| Date(s): | 1874 |
| Location(s): | NEW YORK, New York |
| Tag(s): | Political Cartoons, The Civil War, Thomas Nast |
| Course: | “Civil War and Reconstruction,” Juniata College |
| Rating: | 4.22 (23 votes) |
Thomas
Nast Draws “The Union as It Was”
In 1874, Thomas Nast, a political
cartoonist for Harper’s Weekly, published
a one frame drawing titled “The Union as It Was.” A longtime cartoonist for the magazine, Nast
had his first political cartoon published on March 19, 1859, and he provided
drawings throughout the Civil War and Reconstruction period. Nast was outspoken about his opposition to Reconstruction
policies and their level of ineffectiveness, and this served as the predominant
subject matter for his cartoons for multiple years after the Civil War had
ended.
In “The Union as It Was” Nast
displayed his perception on the development of freed slaves’ lives after
receiving civil rights and the intense level of violence and racism freedmen
had to withstand after moving North searching for a better life. In the cartoon, a Ku Klux Klan member in
fully hooded uniform shakes the hand of a man holding a rifle wearing a “white
league” satchel, meant to resemble a member of the white rifle clubs, who along
with the Klan terrorized freedmen during the Reconstruction years. The two men are hand-in-hand congratulating
one another over a picture of two black parents mourning their dead child in
front of a schoolhouse on fire. In the background is a black man hanging from a
noose in a tree. Above the scene of
terror reads: “The Union as it was; this is a white man’s government; worse
than slavery.”
A lifetime advocate for the
abolition of slavery and racial equality, it was common for Nast to attempt to
bring the horrendous acts of hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the white
paramilitary rifle clubs to the public’s attention so such acts of violence
could be acknowledged and stopped. In
the years after the war, Nast embodied the Unionist position and wrote his
cartoons in an effort to alert America that although fighting had ceased, the
Civil Wars impact was far from over.
Nast refused to be at peace with the South when such white supremacy
groups were still at large, and felt responsible for bringing the matter to the
public forefront. Therefore, it is no
wonder why President Lincoln named Thomas Nast “the Union’s best recruiting
sergeant.”