The Greek Slave

Nast's central image chains a caricatured Irish immigrant—rendered with the exaggerated simian jaw and heavy brow common to anti-Irish imagery of the period, a deliberate ethnic slur Nast deployed routinely—to a post labeled TAMMANY / DEMOCRACY, atop which sit bottles of rum and whiskey. A second squat figure, similarly caricatured, stands arms folded beside him. The arch overhead reads Inducements to Leave the Old Country (left) and Landed and Branded (right), framing the immigrant's journey as a trap. Border vignettes show "Slaves" laboring, "The Slave Drivers" herding voters to The Polls, and ward bosses relaxing. The argument is blunt: Tammany Hall recruited Irish immigrants with liquor and promises, then delivered them as captive Democratic votes—bondage replacing the chains of the old country with those of machine politics.