Patriotic covers were a popular form of visual propaganda and became a collector’s item during the Civil War. Produced both in the North and South, these envelopes featured patriotic imagery and slogans, although some—primarily printed in the North—employed stereotypical and exaggerated images of the speech, dress, and physical characteristics of African Americans.

This cover satirizes the South by depicting King Dahomey (leader of an African kingdom) sending his “son,” to be king of the South, presumably in place of Jefferson Davis.