This cartoon was published in England in 1847 during the middle of the U.S. war with Mexico, and it relies on irony to depict what the British saw as the hypocrisy of the United States in general and President James K. Polk in particular. The English had abolished slavery in 1807 and often expressed a sense of moral superiority over Americans, who continued to maintain slavery as an institution despite growing opposition to the practice, and who often enforced the slave system through lynching. However, it is important to mention that at this point, even though there was no slavery in England, British textile mills were almost completely dependent on cotton produced by enslaved workers in the United States.