Public dissatisfaction with the power of the giant trusts was vividly and intensely expressed in political cartoons, which were extremely popular during the Gilded Age. Political cartoons have their roots in fifteenth-century Italy, where artists drew caricatures of important political and religious figures. These drawings exaggerated their subjects' prominent physical characteristics or personality traits in a humorous way that tended to ridicule the subject, affectionately or with malice. By the eighteenth century, political cartoons had become an established means of commenting on many kinds of political issues, as well as people, in Europe. The first political cartoon in the United States is thought to be Benjamin's Franklin's drawing called "Join or Die," published in his Philadelphia newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, in 1754. The cartoon depicts a snake divided into eight parts, each representing one of the colonies. It urged the colonies to join together to fight against common enemies and would eventually become a symbol for the American Revolution (1775–83), when the American colonists fought England to win their independence.
During the Gilded Age, political cartoons became a popular means of expression.
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