The Disunited States — A Black Business

Wood engraving

Punch (8 November 1856): 185

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham

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The gentleman in frock coat and top hat (right) represents the largely mercantile North, while the figure to the left (with cigarette and rifle) is the largely agrarian South. Opposite the full-page cartoon is "An American Trait" in which Emerson calls the slaves "the black spots on the Sun of American Freedom" (p. 184).

More commentary on the American Civil War

• The American Twins, or North and South

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Last modified 2 April 2004