Explore in Depth: Amphitheatrum Johnsonianum

Following the Civil War, the revived Louisiana state legislature passed a series of Black Codes—racist laws intended to restrict and control Black citizens. In response, Republican members of the legislature held a constitutional convention in New Orleans with the goal of extending suffrage to Black men. To show their support for the measure, a group of Black residents, many of whom were Union veterans, organized a parade that ended at the site of the convention. A white mob, abetted by a police force recruited from former Confederate soldiers, attacked the site of the convention, killing at least 47 men—almost all Black—and wounding hundreds more. Of the attackers, a white policeman died of heatstroke and a white civilian was killed in the crossfire. General Philip Sheridan, the commander of federal forces in Louisiana and Texas, was revolted by what he saw and described it as “an absolute massacre.” The killings in New Orleans and in a similar bloody race riot in Memphis prompted the return of military rule to the Southern states and led to the Reconstruction Acts of 1867.

Explore Contemporary Connection

“I Can’t Breathe” by Shea Justice, 2020

Read more about Shea Justice

Though Thomas Nast did not label the public figures in this cartoon, Nast drew accurate faces on even some of the very small characters found in the galleries. Many of these likenesses will be unfamiliar to viewers today but in 1867 they would have been recognizable to the readers of Harper’s, or identifiable by the visual clues in the drawing: members of Johnson’s cabinet are attired in the togas and robes of Roman senators, while military officers wear decorative armor as a sign of rank.   

Below, explore the entire “Amphitheatrum Johnsonianum” political cartoon by zooming, dragging, and examining seven specific areas.  Click on the blue button to show or hide the annotations.  Scroll down to read further information about each of the annotated details in the cartoon. 

Detail A

Dressed as a Roman emperor and seated in a throne chair, President Andrew Johnson holds the Constitution and impassively gazes upon the death and destruction before him. He is surrounded by members of his cabinet: Secretary of State William H. Seward is leaning on the back of “Emperor Andy’s” chair; bespectacled Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton looks away; and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles looks over the balustrade into the arena.

Detail B

With his hand on his sword, General Philip Sheridan is restrained by General Ulysses S. Grant, who is wearing a laurel wreath—a symbol befitting a victorious general in ancient Rome. Sheridan, the military commander in Louisiana and Texas, had been away from New Orleans on 30 July 1866. He was appalled by the outbreak of violence, describing it in a letter to Grant as “an absolute massacre.”

Detail C

In the arena, the very small figure of Mayor John T. Monroe is depicted on horseback and has the initials “CSA” (Confederate States of America) on his breastplate. His Roman soldiers are labeled the “Monroe Police.” The mayor had recruited former Confederate soldiers and white supremacists to serve in the reconstituted civilian police force. Nast drew unarmed Black civilians—both men and women—as Christian martyrs pleading for their lives as they were hacked to pieces.

Detail D

The tiny, but recognizable figures in the gallery (beneath the banner) are supporters of Reconstruction who were helpless to prevent the president’s pro-Southern policies. They include the publisher Horace Greeley, who was later repudiated by Nast, Boston abolitionist Wendell Phillips, and Congressman Benjamin F. Butler. Although he later presented the case for the impeachment of President Johnson to the Senate, the notoriously corrupt Butler would become a favorite target of Nast’s scathing cartoons. 

Detail E

The two crouching figures below President Johnson’s arm are former Union general Darius Crouch and the governor of South Carolina, James Logan. The diminutive Crouch appears to sit on the lap of the very large Logan. Crouch, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Logan, a former Confederate senator, caused a sensation in August 1866—just after the New Orleans Massacre—when they walked arm-in-arm into the pro-Johnson National Union Convention in Philadelphia.

In his biting political cartoons, Thomas Nast had previously satirized the mismatched couple and the “Southern loyalist” convention that they attended. Here they hold an alligator-crested helmet labeled “Copperhead”—a reference to the poisonous snake that had become the symbol for “Peace Democrats,” those who were accused of secretly supporting the Confederacy.

Detail F

The wreathed labels on either side of the president read “New Orleans” on the right and “Memphis” on the left. Thomas Nast used the wreaths to remind his audience that in May 1866, two months before the New Orleans Massacre, there had been an equally murderous race riot in Memphis. The violence extended over two days and caused not only a heavy loss of life but also very extensive physical damage to the city. Churches, schools, and homes were burned by white mobs that included white policemen. They attacked the Black inhabitants of Memphis and refugee camps for “freedmen”—Black people who had escaped from slavery.

Detail G

Thomas Nast drew General George Armstrong Custer in Roman armor, standing before the president’s throne. Custer looks out and beyond the grisly scene in the arena. Custer had a distinguished Civil War military record but tied himself to the president’s pro-Southern policies by traveling with him on his “Swing Around the Circle” congressional campaign tour in 1866. Traveling by train, Johnson made an unsuccessful attempt to gather political support for his policies. When the president was heckled at public events, Custer stepped forward to defend him.