Cartoon That Uncle Sam May Be Swallowed By Foreigners: The Problem Solved '

During the 1860’s, there was tremendous tension between immigrants and Americans in the United States. To portray this “tension”, a political cartoon that was drawn by an unknown cartoonist to depict that America’s culture was in danger. This political cartoon is called “The Great Fear of the Period That Uncle Sam May be Swallowed by Foreigners: The Problem Solved” and was published in San Francisco, California by White & Bauer. The central goal for publishing this cartoon was to bring fear among the Americans, and therefore blame the immigrants.
The stereotypes are painfully obvious in this cartoon. Regarding the Irish man, he has a smoking pipe, a sack made out of cloth and it seems to have his belongings in it, an old fashioned top hat, a tail coat, big ears, large feet, small nose, and heeled soles. Regarding the Chinese man, he has small feet and traditional shoes, stiff braided hair that’s upright (his hair shown upright in an exaggerated way so

Looking at the bottom of the cartoon, it reads “The problem solved,” which depicts a Chinese man and an Irish man devouring Uncle Sam. As the immigrants progress, they swallow the liberty and freedom that Uncle Sam represented and become fatter, which makes the immigrants seem selfish. After the Irish man and the Chinese man finish swallowing Uncle Sam, the Chinese man proceeds to swallow the Irish man, and ultimately terminating each other’s heritage and culture. The Chinese man is the last person standing, as fat as he can be from swallowing both the Irish man and Uncle Sam, which makes him appear to be the worse of the two adversaries. His traditional hat is on the ground and he is seen wearing the Irish hat, suggesting that a portion of the Irish culture will be preserved, but there is no indication of Uncle Sam on the Chinese man, which concludes that the American culture will not be