"Portraits of Hannibal and Cyprian, With Vignettes Illustration African Character,and Wrongs." 1836. This antislavery poster contrasts the nobility of Africans with their treatment in the slave trade. One image shows Africans being captured by slave traders while another shows Africans helping shipwrecked whites. Portraits of Hannibal, the Carthagenian General who conquered Rome, and the Cyprian Bishop of Carthange are placed center front. Library of Congress.	"Position of the Democratic Pary in 1852." 1852. This print ridicules the Democratic Party for its submission to the slaveholders of the South. It shows party leaders such as Franklin Pierce, Lewis Cass, and Stephen A. Douglas doing the work of the devil. The words at the botoom of the picture read: "Freemen of America, how long will you be led by such leaders." This type of anti-slavery political cartoon was common in the 1850s. It is possible that the print was created by a free black. Library of Congress.	"Anthony Burns." 1855. This illustration features a bust portrait of the enslaved fugitive Anthony Burns,whose arrest and trial under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 sparked riots and protests by Boston abolitionists in 1854. The young Burns, twenty four years old at the time, is surrounded by scenes from his life: his sale at auction, a whipping post with bales of cotton, his arrest in Boston, his shipboard-escape from Richmond, his departure from Boston under arrest, and in prison back in Virginia where he was held before being returned to his owner. In response to Burns' return to slavery, the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison burned a copy of the Constitution on the Fourth of July as thousands looked on. A federal grand jury indicted seven black men and one white man for inciting a riot in attempting to free Burns, but no Boston jury would convict the accused and the indictment eventually was overtuned on a technicality. Library of Congress.
"Democratic Platform Illustrated." 1856. This cartoon attacks the Democratic platform of 1856 as proslavery. At the base of a stand flying a Buchannan/Breckenridge flag are two chained slaves dominated by a white overseer. In the background, a town in Cuba is under attack by a ship, probably a comment on the talk among southern Democrats about annexing Cuba as a potential slave state. In the left background, a town burns. This image reminds viewers of the atrocities that occurred when a proslavery band sacked the antislavery town of Lawrence Kansas in 1856. Library of Congress.	"The Irrespressible Conflict." 1860. This cartoon depicts the bitterness among New York Republicans after the nomination of Abraham Lincoln as the Republican candidate for president. Lincoln and his supporters are throwing the New York candidate, Senator William H. Seward, overboard. Seward is viewed as too radical to win the election because of his view that an "irrepressible conflict" exists between the Slave South and the free-labor North. His cry of protest is ignored: "Don't throw me overboard, I built this boat, and I alone can save it." Notice the black man wearing a life preserver. He is saying: "If de boat and all hands sink, dis Nigger sure to swim, Yah! Yah!" From the shore, a man clad in striped trousers, dress coat, and tails, warns the crew: "You wont save your crazy old craft by throwing your pilot overboard: better heave that tarnal Nigger out." This cartoon shows the political struggle within the Republic Party over how forcefully it should stand against slavery. In this view Lincoln is a moderate, opposed to slavery but willing to make compromises to win the election. Blacks are not to be trusted because they will jump on board any ship, depending on which looks best able to float, or win the election. Library of Congress.	"South Carolina Topsey In A Fix." 1861. This caricature by Thomas W. Strong is one of a series of prints critical of the decision by southern states to leave the Union and form the Confederacy. Produced in 1861, Strong seems to places the blame for secession squarely on Topsy, the slave child in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. The fashionably dressed lady, Columbia, is based on Miss Ophelia, the New England spinster in Stowe's novel who tried to teach the young Topsey. Columbia scolds Topsey: "So, topsey, you're at the bottom of this piece of wicked work--picking stars out of the Flag! What would your forefathers say, do you think? I'll just hand you over to the new overseer, Uncle Abe. He'll fix you." Uncle Abe, of course, is the President-elect Abraham Lincoln. In response, Topsey makes a point that suggests that Strong is not at all sympathetic to secession: "Never had no father, nor mother, nor nothing! I was raised by speculators! I's mighty widked, anyhow! What makes me ack so? Dun nom missis--i'spects cause I's so wicked!" As Topsey talks, another slave runs away shouting, "Hand us over to ole Abe, eh? Ize off!" This caricature is not about Topsey at all. Strong is using Topsey to personify the rebellious state of South Carolina, depicting the clash between the rebel state, the first to leave the Union, and the North in the character of Topsey. This print is an excellent example of how artists used caricature and irony to make points about slavery and the causes of the Civil War. Almost all of these cartoon-like images present complicated messages and assume substantial knowledge about current events on the part of the public. Library of Congress.