American history in the Colonial era is marked by an uneasy and sometimes violent tension between the encroaching settlements of white colonists and the Native Americans already occupying those territories. When colonists first began producing cartoons in the United States in the late 18th century, the representation of Native Americans within were largely reductionist, yet also flexible enough to be used in multiple different meanings dependent on the desired narrative of the cartoonist.
In cartoons such as James Claypoole Jr.’s The German Bleeds and Bears ye Furs and Henry Dawkins’ An Indian Squaw King Wampum Spies (both produced 1764), the role of the
Native representative is that of a mischievous manipulator or conniver, situated either in cahoots with or outright subjugating the Quaker-led Pennsylvania government of the time. These cartoons were made in reaction to the Paxton Boys massacre of 1763, a group of colonial frontiersman who attacked a local indigenous population in Lancaster County under suspicion of harboring spies, but also as retaliation for the passivism the government displayed in improperly defending the frontier.
In contrast, other cartoons such as Liberty Triumphant; or the Downfall of Oppression (also produced by Henry Dawkins but a decade later in 1774) display Native Americans as allegorical representations of American liberty; an indigenous woman leading a group of the Sons of Liberty in Native dress exclaiming their willingness to fight to the death for their freedom. In this context, the Native takes the symbolic role of natural freedom, in which the Americans are supposed to be followers of in this cartoon. This echoes the often found ‘Noble Savage’ stereotype of the 17th and 18th centuries, where Native Americans were depicted as naturally free due to their lack of corruption by civilization.
It’s important to note that despite their differences in meaning, these representations of Native Americans both serve the white colonial narrative, their differences simply showing the evolution of the prime colonial issues of the time. These moved from concerns of internal defense and passive government in the first set, to the Revolution and protecting civil liberties and freedom later on. The character of the Native in these cartoons shifted quickly between subjugator to subjugated in only a decade, all to serve the new issues of their contemporary political environments. These representations are precursors to the issues of Native representation that was present through American history in the following centuries and even up to the modern day, exhibited still in the recent controversies of controversial mascot marketing and archaic professional sports logos.
The above cartoons as well as many more are on display now in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania’s new exhibit Cartoons as Political Speech in Colonial and Contemporary America, on display now through August 2nd, 2024.