One of a series of 'Tregears Black Jokes'. Part of the Michael Graham-Stewart slavery collection.
‘Tregear’s black jokes’ were series of prints issued by the London engraver and print-seller Gabriel Shire Tregear. In their style and subject matter, they are an adaptation of Edward W. Clay’s earlier lithographic series ‘Life in Philadelphia’ (1828–30), which sought to lampoon and ridicule the social pretensions of black Philadelphians though a number of exaggerated situations and compositions. Tregear followed this format, producing vivid hand-coloured aquatints from Hunt’s engravings of W. Summers’ original caricatures that far exceed Clay’s in their technical accomplishment. The series relies heavily on its humour being drawn from the incongruity of placing Africans in overtly European social contexts. The ‘joke’ is continued with the extensive use of patois, deepening the sense of social and racial disparity.