Political Cartoon Analysis
Reconstruction Era
The caption reads, "THE FREEDMAN'S BUREAU! An Agency to keep the NEGRO in idleness at the EXPENSE of the white man. Twice vetoed by the PRESIDENT, and made a law by CONGRESS. Support Congress & you support the negro. Sustain the President and you protect the white man." A barefooted black man lounges in the foreground, asking himself, "What is de use for me to work as long as dey make dese appropriations." The left-side background presents contrasting scenes of industrious white men chopping wood and plowing fields. In the background above the languishing freedman is the U.S. Capitol, with rays of light streaming from the Statue of Freedom.
1. What do you see in this political cartoon? (a copy of same image with complete text is on flip side of page)
2. Does this work contain any bias from this artist’s perspective? What is the bias? What makes you think that?
3. This cartoon was created during Reconstruction. Can you tell whether the cartoon supports or satirizes white
supremacy? What do you think and why?
4. Read the caption that can be found on the top of this cartoon, written to the right of the cartoon and interpret
the meaning of the caption.
5. Prints such as these contributed to the gradual decline and eventual elimination of the Freedmen's Bureau. What
conclusion can you make about history from analyzing this cartoonist’s perspective?
Hiester Clymer, ran for Pennsylvania governor in 1866, supporting President Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction policies. In this poster a black man lounges idly in the foreground as one white man ploughs his field and another chops wood. Accompanying labels are: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread," and "The white man must work to keep his children and pay his taxes." The black man wonders, "Whar is de use for me to work as long as dey make dese appropriations." Above in a cloud is an image of the "Freedman's Bureau! Negro Estimate of Freedom!" The bureau is pictured as a large domed building resembling the U.S. Capitol and is inscribed "Freedom and No Work." Its columns and walls are labeled, "Candy," "Rum, Gin, Whiskey," "Sugar Plums," "Indolence," "White Women," "Apathy," "White Sugar," "Idleness," "Fish Balls," "Clams," "Stews," and "Pies." At right is a table giving figures for the funds appropriated by Congress to support the bureau and information on the inequity of the bounties received by black and white veterans of the Civil War.