The Present Stage Reconstruction Cartoon | History of SC Slide Collection

In this Reconstruction-era cartoon labeled "The Present Stage," Governor Franklin Moses, Jr. (see Franklin I. Moses) is pictured in the embrace of African-American voters. Moses had been a supporter of secession and the Confederacy, but joined the Republican Party after the Civil War, and was elected governor in 1872. His term was notorious for its graft and fraud. The cartoonist pictures African-American politicians pulling South Carolina over the precipice.

Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.