s.
Creator: Kramer, Peter, 1823-1907, artist
Date: [ca. 1851]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1851- Con [8433.F]

Title: Practical illustration of the fugitive slave law
Description: Antislavery print depicting a fight between Northern abolitionists and supporters of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. In the left, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison and an African American man both raise guns to protect an enslaved African American woman who is attired in a head kerchief, earrings, a short-sleeved dress, and shoes. She raises both arms in the air and clutches a handkerchief in her right hand and exclaims “Oh Massa Garrison protect me!!!” Garrison wraps his right arm around her and says, “Don’t be alarmed, Susanna, you’re safe enough.” In the right, the white man mercenary, attired in a top hat with a star on it, who may represent the federal marshals or commissioners authorized by the act (and paid) to apprehend freedom seekers, carries a noose and shackles. He sits astride Secretary of State Daniel Webster, who is on his hands and knees clutching the Constitution and bemoaning, "This, though constitutional, is extremely disagreeable." Behind them a white man, possibly John C. Calhoun, declares "We will give these fellows a touch of Old South Carolina" and carries two volumes labeled "Law and Gospel." Another white man carries a quill and ledger and says "I goes in for Law & Order." In the background, a number of men on both sides fight. A white man lies on the ground on his back. An African American man grabs a white man enslaver by the head and holds a whip while saying “It’s my turn now Old Slave Driver.” A "Temple of Liberty" stands in the background with two flags flying which read, "A day, an hour, of virtuous Liberty is worth an age of Servitude," and "All men are created free and equal.", Title from item., Probable place and date of publication supplied by Reilly., Weitenkampf attributed this cartoon to the New York artist Edward Williams Clay, but Reilly refutes this attribution on the grounds that the draftsmanship, signature, and political opinions are atypical of Clay., Originally part of American political caricatures, likely a scrapbook, accessioned 1899. Collection primarily comprised of gifts from Samuel Breck, John A. McAllister, and James Rush., 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: [1850 or 1851]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1851-6 [5760.F.104]

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]

Title: The Cincinnati platform, or the way to make a new state in 1856
Description: Antislavery cartoon criticizing presidential nominees James Buchanan and John C. Breckenridge's support of pro-slavery forces over freesoilers in the violent political struggle in "Bleeding Kansas" during the Democratic Convention of 1856 in Cincinnati. Depicts a pro-slavery militia, carrying a flag labeled "Kansas and Liberty," that has marshalled a group of shackled, enslaved African American men who wear loin-cloths. Several of them clasp their hands together and look with pleading expressions at the white militiaman, behind them, and who carries a whip in his left hand and drives them forward. They march toward a settlement, which has a "Free Soil and Fremont" flag where homes burn and settlers and cattle lay wounded or dead. In the right is the corpse of an assaulted, white mother, who lies on the ground with her breasts exposed. Her naked, dead baby lies face down over her left arm. In the upper left, Buchanan and Breckenridge, standing in front of seated convention delegates on a platform, oversee the violence and comment about the freesoilers being a curse to the country who would surely leave if forced to work for "10 cents a day.", Title from item., Date inferred from content., Copyright statement printed on recto: Entered in according to act of congress in the Clerk’s Office of the district Court for the Eastern District of Penna. By I. [sic.] Childs., Originally part of American political caricatures, likely a scrapbook, accessioned 1899. Collection primarily comprised of gifts from Samuel Breck, John A. McAllister, and James Rush., 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: [1856]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Political Cartoons - 1856-10W [5760.F.95]

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