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 “The Same Snap—‘Reform’ Slavery”
  Cartoonist:  Thomas Nast
  Source:  Harper's Weekly
  Date:   December 30, 1876, p. 1055

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Caption: The House Rebel-Sentiment is now in (Se)Session.
Complete HarpWeek Explanation:
On December 7, 1876, the last session of the outgoing Congress opened. Here, cartoonist Thomas Nast “waves the bloody shirt” by associating the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives with the Confederate causes of slavery and secession. The Democratic claim that Samuel Tilden, their presidential nominee, was the “reform” candidate is stridently equated with slavery. The long-haired, cheering rebels on the House floor are said to be in “(Se)session.” The word “bulldozer” on the whip handle designates the intimidation and violence perpetrated by white Southerners against blacks or their white Republican supporters. The term may derive from the practice of striking victims with a “bull’s dose”—the amount of force applied from a bullwhip to oxen which are clearing fields. The whip end links 1876 with 1861, the year the Civil War began.
 

 
 
 
 
   

 

     
 

 

 
     
 

 

 
     
 

 

 

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