Tregear's Black Jokes Explained

Tregear's Black Jokes was a collection of more than 40 anti-black racist cartoons, published in London by bookseller Gabriel Shear Tregear in the 1830s. The cartoons could be purchased individually or in bound albums in Tregear's shop. Tregear published two series, Life in Philadelphia (1833) and Tregear's Black Jokes (1834), plus additional cartoons.

Life in Philadelphia (Tregear)

Tregear's first series was published in 1833 under the name "Life in Philadelphia." This was the same name that had been used by American illustrator Edward Williams Clay for his 1828-1830 cartoon series, published in the United States. "The cartoons were so popular that the term Life in Philadelphia became a standard phrase to refer to fashions, trends, and - most especially - black Philadelphians' social practices and sartorial choices." In 1831, British illustrator William Summers redrew and enlarged ten of Clay's cartoons, which were engraved by Charles Hunt, and issued as color lithographs by London publisher Harrison Isaacs.

Of the twelve cartoons in Tregear's initial series, Summers designed and drew nine, two were reissues of Clay cartoons redrawn by Summers (from Isaacs), and Charles Hunt engraved all eleven as lithographs.^[1] The last cartoon was credited as "Drawn & Engraved by I. Harris." "I. Harris" is now accepted as a pseudonym for Edward Williams Clay himself.^[2] Another eight of the Clay cartoons redrawn by Summers (from Isaacs) were soon reissued to expand the first Tregear series to twenty plates.^[3]

While the successful transfer of Clay's cartoons was attributable in part to the shared cultural backgrounds and common understandings of London and Philadelphia, the London cartoons took on a new meaning and form. London artists like Isaacs, Summers, Hunt, and Tregear made changes that signposted shifts in the cartoons' meanings, exaggerated the features of Philadelphian blacks even more grotesquely than had Clay, rendering them more bestial in anatomy and features.^[4]

Plate	Title	Artist	Publisher	Year	Captions	Notes
No. 1	Dark Conversation	William Summers	G. S. Tregear, London	1833	"Bery Black looking day dis Mons'r." "Yes Bery stormy. De Blacks flying about so make it Petickly Disagreable."	https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60243
No. 2	An Unfair Reflection	William Summers	G. S. Tregrear, London	1833	"It was bery Unfair ob Mifs Carolina to Reflect on de Palenefs ob my Complexion. I consider dat I hab got a bery Good Color."	https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60244
No. 3	The New Shoes	William Summers	G. S. Tregear, London	1833		https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60231
No. 4	The Lub Letter	William Summers	G. S. Tregear, London	1833		https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60232
No. 5	A Black Charge	William Summers	G. S. Tregear, London	1833	"Please y-'r Worship I hab taken up dis Nigger!	case he-'s -nebriated and -sulting to de Fair sec."	https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60251
No. 6	The Valentine	William Summers	G. S. Tregear	1833	"Holl'a! What's all dis about - 'De rose is Red de Violets blue' 'De Debil's Black and so are You.' Well dat's bery Fair indeed."	https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60230
No. 7	A Black Tea Party	William Summers	G. S. Tregear, London	1833		https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60248
No. 8	How you find yourself dis hot Weader Mifs Chloe?	"Engraved by Charles Hunt" (after Edward William Clay)	Harrison Isaacs, London	1831		https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60273
No. 9	Have you any Flesh coloured Silk Stockings, young Man?	"Engraved by Charles Hunt" (after Edward Williams Clay)	Harrison Isaacs, London	1831		https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60277
No. 10	A Black Ball	William Summers	G. S. Tregear, London	1833		https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60253
No. 11	Grand Celebration ob de Bobalition ob African Slabery	Drawn & engraved by I. Harris (Edward Williams Clay)	G. S. Tregear, London	1833		https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60240
No. 12	Romeo and Juliet	William Summers	G. S. Tregear, London	1833	ROMEO._"How Silber sweet, sounds Lubbers Tongues by Night; like sorptest Music to attending Ears." JULIET._"Dou know'st de mask ob night is on my face, else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek."	https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60238

Additions

In 1831, William Summers and Charles Hunt copied ten cartoons from Edward Williams Clay's Life in Philadelphia series for publisher Harrison Isaacs.^[1] Tregear's version of Life in Philadelphia initially reprinted two of the cartoons from Isaacs, but soon added eight more, bringing its number of plates to twenty.^[3]

At least two alternate cartoons, copied from Clay, were reissued by Tregear under the name "Life in Philadelphia."

