This document is an example of a satirical print of the type that became popular in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Prints like these were produced on a single side of paper and often satirized contemporary events. The prints were designed to be visually striking to appeal to the general populace, and they would have been passed around and discussed in coffee houses and taverns. This print is a British depiction of the tarring and feathering of John Malcom, a customs official, in Boston in 1774.