Drawn by a British army officer called William Elmes in the early-1800's, the cartoons took their name from the nickname given to European men who had just arrived in the West Indies. Elmes was apparently appalled by their behaviour.
Really though, they look kind of racist. As the gallery's executive director, Veerle Poupaye explained:
"These cartoons have often been represented/understood as abolitionist but ... they are also very racist in their representation of the black and mixed race population. They represent what could be described as a 'third perspective' that satirised and critiqued the plantocracy, the free coloureds and the black slave population alike."
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