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chapter 9 Reconstruction: The Making and Unmaking of a Revolution

Freedmen’s Bureau Cartoon 1865–1877
this vicious Democratic party broadside from 1866 slanders the Freedmen’s Bureau as well
as freedpeople. central to the party’s widespread effort to get rid of the Freedmen’s Bureau
specifically and of reconstruction in its entirety was a racist, vitriolic, and highly calculated
public campaign against both. this broadside is a chilling representation of the discredited
view that reconstruction was a tragic mistake because it did too much too soon for the
inferior and uncivilized freedpeople, who were incapable of shouldering the responsibilities
of freedom. Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Washington, D.C./LC-USZ-62-57340.

State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor
deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” This clause
would ultimately shape the black freedom struggle, but not before states found ways to
craft racially discriminatory laws and practices in the areas in which states were sover-
eign, such as public education.
Outmaneuvered, Johnson took his case to the people, embarking on an unprece-
dented presidential speaking tour, which proved disastrous. In the midterm elections

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