Colored Rule in a Reconstructed State

Nast's front-page woodcut depicts the South Carolina House chamber in uproar: Black legislators trade blows and gestures while a white colleague cowers beneath them. On a pedestal at right, the allegorical figure Columbia — sword raised, shield lettered 'LET US HAVE PEACE' — admonishes the brawlers. The printed caption quotes her: 'You are Aping the lowest Whites. If you disgrace your Race in this way you had better take Back Seats.' The figures are rendered in the grotesque minstrel-derived caricature standard to illustrated weeklies of the 1870s. The image reflects the Northern Republican retreat from Reconstruction, depicting Black legislative power as disorder requiring correction.