Content note: 1868 pro-Grant print with a racial slur and dialect in its printed speech. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Re-construction, or 'a white man's government'
Pro-Grant cartoon. A Black man clinging to the 'tree of Liberty' offers a hand to a white former slaveholder drowning in a river, who refuses it in dialect-speech; Grant, standing on the bank, urges him to accept help. The Democratic slogan 'a white man's government' is turned into the title of a scene about Reconstruction and reconciliation.
- Date
- 1868
- Period
- Pre-1914
- Made by
- Currier & Ives
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Corporation
- Regime
- Johnson Administration
- Leader
- Andrew Johnson
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Event
- 1868 US Election
- Techniques
- Semantic hijacking
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Library of Congress, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (published 1868; over 150 years old); LOC records no known restrictions on publication
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