Plate	Title	Artist	Publisher	Year	Captions	Notes
No. 13	A Crier Extraordinary	"Engraved by Charles Hunt" (after Charles William Clay)	Harrison Isaacs, London	1831		https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60247
No. 14	What you tink of my new Poke bonnet, Frederich Augustus?	"Engraved by Charles Hunt" (after Charles William Clay)	Harrison Isaacs, London	1831		https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60255
No. 15	Hurrah! Hurrah for General Jackson		"Engraved by Charles Hunt" (after Charles William Clay)	Harrison Isaacs, London	1831		https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60256
No. 16	Shall I hab de honour to dance the next quadrille wid you, Mifs Minta?	"Engraved by Charles Hunt" (after Charles William Clay)	Harrison Isaacs, London	1831		https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60262
No. 17	Is Mifs Dinah at Home?	"Engraved by Charles Hunt" (after Charles William Clay)	Harrison Isaacs, London	1831		https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60263
No. 18	How you like de new fashion shirt, Mifs Florinda?	"Engraved by Charles Hunt" (after Charles William Clay)	Harrison Isaacs, London	1831		https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60268
No. 19	Take away dose rosy lips.	"Engraved by Charles Hunt" (after Charles William Clay)	Harrison Isaacs, London	1831		https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60279
No. 20	How do you like the waltz, Mr. Lorenzo?	"Engraved by Charles Hunt" (after Charles William Clay)	Harrison Isaacs, London	1831		https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60270
Alternates
	The Cut Direct: or How to get up in the World	unidentified (after Edward W. Clay)	W. H. Isaacs, London	1832		https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60233
	Sketches of Character: At Home and Abroad	H. Harrison (after Edward W. Clay)	W. H. Isaccs, London	1833		https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60236

Tregear's Black Jokes

Tregear's second series was titled Tregear's Black Jokes, being a Series of Laughable Caricatures in the March of Manners amongst the Blacks.^[1] It consisted of twenty new cartoons drawn by Summers and engraved by Hunt, and was published in 1834.

The second series was reissued in 1860 by London publisher T. C. Lewis.^[1]

Plate	Title	Artist	Publisher	Year	Notes
No. 1	The Promenade	William Summers	G. S. Tregrear, London	1834
No. 2	The Lady Patroness of Allblacks	William Summers	G. S. Tregrear, London	1834	https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A60228
No. 3	Marriage ala Mode	William Summers	G. S. Tregrear, London	1834
No. 4	The Christening	William Summers	G. S. Tregrear, London	1834
No. 5	Venus and Adonis	William Summers	G. S. Tregrear, London	1834
No. 6	The Route	William Summers	G. S. Tregrear, London	1834
No. 7	The Card Party	William Summers	G. S. Tregrear, London	1834
No. 8	The Breaking Up	William Summers	G. S. Tregrear, London	1834
No. 9	Othello	William Summers	G. S. Tregrear, London	1834
No. 10	The Concert	William Summers	G. S. Tregrear, London	1834
No. 11	Miss Whites Birthday Party	William Summers	G. S. Tregrear, London	1834
No. 12	The Lubbers Quarrel	William Summers	G. S. Tregrear, London	1834
No. 13	Blackberrying	William Summers	G. S. Tregrear, London	1834
No. 14	Don Juan and Zerline	William Summers	G. S. Tregrear, London	1834
No. 15	Cinderella and the Black Prince	William Summers	G. S. Tregrear, London	1834
No. 16	The Portrait	William Summers	G. S. Tregrear, London	1834
No. 17	The First Lesson	William Summers	G. S. Tregrear, London	1834
No. 18	The Advertisement	William Summers	G. S. Tregrear, London	1834
No. 19	The Wedding Feast	William Summers	G. S. Tregrear, London	1834
No. 20	The Elopement	William Summers	G. S. Tregrear, London	1834

Notes and References

https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/digitool%3A42912 Life in Philadelphia (London).
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/life-in-philadelphia-grand-celebration-ob-de-bobalition-ob-african-slabery-lcp-2-2/ Life in Philadelphia Caricature
Nancy Reynolds Davison, E. W. Clay: American Political Caricaturist of the Jacksonian Era (PhD. diss., University of Michigan, 1980), pp. 85-100.
Jenna B. Gibbs, Performing in the Temple of Liberty: Slavery, Theater, and Popular Culture (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014).