File:The colonies reduced - its companion LCCN2004672618.jpg

English: Title: The colonies reduced - its companion

Abstract: Print shows two illustrations on a single sheet, on the top, Britannia, as the Roman general Belisarius, is dismembered, her torso leaning against a globe with a banner "Date Obolum Belli Sario" (give a penny for Bellisarius) and her arms and legs, labeled "Virg-", "Pennsyl-", "New York", and "New Eng-" are scattered on the ground before her, an olive branch has dropped from one hand. Idle ships sit in the harbor in the backgound and a broken tree on the right mimics Britannia. The scene emphasizes America's poverty as a result of the Stamp Act. On the bottom, Lord Bute, while stabbing Britannia, lifts her skirt, exposing her buttocks to two men, one with a sword, the other with a cat-o'-nine-tails; a snake strikes at her knees. She has her spear aimed at America, a young Native woman, and has caught hold of her feathered skirt; America flees into the outstretched arms of a Frenchman who has both sword and pistol poised to defend her. Behind the melee a Dutchman makes off with a ship. The cartoonist blames the British government policies for alienating the American colonies. Physical description: 1 print : etching ; 20.8 x 11.9 cm (sheet)

Notes: Title from item.; Exhibited: "Revolution! The Atlantic World Reborn" at the New York Historical Society, New York, N.Y., 2011-2012.; Forms part of: British Cartoon Prints Collection (Library of Congress).; Design'd & engrav'd for the Political Register.; Published in: The American Revolution in drawings and prints; a checklist of 1765-1790 graphics in the Library of Congress / Compiled by Donald H. Cresswell, with a foreword by Sinclair H. Hitchings. Washington : [For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off.], 1975, no. 632.; Published in: Rebellion and reconciliation : satirical prints on the Revolution at Williamsburg : [catalog] / by Joan D. Dolmetsch. Williamsburg, Va. : Colonial Williamsburg Foundation ; Charlottesville : distributed by University Press of Virginia, c1976, no. 15.; The top half of the cartoon satirizes a cartoon that Benjamin Franklin distributed around London while he was Pennsylvania's colonial agent.