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The Ignorant Vote Cartoon

Description:

To offset waning support for Reconstruction, Republicans resorted to anti-Catholic, anti-Irish posturing, prejudices that were widely shared at the time. This cartoon was published in the wake of the disputed election of 1876, in which both sides charged fraud. Nast compares the African American Republican vote of the South to the Irish Catholic Democratic vote of the North. Nast’s changing attitude toward former slaves paralleled that of many Republicans as they shifted from the idealistic politics of the Reconstruction era to the cynical politics of the Gilded Age

Creator:

Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly

Creation Date:

December 9, 1876

Collection Title:

Harper's Weekly

Collection Number:

051 H236, 1876

Image Number:

dec 9 , 1876