There was some push for progressive treatment of newly freed blacks, and several documents, such as AR Waud's The First Vote, captured their newfound freedom. In The First Vote, it shows an elderly black man casting his vote at the ballot box, most likely the first as indicated by the title (Doc G). The image is not drawn in a malicious or caricatured manner, so the author was not biased in describing southern black voters in the Reconstruction era. Rather, it is a realistic depiction of the new voting rights blacks gained with the Fifteenth Amendment, and perhaps sheds a hint of optimism for the future of freed blacks. Aside from others who began to treat blacks as equals, they themselves began to stand up for themselves and value their lives more highly. A convention of black soldiers in Tennessee petitioned the government for representation, arguing, "Is this the fruit of freedom and the reward of our services in the field?" (Document C). These men, who had given their lives to help put the union back together, wanted the right to vote just like their white comrades. After protesting and petitioning enough, they finally got it in the form of an amendment to the constitution. Despite the best intentions, something remained unchanged in Southern society after the Civil War, cartoons like Worst than by Thomas Nast