1861

Divorce a Vinculo. Punch, Volume 40, January 19, 1861, p. 27

The earliest of Punch's principal cartoons to deal with the American Civil War, this scene represents the secession of South Carolina, the first state to leave the Union following its Ordinance of Secession, adopted on December 20, 1860. In Tenniel's personification of an uncivil "divorce from the chains" of [national] matrimony, "Mrs. Carolina" appears as a virago raising her clenched fist against her former consort, Brother Jonathan; the latter lays a protective hand on the shoulder of a cowering young slave.

"Mrs. Carolina" wears a striped tunic recalling the striped trousers traditionally worn by Brother Jonathan, but the bandana tied over her hair conveys a ruffianly appearance to go with her angry scowl. She wears a pistol tucked into her belt, and holds a slave whip in her hand -- both emblems used elsewhere by Tenniel to underscore the violent, tyrannical nature of Southern slave-masters. The artist clearly believes that the issue of "states' rights" is merely a gloss for "preservation of slave owners' property rights."

Tenniel was known for his acute visual memory, as well as his facility for modifying and combining image sources, whether these were based on personal observation or on his extensive knowledge of works of art. The head and upper body of the black child on the right of this composition may be a reversed drawing after the well-known seal of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery, which Josiah Wedgwood had crafted as a medallion in 1787 in his factory's characteristic Jasperware style.

Medallion based on the seal of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery, cast by Josiah Wedgwood, ca. 1787-1791