Seeing Red: Indigenous Land, American Expansion, and the Political Economy of Plunder in North America

by Michael John Witgen

Overview

Against long odds, the Anishinaabeg resisted removal, retaining thousands of acres of their homeland in what is now Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Their success rested partly on their roles as sellers of natural resources and buyers of trade goods, which made them key players in the political economy of plunder that drove white settlement and U.S. development in the Old Northwest. But, as Michael Witgen demonstrates, the credit for Native persistence rested with the Anishinaabeg themselves. Outnumbering white settlers well into the nineteenth century, they leveraged their political savvy to advance a dual citizenship that enabled mixed-race tribal members to lay claim to a place in U.S. civil society. Telling the stories of mixed-race traders and missionaries, tribal leaders and territorial governors, Witgen challenges our assumptions about the inevitability of U.S. expansion.

Deeply researched and passionately written, Seeing Red will command attention from readers who are invested in the enduring issues of equality, equity, and national belonging at its core.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469664859
Publisher:	Omohundro Institute and UNC Press
Publication date:	12/16/2021
Series:	Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Michael John Witgen (Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe) is professor in the Department of History and the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race at Columbia University.

What People are Saying About This

Walter Johnson

Witgen reframes the history of the United States around settler colonialism and fills out the picture with a granular understanding of both the practical mechanisms of 'the political economy of plunder' and the terrible human costs of American imperialism on the continent of North America.

Tiya Miles

Seeing Red is ablaze with astonishing stories, piercing insights, and riveting prose. Weaving together a fascinating tapestry of multiracial and multinational interaction, Witgen reveals how seemingly familiar events and processes were bound up in a 'political economy of plunder' that forced Indigenous peoples into exploitative colonial arrangements and expelled African Americans from the possibilities of citizenship. A powerful analysis of dispossession.

Christina Snyder

Brilliant and engrossing. Challenging the dominant narrative of American history, which assumes a rapid decline in Native power after the War of 1812, Witgen charts Indigenous persistence in the Old Northwest despite relentless pressure from both the United States and Canada. Witgen's compelling analysis of 'the political economy of plunder' transforms our view of settler colonialism.

From the Publisher

“Brilliant and engrossing. Challenging the dominant narrative of American history, which assumes a rapid decline in Native power after the War of 1812, Witgen charts Indigenous persistence in the Old Northwest despite relentless pressure from both the United States and Canada. Witgen’s compelling analysis of ‘the political economy of plunder’ transforms our view of settler colonialism.”—Christina Snyder, Pennsylvania State University

Editorial Reviews

“[A] searing account. . . . [Witgen’s] incisive and deeply researched study lays bare the mechanisms of this historical land grab.”—Publishers Weekly

“Witgen pushes us to reexamine how we think about American expansion into the North Territory in the early republic. . . . Witgen’s careful research and fluid prose paint a challenging picture of American intent and powerful Indigenous contest of it.”—Journal of American History

“An important analysis of Indigenous resistance to U.S. colonialism in the lands that would become Michigan and Wisconsin during the first half of the nineteenth century.”—Civil War Book Review

“Seeing Red is a must read for those seeking to understand more fully the nature of this American nation and the ongoing power of its colonial enterprise.”—Indiana Magazine of History

“A powerful and necessary corrective to the recent efforts across the United States to circumscribe and censor elements of American history that fail to conform to a patriotic, non-critical study of the topic. . . . It says much about the current state of the United States that we should commend Witgen for the element of courage necessary for the research, writing, and publication of this important work. . . . [A]n important addition to our understanding of the early days of the United States, particularly the relentless dispossession of Indigenous lands.”—Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

“In this highly detailed, solidly researched, ethnohistorical analysis, Professor Witgen examines American expansion into and occupation of the Northwest Territory from independence into the 1850s. . . . The analysis follows American military and diplomatic actions in the region . . . [and] offers several new insights while placing these actions in a broader perspective.”—North Carolina Historical Review

“Witgen’s narrative in Seeing Red offers a nuanced exploration of the complex networks, alliances, and cultural dynamics that defined the Native peoples who inhabited the vast Great Lakes region . . . [and] intertwines personal stories, humanizing the experience of Indigenous history.”—William and Mary Quarterly

“A critical story of survivance. . . . This book joins a growing body of literature by Indigenous scholars and others working to rightly account for the Indigenous history of North America.”—Early American Literature

“An important work that draws together multiple threads that have all too often remained stubbornly disparate in the field of early American history. Witgen’s ”political economy of plunder“ model achieves something simultaneously noteworthy and quite difficult. . . . Witgen makes the unthinkable imaginable, and even tangible, to his audience.”—H-Early-America

From the Publisher

An important work that draws together multiple threads that have all too often remained stubbornly disparate in the field of early American history. Witgen's "political economy of plunder" model achieves something simultaneously noteworthy and quite difficult. . . . Witgen makes the unthinkable imaginable, and even tangible, to his audience.

H-Early-America

An important analysis of Indigenous resistance to U.S. colonialism in the lands that would become Michigan and Wisconsin during the first half of the nineteenth century.

Civil War Book Review

A critical story of survivance. . . . This book joins a growing body of literature by Indigenous scholars and others working to rightly account for the Indigenous history of North America.

Early American Literature