"Time Works Wonders," Senator Hiram Revels, the first African American to serve in the US CongressApril 9, 1870 Unframed. Published in Harper’s Weekly on April 9, 1870, this political cartoon by the renowned engraver Thomas Nast is titled "Time Works Wonders" and serves as a poignant commentary on the Reconstruction era. The image depicts Senator Hiram Revels, the first African American to serve in the United States Congress, seated with composed dignity at a desk in the U.S. Senate chamber. In a striking symbolic reversal, Revels is shown occupying the very Mississippi Senate seat formerly held by Jefferson Davis, the former President of the Confederacy. To reinforce the dramatic nature of this political shift, Nast portrays Davis in the background as a resentful caricature of the Shakespearean villain Iago from Othello, reflecting the era's profound transformation of power and the lingering tensions of the post-Civil War landscape. Image: 12.25 x 9 inches; sheet: 16 x 11.25 inches $100-150
