The Boss of the Road

The late nineteenth-century Darktown prints by Currier & Ives depict racist stereotypes that are offensive and disturbing.The Metropolitan Museum of Art preserves such works to shed light on their historical context and to enable the study and evaluation of racism.



Between the mid-1870s and early 1890s, during the Reconstruction period following the American Civil War and the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation that freed the enslaved, Currier & Ives published the "Darktown" series-- many by Thomas Worth (1834-1917), the artist of this image. In this print, a Black man, dressed in a shabby coat and shoes full of holes, carries an open, tattered umbrella and a jug (a demijohn) as he rides a donkey down the center of the road. He appears oblivious to other vehicles traveling on the same route. Having insufficient space to pass the donkey and its rider, two horse-drawn carriages have been forced off the road into deep ditches at the left and right; each white coachman was unable to control his rearing horse or to prevent his carriage from overturning. Another wrecked carriage is visible in the background. While some nineteenth-century viewers may have found this print comical, its portrayal of a poor Black rider as "disorderly" (for upsetting the "social order" of road traffic) was, in fact, derogatory.



Nathaniel Currier, whose successful New York-based lithography firm began in 1835, produced thousands of hand-colored prints in various sizes that together create a vivid panorama of mid-to-late nineteenth century American life and its history. People eagerly acquired such lithographs featuring picturesque scenery, rural and city views, ships, railroads, portraits, hunting and fishing scenes, domestic life and numerous other subjects, as an inexpensive way to decorate their homes or business establishments. As the firm expanded, Nathaniel included his younger brother Charles in the business. In 1857, James Merritt Ives (the firm's accountant since 1852 and Charles's brother-in-law) was made a business partner; subsequently renamed Currier & Ives, the firm continued until 1907.

















In this print, a Black man, dressed in a shabby coat and shoes full of holes, carries an open, tattered umbrella and a jug (a demijohn) as he rides a donkey down the center of the road. He appears oblivious to other vehicles traveling on the same road. Having insufficient space to pass the donkey and its rider, two horse-drawn carriages have been forced off the road into deep ditches at the left and right; each white coachman was unable to control his rearing horse or to prevent his carriage from overturning. Another wrecked carriage is visible in the background. While some nineteenth-century viewers of this print may have regarded it as an amusing picture, it actually reinforced an offensive message by portraying a Black man as one who upsets the "social order" of road traffic. Other targets of stereotypical caricatures were immigrants to America and suffragettes. While studies of the historical contexts for such caricatures may increase understanding of the American past, today’s viewers no longer condone such prejudiced imagery.