Patience on a Monument political cartoon, 1868


Permanent ID:
11820
Call number:
Bb 61 N189
Language:
English
Date:
October 8 1868
Image Description:
A frowning African American man, likely a veteran of the Union Army, sits atop a stele (an inscribed monument), with a rifle at his feet, a bag labeled "US," at his side, a scroll with the words "Emancipated by A. Lincoln" resting on his knee, and broken chains hanging around him. The inscription of the monument he sits upon, however, lists the violence and abuses African Americans suffered under slavery and continue to suffer in the era of Reconstruction. The monument text includes racist statements made by Democratic politicians running for office in the upcoming 1868 election. At the base of the monument, an African American woman, clutching an infant to her chest, lies dead, a pool of blood spreading from her head. The bloodied and lifeless body of a young African American child lies beside her. On either side of the monument can be seen scenes of white violence against African Americans. On the right, details from the New York City Draft Riots of 1863 are depicted, including the burning of the Colored Orphan's Asylum,the hanging of an African American man from a lamppost, and a white man brandishing a billy club. On the right, southern violence against freedpeople and their institutions is shown: a Freedman's School burns in the background, a lynched body hangs from a tree, and a masked member of the Ku Klux Klan brandishes a pistol. The title "Patience on a Monument" is a reference to a line from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, describing a woman who "sat like Patience on a Monument, smiling at Grief." Our copy of this powerful cartoon by Thomas Nast is from a supplement to the Cincinnati Gazette; the image was also published in Harper's Weekly in the October 10, 1868, issue.
Format:
Clippings; Political cartoons
Dimensions:
Width: 30.5 cm, Height: 44.5 cm (image)
Publisher:
Historical Society of Pennsylvania