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.