Walter F. Brown’s “The Settlement of Rhode Island”
WARNING: The below 19th century cartoons contain racist imagery and slurs.
This week, we continue our coverage of Native American History Month, with excerpts from the 1874-published cartoon book, The Settlement of Rhode Island, with art by Walter F. Brown, and text by Charles T. Miller — one of numerous comical histories in cartoon format, whose portrayal of Native Americans from the viewpoint of white authors aiming at their white audience’s funny bones, can be far from complementary. The below pages are those in Settlement involving Native Americans (except for a couple pages far worse than these, which I will likely show another year).
Settlement was published by the Graphic Company, publisher of the (NY) Daily Graphic, to which Brown was a contrbutor. Above is the title page. Below, the embossed hardcover front, followed by sample interior pages, further down.
Click on the pictures above and below, to view larger versions.
To view prior Native American History postings, click here. More again, next week.
NativeAmericanHistory
— Doug
[...] Thanksgiving and Native American History Month, we return to the illustrated comical histories of Walter F. Brown. The pages above and below were extracted from his book, Hail Columbia!, published in the U.S. [...]
This book racist??? Some people need to get their feelings off their politically correct sleeves.
So, you believe the depiction of Rhode Island Native Americans (Narragansetts, by the way), as hook-nosed, cannibals, (the first panel I showed directly referred to the chief as “King of the Cannibal Islands”), to be historically accurate? I see. Your statement speaks for itself.
Doug Wheeler