The first image, The “Rail Splitter” at Work Repairing the Union is a political cartoon. A political cartoon is similar to a meme with a political message.
The second image, “Reconstruction” is a lithograph that also conveys a political message. The message is explained on the Library of Congress source page:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/pga.01366/
Your reading defines Reconstruction as “the effort to restore southern states to the Union and to redefine African Americans’ place in American society.”
Rephrase the goals of reconstruction in your own words. That is, how would you explain reconstruction to a 9 or 10 year old?
Given what you have read about slavery and the Civil War in the background reading, do you consider these images to be optimistic (expecting the best
outcome) or pessimistic (expecting the worst outcome) about Reconstruction? You should describe what you see in each image to defend your answer. ( An
excellent answer will answer all parts of the question, and cite more than one descriiption of the image as evidence.)
