Worth, Thomas “A Mule Train on a Down Grade. ‘Clar de Track for We’s A Comin’”

Thomas Worth.  “A Mule Train on a Down Grade. ‘Clar de Track for We’s A Comin’.” 

New York: Currier & Ives, 1881.  8 7/8 x 13 3/8.  Lithograph.  Original hand color.  Loss of image in sky left hand side due to insect damage; light stain in right of image.  Else, fine condition.  Gale:4636. 

Creating a segregated community of black Americans, Darktown prints showcased a full array of negative stereotypes of former slaves who moved north after the Civil War. Portrayed as mentally slow, physically grotesque, and morally inept, African Americans became comical figures to the primarily white consumers of Currier and Ives prints. True to the period's nativist overtones, the Darktown series was accompanied by similar prints lampooning Irish and Italian immigrants, as well as Roman Catholics. Popular prints were made to satisfy popular demand; as such, this series bears a painfully vivid testament to the racial attitudes of white, middle-class Americans of the late nineteenth century.