How a racist media portrayed the black leader of London Chartism in 1848
In 1848 just as it now would racism played a key part in how the media depicted William Cuffay, the black leader of London Chartism. Cuffay was the organiser of the Chartist demonstration for the vote on 10th April 1848 at Kennington Common. He also played a role in the attempted Chartist rising at Seven Dials in central London on 16th August 1848. He was arrested on 18th August 1848 and sentenced to be transported to Tasmania. There he remained politically active and died in 1870.
A key racist caricature was from Punch. The context is explained below:
In 1848 particularly Cuffay was lampooned in print, in newspapers like the Times, and the Observer, in magazines like Punch and the London Illustrated News. While he was in Newgate Gaol awaiting transportation Punch carried The Three Christmas Waits a lampooning poem by William Makepeace Thackeray. A book titled The Political Life of Cornelius Cuffey, Esq., Patriot, &c, &c., was on sale for half a guinea. It consisted of a poem that was lavishly illustrated with hand-coloured lithographed plates protected by tissue guards, and claimed to have been “Printed for Sale at the Bazaar in Aid of the Governesses’ Benevolent Institution”. This organisation was an invention of Punch in 1846.
The Judge did me transport,
To go beyond the sea:
And so for life, from his dear wife
They took poor old Cuffee.
I have extracted only a few lines here from a much longer text which manages to be racist, Anti-Semitic and anti-Irish
Leave a Reply