Red, White, and Black

Abstract

When the United States declared war on Mexico in 1846, newspaper publishers weighed in through editorials and war coverage on the debate over how much land the United States should acquire. This study compares and analyzes how two newspaper publishers, Moses Yale Beach and James Gordon Bennett, Sr., expressed their political views through the pictures they published of Mexicans. Both used racial stereotypes that highlighted either the Native American, African, or European ancestry of the Mexican people, choosing which component to emphasize in different illustrations in order to make specific points about Mexico and Mexicans. They both imposed stereotypes about Native Americans, Africans, and Europeans on Mexicans to depict Mexicans as an inferior race. Bennett used this perceived inferiority to make the case that Mexico was an easy target from which the United States could, and should, acquire land. Beach insinuated through his illustrations’ nuances that the United States would be better off limiting its territorial ambitions to bring as few Mexicans within its borders as possible.