America’s Reconstruction:A Failed Experiment in Equality

and Justice

Winslow HomerA Veteran in a New Field1865

Winslow HomerPrisoners from the Front, St. Petersberg1865

Harper’s WeeklyNov. 16, 1867

Thomas Nast (Harper’s Weekly)August 5, 1865

Winslow HomerA Visit from the Old Mistress, 1876

Analysis

• The freed slaves are no longer obliged to greet their former mistress with welcoming gestures, and one remains seated as she would not have been allowed to do before the war.

• It conveys a silent tension between two communities seeking to understand their future.

"The Sugar Harvest in Louisiana,"

Harper's Weekly, October 30, 1875.

The Cotton Pickers, Winslow Homer1876

Dressing for the Carnival Winslow Homer1877

Sharecropping

• In what ways was sharecropping a trap for former slaves?

• What other alternatives did poor/illiterate former slaves have?

• Why didn’t the North do more to help the conditions of former slaves?

“Five Generations of an African American Family”1862Library of Congress

"The Great Labor Question From a Southern Point of View," Harper's Weekly, July 29, 1865.

Caption:

"My boy, we've toiled and taken care of you long enough - now, you've got to work!"

Thomas Nast (Harper’s Weekly)Sept. 1, 1866

• Supplement coverage of impeachment of Andrew Johnson

Harper’s WeeklyMay 22, 1866

Thomas Nast (Harper’s Weekly)“One Less Vote”July, 1868

Thomas Nast (Harper’s Weekly)Sept. 2, 1876

• "Is This a Republican Form of Government? Is This Protecting Life, Liberty, or Property? Is This the Equal Protection of the Laws?"

Thomas Nast (Harper’s Weekly)March 23, 1867

Thomas Nast (Harper’s Weekly)March 23, 1867

Thomas Nast“Visit of the Ku Klux Klan”Feb. 22, 1874

Thomas Nast (Harper’s Weekly)  “EVERYTHING POINTS TO A DEMOCRATIC VICTORY THIS FALL”Oct. 31, 1874

Thomas Nast (Harper’s Weekly)“Worse Than Slavery”October 24,1874

Thomas Nast (Harper’s Weekly“Colored Rule in a Reconstruction State”March 14, 1874

Q. 11 Why did Reconstruction Fail/Come

to an End?• North lost interest/commitment• Republican party fractured/divided• Corruption on all sides

– Not only Carpetbaggers (which were exaggerated as a myth)

• Violence: Threats/intimidation• Democrats regained political power

– Amnesty Act (pardoned 150,000 Confederates) could now hold office

Q. 13Impact on African American’s

Rights: Given, but Not Protected.• Filled with potential hope for racial equity, when

were civil rights championed by idealistic Northerners

• Post-Reconstruction African Americans lost many civil rights gains – Economically: Sharecropping– Anti-black violence – Socially: Legal Segregation/Discrimination: Black

Codes– Politically: Disenfranchisement

• Jim Crow Laws: Poll tax, Literacy tests

5/17/12

"The unresolved legacy of Reconstruction remains a part of our lives. In movements for social justice that have built on the legal and

political accomplishments of Reconstruction, and in the racial tensions that

still plague American society”

- Eric Foner