Return to the image at the start of this chapter (p. 479), which shows a celebration in Baltimore after ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment. Note the distinguished African American heroes depicted at the top and the three scenes at the bottom. In the complete version of this popular lithograph, additional images appear on the left and right: black Union soldiers in battle; an African American minister preaching at an independent black church; a teacher and her stu-dents in a freedpeople’s school; an African American farmer in a wheat field; and a drawing of aproud black family on their farm with the caption “We till our own fields.” If a freedperson and a former slave owner had seen this image in 1870, how might each have responded? Imagine that an African American family had placed the picture in their home in 1870. How might they have reflected differently, twenty years later, on its significance? WaterLENDI& SedihnyCelebrating the Fifteenth Amendment, 1870 This lithograph depicts a celebration in Baltimoreon May 15, 1870. With perhaps 200,000 people attending, the grand parade and orations markedpassage of the Fifteenth Amendment, which enfranchised men irrespective of "race, color, or previouscondition of servitude." The heroes depicted at the top are Martin Delany, the first black man to becomean officer in the U.S. Army; abolitionist Frederick Douglass, born in slavery on Maryland's eastern shore;and Mississippi senator Hiram Rhodes Revels. The images at the bottom carried the following captions:"Liberty Protects the Marriage Altar," "The Ballot Box is open to us," and "Our representative Sits in theNational Legislature." Such lithographs, widely printed and sold, capture the pride, hope, and optimismof Reconstruction-but the optimism was not to last. Library of Congress.479

This image depicts, at center, a parade celebrating the passage of the 15th Amendment surrounded by…

depicted at the top and the three scenes at the bottom. In the complete version of this popular lithograph, additional images appear on the left and right: black Union soldiers in battle; an African American minister preaching at an independent black church; a teacher and her stu- dents in a freedpeople’s school; an African American farmer in a wheat field; and a drawing of a proud black family on their farm with the caption “We till our own fields.” If a freedperson and a former slave owner had seen this image in 1870, how might each have responded? Imagine that an African American family had placed the picture in their home in 1870. How might they have reflected differently, twenty years later, on its significance?

depicted at the top and the three scenes at the bottom. In the complete version of this popular lithograph, additional images appear on the left and right: black Union soldiers in battle; an African American minister preaching at an independent black church; a teacher and her stu- dents in a freedpeople’s school; an African American farmer in a wheat field; and a drawing of a proud black family on their farm with the caption “We till our own fields.” If a freedperson and a former slave owner had seen this image in 1870, how might each have responded? Imagine that an African American family had placed the picture in their home in 1870. How might they have reflected differently, twenty years later, on its significance?