Collage of historical images and cartoons of the American Civil War

Visual Culture of the American Civil WarA Special Feature of Picturing US History

Writing the Emancipation Proclamation

Surrounded by symbols of Satanism and paintings honoring John Brown and slave rebellions, an inebriated Abraham Lincoln is shown as he drafted the Emancipation Proclamation. This caricature was part of a collection of etchings entitled <em>Sketches from the Civil War in North America, 1861, '62, '63</em> by pro-South Democrat Baltimore dentist Adalbert Volck. Volck under the pseudonym V. Blada clandestinely published the collection during the war, but very few people actually saw the pictures until years later.Surrounded by symbols of Satanism and paintings honoring John Brown and slave rebellions, an inebriated Abraham Lincoln is shown as he drafted the Emancipation Proclamation. This caricature was part of a collection of etchings entitled Sketches from the Civil War in North America, 1861, '62, '63 by pro-South Democrat Baltimore dentist Adalbert Volck. Volck under the pseudonym V. Blada clandestinely published the collection during the war, but very few people actually saw the pictures until years later.

Creator: V. Blada (Adalbert J. Volck)

Source: Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Publisher: Adalbert J. Volck

Date: 1863

URL: http://www.clements.umich.edu/exhibits/online/proclaiming_emancipation/08_By%20Virtue%20of%20the%20Power%20in%20Me%20Vested/volck_03_emancipation%20copy.jpg