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Print 1972-202
The German Bleeds and Bears Ye Furs
Print 1972-202

The German Bleeds and Bears Ye Furs

Date1764
Attributed to James Claypoole Jr.
OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
MediumEtching on laid paper
DimensionsOverall: 7 1/2 × 9 3/4in. (19.1 × 24.8cm)
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1972-202
DescriptionThe lower margin reads: "The German bleeds & bears ye furs/ Of Quaker Lords & savage Curs/ Th' Hibernian frets with new Disaster/ And kicks to fling his broad brim'd Master/ But help at hand Resolves to hold down/ Th' Hibernian's Head or tumble all down."
Label TextIn 1763, the Paxton Boys, a group of discontented Scots-Irish Presbyterian frontier farmers from Paxtang County, Pennsylvania, murdered twenty Conestoga (Susquehannock) Indians under the protection of the colonial government. The Paxton Boys believed that the Conestoga Indians were supporting the American Indian tribes fighting in Pontiac's War (1763-1766), a pan-Indian conflict to remove British colonists from Indian territory. After the massacre, the Paxton Boys attempted to march on Philadelphia to murder surviving Conestoga and Moravian Indians, but made a deal with colonial officials in Germantown, Pennsylvania. In the Pamphlet War of 1764, pro- and anti- Paxton Pennsylvanians debated the Paxton Boys' actions, producing sixty-three political pamphlets and ten political cartoons.

A Quaker, embodied by Quaker leader Israel Pemberton, holding a band of wampum in one hand rides a Scots-Irish "Hibernian," who holds a gun. A Native American prisoner halter is fastened to Pemberton's arm and attached to the nose of a blindfolded German who carried on Indian on his back. Franklin stands to the left holding out a paper that reads: "Resolved/ ye Prop[riete]r/ a knave/ & tyrant/ NC D/ gov[erno]r D:o." Peeping from between Franklin's legs is a small fox, representing Joseph Fox, who along with Israel Pemberton was a leader in the Quaker "Friendly Association" and was often accused of supplying money secretly to the Indians. Peering out of a cave, an Indian head observes three dead figures on the ground, implying that they have met their deaths at his hands. The dead figures have scalping marks on their foreheads. A village is on fire in the background.