Amphitheatrum Johnsonianum — Massacre of the Innocents at New Orleans, July 30, 1866

Nast frames the New Orleans Massacre of July 30, 1866 as a Roman gladiatorial spectacle. A laurel wreath inscribed NEW ORLEANS hangs from a column at upper left; a black banner bearing a fleur-de-lis and the word POLICE dangles from a spear — the police being the principal killers that day. In the imperial box sits a bearded figure representing President Andrew Johnson, who had telegraphed opposition to the Reconstructionist convention before the riot began, making him complicit in Radical Republican eyes; a helmeted figure beside him evokes a Roman emperor giving the arena over to slaughter. Below, Black and white Republican conventioneers are cut down by armed attackers before a packed coliseum crowd. The argument is blunt: Johnson's Reconstruction policy transformed American civic life into state-sanctioned murder, with the president as Caesar presiding over the killing of loyal Unionists.