Minstrel shows and The Reconstruction era are MUCH, MUCH too important to establish credibility of The POETRIES-PRIOR.com to let slip a WAY from HISTORY in the making and “Equational Poetry” ™ BACKWARD EXTRAPOLATION.
Forget what the history books say and disregard the paid for historian’s assessments including "Tom" Sawyer as well as all of Mark Twain’s “Granted” collections and remember that the rhyme came before “First Philosophy” and mathematics.
The Reconstruction era repeated its “SELF” after JFK’s assassination like Abraham Lincoln's but “WE” went from the remodeling of slave quarters to sky skyscrapers.
Don’t get hung-up on fault as in Democrats or Republicans when reading these write-ups as they have all WAYs been a team, HISTORY in the making will explain:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minstrel_show