Strong, Thomas W

Description

This 1852 satirical print employs 19th century skepticism surrounding mesmerism, or animal magnetism, an early form of hypnosis, to attack women abolitionists and miscegenation – interracial coupling. A seated female abolitionist is mesmerized by the black Professor Pompey figure, who touches her breast and face, asking how she feels. Her answer reveals that she has begun to fall under his sexual control during the exercise: “Oh, I seem to be carried away into a dark wood where I inhale a perfume much like that of a skunk.” This print uses her dream to propose that whites should naturally find black people repugnant, yet the women abolitionists do not. The piece therefore presents a satirical depiction of women belonging to the abolitionist cause, suggesting their true motive to be interracial mixing. Other formally dressed black characters offer sexually suggestive commentary. A white minister standing behind Professor Pompey laments, “These are the days foretold by the prophet.” This is most likely an allusion to Acts 2:16-17: “But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” This Biblical passage not only speaks directly to the activity of mesmerism, but its reference to “the last days” mockingly adds apocalyptic undertones to the print and the prospect of abolition.Thomas...

Record Contributed By

National Museum of American History

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution