Political Cartoons DBQ

The political cartoon Forcing Slavery Down the Throat of a Freesoiler was a lithograph published by Harper’s Weekly, a periodical that published columns, cartoons, and stories relating to current events (McCollister). John L. Magee, an artist and lithographer that created many satirical political illustrations created the cartoon in 1856 during a time when political tensions between the proslavery and antislavery movement was reaching its peak, a presidential election that could define the future of the expansion of slavery was at the political front, and the diving views between two halves of the country were setting the precedent for a civil war. The cartoon lays is an attack on the Democratic party as it depicts a bearded “freesoiler” being

During the 1860’s, there was tremendous tension between immigrants and Americans in the United States. To portray this “tension”, a political cartoon that was drawn by an unknown cartoonist to depict that America’s culture was in danger. This political cartoon is called “The Great Fear of the Period That Uncle Sam May be Swallowed by Foreigners: The Problem Solved” and was published in San Francisco, California by White & Bauer. The central goal for publishing this cartoon was to bring fear among the Americans, and therefore blame the immigrants.

How can one man take down New York’s most ruthless and powerful institution with just a pencil? It is the late 1850’s. America is in the middle of great conflict with itself over the “old identical question”. Immigrants are coming into the country and the streets of New York are bustling with newfound diversity. Half of the city is desperately poor and the other half is living lavishly. The corruption in the city is at an all-time high and at the center of the system is Tamany Hall. Today I am going to tell you the story of how Thomas Nast took down the infamous William “Boss” Tweed with a cartoon.

A changing culture from the late 1870’s through 1900 became known as the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age was first used by Mark Twain in his book known as “The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today”. The Gilded Age is known as a time where corruption and bad living conditions occurred on the inside of the area, but on the outside everything seemed strong and powerful, especially to other immigrants. A lot of people migrated from other countries to become part of what they thought was a perfect society, but when they arrived they realized how terrible everyone was treated and how bad the government ran. However, people stayed in the United States because they were used to things a lot worse, so America was a better area for living for a lot of the immigrants.

The political cartoon I picked was created by Joseph E. Baker an American artist.He was born in 1837 in Maine. He was an apprentice at first for John H. Buford lithography. Though after Buford death in 1970, Joseph Baker worked for Forbes & Company, where he made playbills and advertisement. Through his life he created several works during the civil war. He was most remembered for his work of Abraham Lincoln..

Following the reading of Heffner, he stated that the political cartoonist Thomas Nast brought down the house of Tweed, "Crushing the infamous Ring." (Heffner) Tweed admitted that Nast was truly intelligent, but not enough because Nast didn’t know that the followers of Tweed didn’t know how to read and therefore these articles were useless. In an early fight, the newspaper New York Times was trying to fight against the Tweed ring without fear. It took too long and was short of documentation to fight against Tweed, Heffner reported.

The Tweed Ring’s existence came into light between 1866 and 1871, and it begins when William ‘The Boss’ Tweed and his company made it so that all bills to the city would be at least fifty percent fraudulent, later raised to eighty five percent. The affluence went to William ‘The Boss’ Tweed, the city financial officer, the county treasurer, and the mayor. Furthermore, twenty percent of the share would go into bribing officials and businessmen, which led to a diverse following; William ‘The Boss’ Tweed loved to keep them around, and in order to maintain this regime, he ‘provided for all’. Unfortunately, Tweed was very sufficient in keeping up this scam, by fooling even the ‘best’ people by using his silver tongue and having a controllable idiosyncrasy. Being the amazing nineteenth-century

While in "Gilded Age", all levels of government had corruption, graft public money for their own. One of the most notorious New York City Boss Tweed William M. Tweed, his wealth has more than $25 million in 1871, all was dirty money. During the period he served as mayor of New York, the city requires all public officials to report false, false ratio as high as 85%. He presided over the construction of the New York county government office buildings, 40 chairs and 3 tables then discount about $179000, but a thermometer was quoted $7500. According to statistics, in 1860 ~ 1900, American municipal debt by $200 million soared to $1.4 billion, most of them are the City boss and partisans pocketed.

Corporate greedy and corrupt politicians were specific problems and injustices that were present in American life during the late 1800s and early 1900s however these were addressed during the progressive era with laws and regulations.

Thomas Nast, 1840-1902, was a political cartoonist who is known by some historians as “the father of modern political American political cartooning” (Simpson, ANBO). This is due in part because Nast was the individual who created the donkey symbol to represent the Democratic Party and elephant symbol to represent the Republican Party. Another reason why he earned this title and therefore should be studied is that he changed the way cartoonists delivered their context. Before the Civil War cartoonist relied on dialogue rather than imagery to get the message across, However; Nast used pictures to convey the message of his cartoons (Simpson, ANBO). Since his cartoons did not need words to convey the message he was able to reach the illiterate community more effectively than other cartoonists of his time. Those viewing his cartoons not only would have been educated about the social and political events unfolding around them, but also would have picked up on Nast’s political opinions related to these events. Nast’s cartoons were one of the means in which the illiterate community gained information they would use to influence the political sphere. A large portion of the illiterate community were male ex-slaves who gained rights including the right to vote through the Reconstruction Amendments which would prove the difference in the 1868 presidential elections.

During the time of reconstruction, which was after the civil war, the government passed the 13, 14, and 15th amendment to give African Americas freedom and rights. The 15th amendment gave the former African American slaves the right to vote. Between 1890 and 1906, the "new" south wanted to eliminate this right for the African Americans. Any African American who fought for their rights would be faced with violence known as lynching, murdering of three or more people. During this time, the Supreme Court case Plessy VS Ferguson resulted in African Americans and Whites having separate bathrooms. In the South, African Americans were living under Jim Crow Laws and enforced racial segregation in all public facilities. This

During the time of the Gilded Age the governemnt (politicians) was very corrupt. Everything they did was for their own gain. "At the national level, many lawmakers supported bills aiding companies in which they had invested money or from which they received stock or salaries," (pg. 617). This quote shows that the governments lawmakers did things for their own gain intead of the good of the people.

Black Codes were laws created by white southerners. They were intended to restrict freed blacks’ activity and guarantee their availability as a labor force now that slavery had been abolished.

The decade between 1890 and 1900 expressed a crucial time in the United States of America’s history. Many people experienced struggles throughout this time while others prospered. Mark Twain suggested that despite the significant achievements of the United States, Americans experienced poverty. This statement is an accurate description of the lively hood people experienced in their daily lives during the Gilded Age whether it was positive or negative.

This political cartoon utilizes hyperboles to try and exaggerate the meaning depicted. The chinese dragon represents china as a whole, it's a symbol most or all people correlate to china, so to see a dragon eating itself is tearing apart the country on its own. Their own civil war to