THERE IS DEATH IN THE POT - The University of Texas at Arlington

Figure 1. James Gillray. “Anti-Saccharites, - or - John Bull and His Family Leaving off
the Use of Sugar,” 1792. Courtesy of British Museum, London.
The second political cartoon, “The Gradual Abolition off [sic] the Slave Trade, or
leaving of Sugar by Degrees,” makes similar references to the problematic presence of
women at the tea table and in the sugar boycott. (See Fig. 2) Once again, Queen
Charlotte’s behavior at the tea table is the focus of attention. Carefully weighing the
sugar, the Queen tells Mrs. Schwellenberg, Keeper of the Robes, to take “only an ickle
Bit” and to reflect on “de Negro Girl dat Captain Kimber treated so Cruelly.” 63 The
63 Cruikshank referenced a contemporary case involving Captain John Kimber, who was tried for
his part in the murder of an African woman who refused to dance naked for him on the deck of his ship. A
week before Cruikshank published “The Gradual Abolition of the Slave Trade,” he published a satire of the
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