Caribbean Studies ISSN: 0008-6533
[email protected] Instituto de Estudios del Caribe Puerto Rico Polyné, Millery EXPANSION NOW!: HAITI, "SANTO DOMINGO," AND FREDERICK DOUGLASS AT THE INTERSECTION OF U.S. AND CARIBBEAN PAN-AMERICANISM Caribbean Studies, vol. 34, núm. 2, julio-diciembre, 2006, pp. 3-45 Instituto de Estudios del Caribe San Juan, Puerto Rico Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=39211853001 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative EXPANSION NOW! 3 EXPANSION NOW!: HAITI, “SANTO DOMINGO,” AND FREDERICK DOUGLASS AT THE INTERSECTION OF U.S. AND CARIBBEAN PAN-AMERICANISM1 Millery Polyné ABSTRACT This article seeks to analyze Frederick Douglass’ responses to U.S. empire formation in Santo Domingo, between 1870-1872, and in Haiti, between 1889-1891. As U.S. Minister to Haiti and as Assistant Secretary of U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant’s commission to annex the Dominican Republic, Douglass fully supported the virtues of U.S. expansion and U.S. Pan-American- ism as long as it promoted effective and egalitarian development in Caribbean and Latin American nations. However, Douglass opposed U.S. empire if it perpetuated U.S. notions of racial domination. His ideas on these subjects shifted over time, and, as I argue, proved to be linked to the progress and hardships of African American life in the U.S. South. Inevitably, this research highlights the political challenges and contradictions of Freder- ick Douglass, a commited abolitionist, intellectual and diplomat, who fought to remain loyal to race and nation.