KEY PERIOD 5Primary Source

Political Cartoons12.11 & 12.13

McKenna Johnson

Period 1

What Do We See?

“The above represents the fate in store for those great pests of Southern society- the carpetbagger and scallawag-if found in Dixie’s Land after the break of day on the 4th of March next.” (Red Book pg. 294)

1868…

What era is this

from?

Anti-Reconstruction Cartoon Independent Monitor

“The above represents the fate in store for those great pests of Southern society- the carpetbagger and scallawag-if found in Dixie’s Land after the break of day on the 4th of March next.” (Red Book pg. 294)

Independent Monitor: Tuscaloosa, Alabama newspaper

Carpetbagger: Northerners who traveled to the South after the war to assist Reconstruction and racial equality (named derogatively after their luggage bags)

Scallawags: Southerners who were sympathetic to emancipation and supported Reconstruction (South saw them as traitors)

Ku Klux Klan: a secret organization aiming to suppress the newly acquired power of blacks

HIPPOS H: Tuscaloosa, Alabama newspaper; 1868 (post-war);

Reconstruction era; political cartoon

I: “carpetbaggers” and “scalawags”, pro-Reconstruction Americans

P: to give a public threat to those supporting Reconstruction, “The above represents the fate in store for those great pests of Southern society- the carpetbagger and scallawag-if found in Dixie’s Land after the break of day on the 4th of March next.”

P: Southern perspective (they just lost a war and they are ANGRY!), likely created by KKK members

O: 13th Amendment (slavery abolished in U.S.), 14th (born in U.S.=citizen, no Confederates in office), 15th (black male suffrage), an example of post-war animosity between the North and the South (color segregation to come)

S: Reconstruction can be compared to the Civil Rights Movement (1960s), sects of the KKK still exist today

"We regard the Reconstruction Acts (so called) of Congress as usurpations, and unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void." -

Democratic Platform

What Do We See?

Thomas Nast, "This is a White Man's Government" Caption: Quote from the Democratic

Platform of 1872 Irish-American Man: working clothes

(lower-class but at least not black), cross on hat (Catholic), bottle on hip (drinking), holding a club (a vote), ape-like features (brutish)

Nathan Bedford Forrest: represents post-war Confederate influence on DP, was an early member of the KKK, Confederate uniform, lash in pocket (pro-slavery), knife in hand (“The Lost Cause”)

August Belmont: the national chair of the DP, upper-class clothes, holding packet of money (for buying votes)

Black Union Veteran: holding onto American flag, reaching for ballot box, sad expression

Background Elements: burning Colored Orphan Asylum and lynched figure (DP and Irish involvement in Draft Riots), burning freedmen’s school (violence of white Southerners)

HIPPOS H: Reconstruction, 1874, surfaced in Harper’s Weekly, political

cartoon

I: pro-Reconstruction Americans, Republicans, Democrats

P: to convey Nast’s belief that the Democratic Party posed a threat to the safety of and suppressed the rights of African Americans after the Civil War through depictions of corrupt Democrats (what Nast considered the three dominant wings of the post-war party), "We regard the Reconstruction Acts (so called) of Congress as usurpations, and unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void.” = “We don’t want Reconstruction, this is a white man’s government”

P: Thomas Nast has created many political cartoons (Elephant and Donkey, Tanney Tiger), recognizes societal issues, heavy symbolism, pro-Reconstruction

O: 13th Amendment (slavery abolished in U.S.), 14th (born in U.S.=citizen, no Confederates in office), 15th (black male suffrage)

S: Reconstruction can be compared to the Civil Rights Movement (1960s)