A Philosophic Cock

A rooster drawn with Thomas Jefferson’s face struts next to Sally Hemings, depicted as a black hen, in this 1804 political cartoon, entitled “A Philosophic Cock.” Journalist James Thomson Callender publicly accused Jefferson of fathering children with Hemings, a woman Jefferson enslaved, in September of 1802. Federalist newspapers ran stories about the scandal for years afterwards. The cartoon’s caption reads: “Tis not a set of features or complexion Or tincture of a Skin that I admire.”