Anti-Reconstruction wood engraving, "Murder of Louisiana sacrificed at the altar of radicalism."
Source:

“Murder of Louisiana sacrificed on the altar of radicalism,” Wood engraving, 1871, Library of Congress.

  • Anti-Reconstruction wood engraving, "Murder of Louisiana sacrificed at the altar of radicalism."

Murder of Louisiana

Confederate-sympathetic organizations, such as the Southern Memorial Association, made concerted efforts to preserve the memory and dignity of Confederate war dead as national heroes in the 1870s. This movement gained popularity after the Civil War, as southerners voiced their resentment toward federal Reconstruction, which gave greater political and civil rights to former slaves and installed northern-friendly governments in former Confederate states. The separate commemoration of Confederate dead intentionally perpetuated a separate Confederate national identity. This became a form of resistance against federal supremacy in the South.

Instructions

Examine the source carefully and answer the questions below:

What details from the political cartoon lead you to believe that anti-Reconstruction southerners would want to maintain a separate national identity?
Why would the Southern Memorial Association want to remove Confederate war dead from a federal soldiers’ cemetery in the 1870s?