Document 15-5: Thomas Nast, Colored Rule in a Reconstructed State (1874)

Nast Lampoons Freedmen’s Government

THOMAS NAST, Colored Rule in a Reconstructed State (1874)

Political cartoons developed sophistication in the years after the Civil War largely through the talents of the influential artist Thomas Nast, whose compositions effectively captured a frustrated electorate’s disgust. In this image, Nast plays on then-common stereotypes and foregrounds the pervasive assumption northern and southern whites held about black political incompetence and corruption. Many white South Carolinians popularized these beliefs in their effort to redeem state government from the African American majority that controlled the legislature.

image
Source: Harper’s Weekly XVIII, no. 898 (March 14, 1874): 229.

READING AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

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