The purpose of propaganda during the war was to persuade people to support either the Union or the Confederacy. The most popular and optimal methods of propaganda were cartoons because they required little concentration in order to understand the overall message. Below are two examples of Northern and Southern cartoons.
One famous cartoonist was Thomas Nast of the North.
Above is one of his famous cartoons entitled, Compromise With the South. In the picture, the crippled man on the left (the North) is reluctantly and disappointingly shaking hands with the triumphant man of the South. His foot is on the grave of a man who died in a "useless war," and in the background we see that the battlefield is ravaged with the ruins of war. Behind the two men, a family of African Americans appear to be in distress. Also, the Confederate flag is proudly waving while the Union's is upside down and tattered. In essence, the point of this cartoon was to illustrate that compromise with the Union would result in vain sacrifices, and slavery would continue to plague the United States.
A popular cartoonist of the South was Adalbert J Volck, who, naturally, supported the Confederacy.
This cartoon is called Writing the Emancipation Proclamation. Here we can see Abraham Lincoln who looks tired and frustrated, writing the Emancipation Proclamation surrounded by symbols of satanism, in an effort to depict him as a demonic being. The painting behind Abraham Lincoln is a representation of a slave riot which Volck believes will be a result of the document. This particular work was popular among the South and inspired many proslaveryites to viciously oppose Lincoln.
Cool post, Micheal! Another interesting piece of Southern propaganda is "The Amalgamation Waltz", by Edward W. Clay (The URL to the cartoon is at the bottom). In this, Clay shows a ballroom dance where caucasian women are seen dancing with African American men. This cartoon condemns the Abolitionist movement by instilling fear in people about the interracial relationships and drastic social change the emancipation of slaves would result in.
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Michael, those are great examples of propaganda extremely biased toward different perspectives! Not only was propaganda a strong tool in influencing public opinion during the war, but it also contributed to the tension before the war. One example is John Brown. His plan to free slaves and massacre slaveowners frightened Southerners. Propaganda was then used to capitalize on this fear and used him to represent all Northerners. Here's a link to a rather intimidating picture of John Brown: http://www.onthisdeity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/hf-john-brown.jpg
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Michael. These images and your analyses are very informative, as well as helpful for future DBQs. Sometimes music was also used as propaganda, especially for military recruitment. An example of this is the ballad "We Are Coming Father Abraham," which was written almost immediately after Lincoln called for volunteers for the army in 1862.
ReplyDeleteI actually really enjoyed this post I learned a lot about the basis of propaganda during this time period. One other famous picture that I found through my study was a northern look at what slavery was. In this image a mother is depicted being ripped away from her daughter in a slave auction which occurred in the South. It shows the mother reaching out with her arms to grab the daughter who has let go and is holding out for her mother. This shows a reality that did exist and is different then the majority of propaganda at the time. Instead of over exaggerating a point this form of propaganda basically is used to prove the cold hard truth of what occurred in the South during this time period. That isn't to say that this image was not over dramatized but still it can be effectively seen as a true image depicting a true situation that occurs.
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DeleteThis is a really cool post about propaganda during the Civil War. I think this article will come in handy while studying for the DBQ we have on Wednesday. One thing that I did before reading your interpretation was try and figure out what the cartoon/graphic is trying to assert. After obtaining a general idea of what was going on, I read your interpretation and they were almost identical. I think it would be really cool if the people who were blogging for the week would make something like this post to help us understand the different perspectives of the Union and Confederacy and to help prepare for the DBQ's. Also here is another piece of propaganda to add to the list: http://www.sonofthesouth.net/atrocities.jpg
ReplyDeleteThis picture shows the way that the Confederacy was portrayed. Northern citizens probably relied on these images in order to understand what was going on during the Civil War. The ways that the South was depicted could hurt public opinion of conciliation; the South may have harsher punishments because of the propaganda.
This is a very interesting post, because most of the time when we have seen propaganda in the past, it has been of foreign people in foreign countries, because it is much easier to see foreign people as inhumane than our own country people. One example of Northern propaganda during the civil war was a drawing of a Southern clergyman speaking to Confederates with the devil standing behind him. While most propaganda is aimed at foreign people, during the Civil War, Americans aimed propaganda at other Americans.
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