Our friend Nick Sacco has an interesting article up today at the blog of the Journal of the Civil War Era. Nick says that American adults have a poor understanding of the Reconstruction Era because they either were not taught about it in high school or what they were taught focused on scandals or the suffering of white folks in the South. Nick writes that “the legal, political, and economic changes that brought about a new spirit of equality and civil rights in American life—is often left out.”
Nick says that in his work explaining the Reconstruction Era in classrooms, an invaluable tool are the hundreds of cartoons created during the period, especially those coming from Thomas Nast. The article also reproduces a visualization aid Nick uses to discuss Reconstruction with students. Well worth reading.
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