(light piano music)
- [Narrator 1] We're looking at an 1874,
political cartoon by Thomas Nast.
It doesn't have an official title,
but it's often called "The Union As It Was"
or "Worse Than Slavery".
- [Narrator 2] Political Cartoons can be hard,
because we've lost the visual language
that they refer to and that everyone
at the time would have easily recognized.
- [Narrator 1] Contemporary viewers
would have seen this in context
in Harper's weekly magazine,
a Northern newspaper that supported
Abraham Lincoln, and the Republican party.
- [Narrator 2] So at its most basic,
we're seeing two figures,
one facing us on the right,
one with his back to us on the left,
reaching out to one another and shaking hands
above a skull and crossbones,
which sits at the top of a shield
in which we see a black family,
and scenes of violence behind that family.
The figure on the left is clearly labeled
as being from the White League.
And he holds a weapon,
as does the figure on the right
who's clearly labeled KKK.
And we can also recognize him from his uniform.
[Narrator 1] And smaller details here,
also tell us a bit about what's going on.
We can see that at the bottom of that shield,
there's an open book that has the alphabet in it,
and we see a school house
that's got smoke rising from it.
They represent efforts by formerly enslaved people
to get an education in the years after the civil war.
And then behind the kneeling woman,
we see a man who's been lynched.
So when we see these two figures,
shaking hands above this scene of terror,
it looks like a conspiracy between the White League,
which was an 1870s paramilitary group
that openly crushed Black political participation
in the South and the KKK,
- [Narrator 2] The federal government has been able
to some degree to quash the activities of the KKK,
but the White League and similar organizations
were born during this period.
We see the figure from the white league from behind,
but he's not disguised in the way
that the figure from the KKK is.
The White League was acting more in the open.
People knew the names of, in many cases,
Confederate veterans who are taking part
in the White League and similar organizations.
- [Narrator 1] we see in the upper left corner,
a bayonet, a weapon that is affixed
to the end of a rifle, that suggests that
this man is a Confederate veteran.
He has a weapon that would have been issued
by the Confederate Army,
and has both the equipment and the training
to continue the fight to disenfranchise
black voters in the South.
And this cartoon drawn about a year
after the Colfax massacre,
which took place in Louisiana,
in which more than 100 black militia members
were slaughtered by the White League.
This moment in the 1870s,
is a really critical moment for reconstruction.
It's been eight plus years
since the end of the civil war.
There's a question of whether
the federal government, whether the North
is going to turn away from its commitment
to African-American equality in the South,
and allow white supremacy to reemerge.
"This is a white man's government",
was a statement from the 1868 democratic platform.
And remember at this time, the democratic
and Republican parties espoused
different positions than they do today.
The democratic party for the most part
was associated with slavery States' rights,
and white supremacy in the South.
And the Republican party was associated
with national and federal government,
and African-American rights.
So in showing this is a white man's government,
Thomas Nast is trying to make a connection
between the democratic party,
racial violence in the South,
and encourage his viewers to vote
for the Republican party.
- [Narrator 2] These figures are represented
sympathetically, and not at all
like the kinds of caricature images
of black figures that we would see normally,
in so many political cartoons
and other images from the period,
where they're represented
with prominent jaws and wide eyes.
And we often see these figures
dressed in rags with bare feet.
- [Narrator 1] Women are often depicted
wearing kerchiefs on their head,
which was a symbol of black female subservience.
You think of aunt Jamima, for example.
So even though Nast, is trying
to create a sympathetic image,
he's still drawing on elements, typical of racist,
19th century depictions of black people.
- [Narrator 2] So when I look at this cartoon
from a art historical point of view,
I see two figures on either side of a shield.
And if we go back in art history,
we can see that this was a common motif.
Sometimes they could be allegorical figures
on either side, sometimes poutine,
and those Renaissance images
get drawn on for one of the early designs
for the great seal of the United States of America,
where we see two figures representing war
and peace on either side of a shield
with stripes and above it stars,
representing the United States.
And we can follow this imagery
to a print or which depicts on one side,
Abraham Lincoln, on the other George Washington,
each with their hands on shield,
representing the United States.
This is a print made shortly after
Lincoln staff, commemorating Lincoln,
and aligning him with George Washington.
An image that represents the idea of national unity,
but in Nasts' cartoon, that idea of unity
is really conspiracy to commit violence,
and to disenfranchise and control
the labor of formerly enslaved people.
- [Narrator 1] Viewers of the cartoon
would immediately have recalled
an earlier Nast cartoon from during the war
called "Compromise With The South.
Nast, became nationally famous in 1864.
At that time, some Democrats
opposed Abraham Lincoln, and they wanted
to make peace with the South
to allow the Confederacy to go its own way,
and slavery to continue.
And Nast, drummed up considerable support
for Abraham Lincoln, with this image showing
how U.S. soldiers would have died
in a useless war, had the United States decided
to make peace with the Confederacy.
And that slavery would continue,
as we see, with the image
of the black family kneeling once again.
And we can see that this is something
that Nast, thinks is tragic
by the figure of Columbia,
an allegorical figure representing
the United States, kneeling and weeping
before this grave.
- [Narrator 2] So once again, an agreement
between white people that will have
this terrible impact on a black family.
And we see this in other Nast cartoons,
for example, one called
this is a white man's government.
Where again, figures are shaking hands
and a formerly enslaved person is being
trampled on the ground beneath their feet.
- [Narrator 1] In some ways we could see
these cartoons as a continuation of the same story.
In 1864, the democratic party suggesting
compromise with the South,
in 1868, democratic party,
working with Nathaniel Bedford Forrest,
the founder of the KKK to enact the platform.
This is a white man's government.
In 1874, the White League and the KKK
working together to create a society
worse than slavery.
To this cartoon in 1876,
which shows a black man being forced
to vote the democratic ticket,
because this white supremacy and violence
has gone unchecked in the South.
For me, the tragedy of reconstruction is that
it didn't have to end the way it did.
Didn't have to end with another 100 years
before the voting rights, Act.
History is not a straight upward line
of people getting more and more rights,
becoming more and more free and equal.
Those rights and that equality
must be actively maintained.
(light piano music)