The Union As It Was / The Lost Cause, Worse Than Slavery

Nast frames this image as a grotesque coat of arms. On the left stands a figure labeled White League; on the right, a robed and hooded K.K.K. member. Together they hold a banner reading Worse Than Slavery over a Black family—man, woman, and child—rendered in the broad caricature typical of illustrated weeklies of the period, cowering amid a burned schoolhouse and scattered books. Above them a skull and crossbones mark The Lost Cause. The cartoon argues that Reconstruction's promise—education, citizenship, peace—is being annihilated by organized white-supremacist terror with full Southern social sanction. The caption below condemns how easily criminal organizations seize control from peaceable citizens. Nast's target was Northern complacency as much as Southern violence.