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"An Affecting Scene in Kentucky." 1836. In this caricature, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, Richard M. Johnson, is attacked on racist grounds for having a common-law marriage to a mulatto woman, Julia Chinn, by whom he fathered two daughters. The scene shows a distraught Johnson reacting to the scurrilous attacks on his wife, who is portrayed in a painting carried by his daughters, Adaline and Imogene. The mother is pictured in a turban. The running mate of Martin Van Buren for the 1836 election was a Kentucky Congressman known for having slain the Indian chief Tecumseh. Notice the abolitionist to Johnson's right, holding a copy of the Hartford abolitionist newspaper, the Emancipator. The black man in the scene is also ridiculed for his dialect when he pledges "...de honor of a Gentlemen dat all de Gentlemen of Colour wll support you." Library of Congress.	"Marriage of the Free Soil and Liberty Parties." 1848. This image is a Currier & Ives print. It is a comic look at the alliance of those Democrats opposed to the expansion of slavery into the western territories, known as Free Soilers, and the more radical antislavery people (Liberty Party) opposed to slavery anywhere in the nation. These groups, along with antislavery Whigs and Barnburners, joined together to form the Free Soil Party in 1848, nominating former president Martin Van Buren as their presidential candidate. In the picture, Van Buren is pushed toward the older black woman by the antislavery editor Horace Greeley. Benjamin F. Butler presides over the "marriage." Notice how the blacks are presented in the image compared to the whites. Many of the antislavery factions in the nation adopted strange sounding names, such as Barnburners, before coming together to form the Republican Party in the late 1850s. Library of Congress.	"Slavery As It Exists In America. Slavery As It Exists In England." 1851. This image presents a defense of slavery as a way of life superior to the life of the working poor of industrial England. In the first scene enslaved blacks dance and play, observed by four white men--two Southerners and two Northerners. The southern gentleman comments to the Northerner: "It is a general thing, some few exceptions, after mine have done a certain amount of labor, which they finish by 4 or 5 P.M., I allow them to enjoy themselves in any reasonable way." Contrast this to the second scene, which takes place at a British textile factory. Notice the conversaton between two barefoot youths: "I say Bill, I am going to run away from the Factory, and go to the Coal Mines where they have to work only 14 hours a Day instead of 17 as you do here." Behind them, an impoverished mother comments about life in the factory: "Oh Dear! what wretched Slaves, this Factory Life makes me & my children." The idea that slaves enjoyed a higher standard of living compared to industrial workers in nothern U. S. and British cities, meaning better diets and better working conditions, was commonly argued in defense of slavery. In modern times, some historians have also argued that slave diets, working conditions, housing, and such might have exceeded the living standards of the urban poor in the North. For southern apologists for slavery, the wage slavery of England and the northern states was worse than actual slavery because employers felt no responsibility for the welfare of their "wage slaves." Library of Congress.
"What's Sauce For The Goose Is Sauce For The Gander." 1851. This pro-Southern political cartoon criticizes the oppostion of northern abolitionists and antislavery politicians and churchmen to the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Part of the Missouri Compromise, the Fugitive Slave Act empowered slavecatchers to pursue escaped slaves even into northern free states. It was bitterly opposed by abolitionists who argued that a higher law prevented them from cooperating with the new federal law. In the left panel of the cartoon, a slaveholder and a federal marshall confront an abolitionist, named Mr. Pumpkindoodle, and an escaped slave,Pompey. In this scene, the abolitionist urges the runaway slave to resist arrest: "What! seize my African brother! never! I dont recognize any U. S. law! I have a higher law, a law of my own. Here Pompey take this pistol and resist to the death! if he attempts to take you!" In the right panal, Mr Pumpkindoodle approaches the seated slaveholder in his shop demanding that he return goods stolen from him. The slaveholder tells his faithful slave to kick out the abolitionist, saying that he too has a higher law of his own. The enslaved Cesar says: "Of course Massa. De dam Bobolitionist is the wus enemy we poor niggers have got." Library of Congress.	"A Dream Caused By The Perusal Of Mrs. H. Beecher Stowe's Popular Work Uncle Tom's Cabin. 1853 This amazingly drawn satire mocking Harriet Beecher Stowe and her popular novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, appeared in 1853--one year after the novel appeared in book form. This fantastic and nightmarish image shows armies of demons and mosters battling in a hellish struggle. In the center, a leering black man is dressed as an antislavery Quaker. He hold a flag calling "Women of England To The Rescue." Near the mouth of a cave marked "Underground Railway," Mrs. Stowe, holding up a book that reads, "Uncle Tom's Cabin, I Love Blacks," is attacked by deamons. In the background, monsters are throwing copies of Stowe's book into a roaring fire. Because of the conflicting images, it is difficult to know for sure what is the artist's take on the issues tearing apart the nation, except that he clearly understands the fury of the coming battle over slavery. Library of Congress.	"Southern Rights Segars." 1859. This idealized view of slave life appeared on a printed label for cigars manumaftured by the New York firm Solomon Brothers. It was aimed at smokers in Georgia and Alabama. The picture shows a fashionably dressed black couple strolling in front of a tobacco plantation. In the background are a mannor house and black slaves working peacefully in the filds. This misleading image of happy and prosperous slaves was commonly used to appeal to southern consumers of northern goods. Library of Congress.

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