JOHN BULL MAKES A DISCOVERY.
[New York: Currier & Ives, 1861-1863?]. Folio lithograph broadside, oblong 18" x 13-1/4." A few vertical folds with a closed tear along the end of one fold [no loss; expertly repaired on verso with archival tape]. Light spotting and wear, Good+.
John Bull, representing Great Britain, holds a large clump of cotton in one hand. He grabs a kneeling slave by the hair [i.e. "wool"] with his other hand, exclaiming, "Well, yes! it is certain that Cotton is more useful to me than Wool!" Two other black men stand in the back left; one covers his face crying. A man in a wide-brimmed hat with a goatee stands to the back right smiling at the scene. A large bail of cotton stands to the right of Bull.
"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" [LCP description on line].
Conningham 3257. Weitenkampf 133. Reilly 1861-40. OCLC 191119968 [2], 191908779 [1] as of August 2025. Item #41236
Price: $1,750.00