Up a Tree– Colonel Bull and the Yankee Coon

Up a Tree– Colonel Bull and the Yankee Coon


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Title: Up a Tree– Colonel Bull and the Yankee Coon

Year: 1862

Creator: John Tenniel, Punch

Description:
‘Coon: “Air you in earnest, Colonel?”
Colonel Bull: “I am.”
‘Coon: “Don’t fire — I’ll come down.”This cartoon was inspired by the resolution of the Trent affair, a crisis that arose between the United States and Britain in November to December 1861 after the U.S.S. San Jacinto stopped the British steamer Trent so two Confederate commissioners who were on their way to England could be captured. Tensions between the two countries escalated until the commissioners, James M. Mason and John Slidell, were released.

A cock with the head of French leader Napoleon III watches from his perch on the fence at left. At right stands a large scarecrow from whose arms hang the lifeless bodies of Confederate general P. G. T. Beauregard and Confederate president Jefferson Davis. A plaque on the scarecrow reads, “All Persons Trespassing These Premisses, will be punished according to Law.”