Andrew Johnson as Iago

Thomas Nast (1840-1902)
Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction and How It Works
Harper's Weekly, September 1, 1866
Ben and Beatrice Goldstein Foundation Collection
Prints & Photographs Division (13)
LC-DIG-ppmsca-13467

Thomas Nast, cartoonist for Harper's Weekly from 1859 to 1860 and from 1862 until 1886, often used Shakespearean motifs to comment on current events. In this cartoon, Nast intended to generate opposition to the lenient Reconstruction plan of President Andrew Johnson (1808-1875) and to promote in the 1866 elections Republican congressional candidates, who favored a more radical policy. The artist portrays Johnson as the evil Iago plotting against the heroic and innocent Othello, shown as a wounded black Union veteran being denied his place in American political life.