Life in Philadelphia:What de debil you hurrah for General Jackson for? (opposite p. 206 in extra-illustrated Life)
Description
The engraving "What de debil you hurrah for General Jackson for?" was originally part of a racist Life in Philadelphia series satirizing upwardly mobile African Americans that was drawn by Philadelphia native Edward Williams Clay. It was originally published during the election season of 1828, when Jackson successfully ran for and won the presidency. The image was republished many times in London, including this publication and one by Tregear in London 1833-1834 (AAS had a copy of that later edition handcolored already in its collections).
In the image, a well-dressed African American "'ministration man" (supporter of Jackson's opponent, John Quincy Adams) chastises a ragged African American boy for his cheers of support for the newly elected President, Andrew Jackson. The boy wears a hat made from The Mercury, a Jacksonian newspaper. A sword lies beside him on the ground. The man holds a bundle of switches in his right hand and the boy's jacket in his left. At the man's feet is a copy of the Democratic Press, an anti-Jackson newspaper. In the background, men with blank white faces dance in a circle around a flagpole.
The illustration was added into an extra-illustrated copy of Snelling's A Brief and Impartial History of the Life and Actions of Andrew Jackson. The illustration was placed opposite a page from the appendix of the original text that documents Jackson selling slaves, namely Kissiah & her two children Reuben and Elsey. That dramatic juxtaposition of Jackson selling African Americans on one page while just across the book's gutter on the other side a young black boy starts to celebrates Jackson's election until an older black man warns him that a Jackson administration will not be good for them cannot have been lost on the compiler.
In the image, a well-dressed African American "'ministration man" (supporter of Jackson's opponent, John Quincy Adams) chastises a ragged African American boy for his cheers of support for the newly elected President, Andrew Jackson. The boy wears a hat made from The Mercury, a Jacksonian newspaper. A sword lies beside him on the ground. The man holds a bundle of switches in his right hand and the boy's jacket in his left. At the man's feet is a copy of the Democratic Press, an anti-Jackson newspaper. In the background, men with blank white faces dance in a circle around a flagpole.
The illustration was added into an extra-illustrated copy of Snelling's A Brief and Impartial History of the Life and Actions of Andrew Jackson. The illustration was placed opposite a page from the appendix of the original text that documents Jackson selling slaves, namely Kissiah & her two children Reuben and Elsey. That dramatic juxtaposition of Jackson selling African Americans on one page while just across the book's gutter on the other side a young black boy starts to celebrates Jackson's election until an older black man warns him that a Jackson administration will not be good for them cannot have been lost on the compiler.
Title
Life in Philadelphia: What de debil you hurrah for General Jackson for? (opposite p. 206 in extra-illustrated Life)
Source
From extra-illustrated copy of A Brief and Impartial History of the Life and Actions of Andrew Jackson [catalog record]
Files
Collection
Citation
“Life in Philadelphia:What de debil you hurrah for General Jackson for? (opposite p. 206 in extra-illustrated Life),” Collecting the Jacksonian Era: How Books Become Library Collections at AAS, accessed July 6, 2024, https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/jacksonianera/items/show/25.