The new shoes [graphic]

One of a series of British social caricatures lampooning the pretensions of early 19th-century middle-class Philadelphians, mainly the city's growing community of free African Americans. Influenced by an increasing fascination with American culture and a growing racism stemming from the abolition of slavery in England, the African American characters are depicted with grotesque features and manners, wearing outlandish clothes, and speaking in patois and malapropisms to be portrayed as ineptly attempting to mimic white high society. In this print the artist mocks African American vanity and the desire to look white: a well-dressed African American woman purchasing shoes at "Sambo Paley Boots & Shoe Manufacturer." The belle, portrayed with mannish features, wears a yellow bonnet with a white veil that frames her face like long straight hair. Seated, she slightly lifts her red dress to inspect the black shoe that the African American sales clerk has just placed on her large foot. She believes the shoe "is sich a bery dirty color" and does he not have any white or pink ones. The kneeling sales clerk attempts to persuade her that it may not be "handsome" to look at, but surely a "good color to wear." Another clerk with a row of boots behind him is seen in the background performing as a store sign states, the "Best Jet Blacking Sold Here." On the left, an African American couple is seen walking passed the store