This document is a black and white cartoon dealing with the plight of AfricanAmericans after the abolition of Slavery. It was published in 1973, in a book entitled “the benighted States of America”. The title itself strongly denounces the state of moral ignorance that reigned in the USA at that time.
The cartoon is made up of 2 simple drawings, each accompanied by a shirt ironical caption below. In the first one, the cartoonist symbolically depicts a slave who has just been freed from his chain still lying next to his foot. The second one shows a typical “necktie party” where a KKK member is hanging a black man to a tree at night.
The caption “In 1863, the chains were taken from the negroes” clearly explains what has happened: the blacks were no longer property and useful tools on plantations. But instead of being happy, the black man’s face doesn’t show any expression. He looks rather lost and confused. This sudden freedom does seem to be expected and he probably has no idea what to do or where to go now. The chain and the ball which also symbolize their plight and their suffering are over now. But the viewer is quickly disappointed when seeing the second part.
Indeed, the second drawing which represents the “necktie party” is symbolic of what happened to many black people after slavery was abolished. Lots of them were lynched by racists and white supremacists, who firmly believed a black’s life was worth nothing. The fact that the scene is set at night echoes the title of the book it was published in, because the darkness surrounding this scene is also the darkness in which the USA went through at that time.
Both sentences are written in the passive form, which stresses the idea that African Americans did not choose their faith but that it was decided for them by white people. Besides, going from a white background in the first part to a dark background in the second one, suggests a worsening/decline of the blacks’ condition, as if they had gone from bad to worse! “And they were given ropes instead” means that now, they could be killed, since they were no longer the property of a white person.Now, the viewer understands the irony that lies in the captions!
To my mind, the cartoonist completed his work with a lot of hindsight, which makes his message more effective. He deliberately chose a naïve style and black humour to express his opinion over something beyond understanding. For all these reasons, I find this document moving, because this way of dealing with African American history is not so common and thus reaches its goal.