Description
Issued during the Pennsylvania gubernatorial election of 1866 on behalf of Hiester Clymer, who ran for governor on a white-supremacy platform, this racist poster supports President Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction policies and is specifically critical of the Freedman’s Bureau, a federal agency designed to assist former slaves in their transition to a life of freedom. Johnson vetoed a bill for the renewal of the Freeman’s Bureau on February 19, 1866, and once again on July 16, at which time Congress successfully overrode it.
Transcript "The Freedman's Bureau" Broadside
Source-Dependent Questions
- Use evidence from the source to explain why the author believed Pennsylvania voters should oppose the Freedman’s Bureau.
- Why might this broadside have appealed to white voters?
- How does the characterization of freedmen in this broadside compare to the characterization of freedmen by Thomas P. Knox in his article for Anglo-American magazine two years earlier?
Citation Information
"The Freedman's Bureau! An agency to keep the Negro in idleness at the expense of the white man. Twice vetoed by the President, and made a lawy by Congress. Support Congress & you support the Negro Sustain the President & you protect the white man," 1866. Courtesy of Library of Congress