Description
A political cartoon by Thomas Nast published in the September 1, 1866, edition of Harpers Weekly lampoons President Andrew Johnson. On February 19, 1866, and July 16, 1866, Johnson vetoed bills to extend the Freedmens Bureau, which had been established to safeguard the rights of the newly freed slaves. (Congress overrode Johnsons second veto.) Nast depicts the president as Iago, the Shakespearian character who betrays Othello, shown here as an African American veteran of the Union Army. The cartoon includes, at top, scenes of a slave auction, and white mobs attacking African Americans in New Orleans and Memphis. At bottom, Johnson acts as a snake charmer, playing an instrument called the Constitution and watching as an African American is being squeezed to death by snakes named Copperhead (after the so-called Copperheads, Democrats who had opposed the Civil War) and C.S.A. (Confederate States of America).
