2023-03 HCA Auctions
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/8/2023
Published by and withdrawn from PUNCH, a London Publication, November 1861, single sheet, printed one side, 10-1/2' x 14" is striking print titled "King Cotton bound; the Modern Prometheus". The caption reads, "The complete blockade of Charleston Harbor precluded any further exportation of cotton to England." Slave-grown American cotton allowed British cities such as Birmingham to prosper. From the outset of the Civil War, one of the aims of the Northern blockage of southern ports was to prevent the export of cotton which the South could use to purchase military supplies from Europe. British imperialists had begun to promote the growing of cotton in Egypt and India and welcomed the elimination of American competition. In this cartoon, King Cotton, like Prometheus, is fastened to a rock with a metal block inscribed "blockade". The eagle tearing at the cotton bale has the stars and stripes on its left wing and the stars and bars on its right.
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