The Weekly British Observer

My messages could be distinguished in different ways, but I thought about two messages that would be hard to clarify. The two elements that were hard to clarify were the two pictures in the newspaper. A piece of art can be seen by different people with various perspectives, so it’s important to get the right message across so there won’t be any confusion. The first one is a picture of seven African American men in suits and bow ties. This could produce distinct ideas without the caption at the bottom, however. This picture represents the first seven African American Representatives of the U.S. Congress in the early 1870’s. The picture is a physical piece of evidence that white Americans were getting around to accepting African Americans as responsible people instead of just slaves.

The second picture is the most confusing part of the newspaper because there is no writing portion to back up the thought process of the picture. The second picture is a political cartoon that displays America being rebuilt one step at a time during the Reconstruction Era. The two men in the picture is Abraham Lincoln and a U.S. Governor of Georgia. Abraham Lincoln is lifting a pole which is supporting a ball that turns out to be a picture of the southern states. The U.S. Governor is on the ball and he is stitching up the southern states with a needle and thread. This represents the North supporting the South so they can fix themselves.

This newspaper gets a lot of messages across while educating the reader. Learning about African American participation during Reconstruction is important because most people thought freed slaves didn’t do anything to help America regrow. African Americans educated themselves and thousands in the south, provided labor in rebuilding towns, and provided jobs to churches and organizations, and they did all of this without the North’s help or influence. This independent attitude the African Americans had weren’t well known throughout America to this day, and it’s important to learn about information that is unheard of.