The Parricide. A Sketch of Modern Patriotism


Permanent ID:
12017
Call number:
Ba 612 P 248
Language:
English
Date:
May 1 1776
Image Description:
In this political engraving published in England during the American Revolution, America, drawn as a robed woman wearing a Native American headdress, attacks Britannia, the female personification of Great Britain, with a dagger and axe. Britannia, stripped to the waist, is restrained from defending herself by English politicians George Hayley and Augustus Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton; her customary sword and shield lie broken on the ground. At her feet is a shield decorated with a picture of a bird injuring itself in order to feed its children its blood. At right, Lord Camden holds the reins of a lion that lunges toward Britannia. Various other British political figures who sympathized with the Americans during the Revolution, including John Wilkes (pointing America toward Britannia), Charles James Fox, and William Pitt the Elder, look on. At left, the spirit of Discord, drawn as a Medusa-like woman with snakes coming out of her head, waves two torches in the air.
Format:
Engravings; Political cartoons
Dimensions:
Width: 20.5 cm, Height: 12 cm (image)
Publisher:
Historical Society of Pennsylvania