I stumbled upon this picture here. To see it is fascinating, sad, and in an odd way encouraging for my convictions, because it just confirmed for me that ignorant or just plain racist whites have always found excuses to call blacks lazy welfare moochers.
Think about it: Some whites back then had the gall to complain that Negroes were enjoying idleness at the expense of taxpayers, when only one year earlier almost all 4 million African-Americans had been slaves, working for nothing! And work for nothing they did -- for 240 years!
Jesus, I thought the annoying phrase "Get over it," was a recent invention, but it seems the sentiment behind it is very American and very old. Whites were telling freed slaves to "Get over it" only months after slavery had ended. Imagine!
You can read more about the Freedmen's Bureau, initiated by President Lincoln before his assassination, here.
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