Life in Philadelphia

[2] Life in Philadelphia perpetuated a racist stereotype of hyper-elegant blacks, that became a standard trope of minstrel shows in the mid- to late-nineteenth century.

[3] Edward Williams Clay was a Philadelphia lawyer and fashion illustrator, who became the most prolific political cartoonist of the Jacksonian Era.

They interacted only in Plate 11, depicting a middle-aged black woman inquiring of a young white French shopkeeper about purchasing "flesh coloured silk stockings.

"[2] Clay's lampoons of white Philadelphians were gentle, and depicted a promenade in the park, a costume ball, an awkward courtship between staid Quakers, and an absurdly dressed woman being mistaken for a prostitute.

[6] "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.

[2] The cartoons were engraved by Summers and Charles Hunt; and printed by Isaacs, and later by Gabriel Shear Tregear and others.

A cartoon depicting African Americans celebrating the 1808 end of the Slave Trade was added to coincide with the 1833 abolition of slavery in the British colonies.