Race and the Early Republic: Racial Consciousness and Nation-Building in the Early Republic

by Michael A. Morrison (Editor), James Brewer Stewart (Editor), David Brion Davis (Contribution by), Lacy K. Ford Jr. (Contribution by), Jon Gjerde (Contribution by)

Overview

By 1840, American politics was a paradox—unprecedented freedom and equality for men of European descent, and the simultaneous isolation and degradation of people of African and Native American descent. Historians have characterized this phenomenon as the 'white republic.' Race and the Early Republic offers a rich account of how this paradox evolved, beginning with the fledgling nation of the 1770s and running through the antebellum years. The essays in the volume, written by a wide array of scholars, are arranged so as to allow a clear understanding of how and why white political supremacy came to be in the early United States. Race and the Early Republic is a collection of diverse, insightful and interrelated essays that promote an easy understanding of why and how people of color were systematically excluded from the early U.S. republic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742521308
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	12/01/2001
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	5.58(w) x 8.82(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

Michael A. Morrison is associate professor of history at Purdue University. James Brewer Stewart is James Wallace Professor of History at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 The Pursuit of Whiteness: Property, Terror, and Expansion, 1790-1860 Chapter 3 "Believing That Many of the Red People Suffer Much for the Want of Food": Hunting, Agriculture, and a Quaker Construction of Indianness in the Early Republic Chapter 4 From Class to Race in Early America: Northern Post-Emancipation Racial Reconstruction Chapter 5 The "Condition" Debate and Racial Discourse in the Antebellum North Chapter 6 "Here in America There Is Neither King Nor Tyrant": European Encounters with Race, "Freedom," and Their European Pasts Chapter 7 Modernizing "Difference": The Political Meanings of Color in the Free States, 1776-1840 Chapter 8 Making the "White Man's Country" White: Race, Slavery, and State-Building in the Jacksonian South Chapter 9 "We Have a Country": Race, Geography, and the Invention of Indian Territory Chapter 10 The Culmination of Racial Polarities and Prejudice

Editorial Reviews

This is a book that should fill multiple niches. It could be used profitably in the classroom in courses on race, politics, the early republic, or the coming of the Civil War. It could also serve as an excellent bridge for political historians interested in learning more about contemporary race theory or for scholars in other disciplines looking for historical context for their studies. In any case, it is an accessible and rewarding read.

New York History

An important contribution to the ongoing debates...

Journal of the Early Republic