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Race, Politics and the Frontier in American Literature, 1783-1837

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Race, Politics and the Frontier in American Literature, 1783-1837 Race, Politics and the Frontier in American Literature y 1783-1837 ROWLAND WYN HUGHES University College London PhD Thesis, 2002 ‘The mind enlarges with the horizon. Place a man on top of a mountain, or, on a large plain, his ideas partake of the situation, and he thinks more nobly than he would under the ceiling of a room, or at a small country seat.’ Hugh Henry Brackenridge,Modem Chivalry ‘Life is short and romances long. Happy, thrice happy is he, and thrice times wise, who hath time and patience to read them all!’ James Kirke Paulding, Westward Ho! ProQuest Number: U643992 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest U643992 Published by ProQuest LLC(2016). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Abstract Race, Politics and the Frontier in American Literature, 1783-1837 ivided chronologically into two sections, this thesis examines how Dways of conceptualising and writing about the American frontier, and the Native Americans who inhabit that frontier, reflect and participate in the emergent political and regional divisions of the early republic. Although ‘the West’ and ‘the Indian’ are pervasive images in early American literature, their meanings are indeterminate. During the Revolution, the frontier functions as a patriotic locus, the settlement of the wilderness providing a metaphor for the project of independence and nation-building. However, in the early republic, as conceptions of national destiny splinter along regional and political lines, the West and its inhabitants, white or native, take on conflicting meanings: independence and limitless potential on the one hand, savagery and degeneration on the other. Part I spans the period from the end of the Revolution to the end of the War of 1812, beginning with a survey of the contemporaneous attitudes towards the West and the Indians, represented by influential public figures of the early republic, such as Jefferson and Washington. I then consider the literary representation of the frontier by John Filson, Ann Eliza Bleecker, the pseudonymous ‘Abraham Panther’, Hugh Henry Brackenridge, and Charles Brockden Brown, demonstrating the ways in which their generically diverse work reflects and responds to the ideological debates about the frontier which characterise the period. Part II focuses on the literature of Jacksonian America. Race and expansionism were still at the root of ideological divisions within the nation, the frontier was still perceived to be the most appropriate subject for national literature, and the historical romance had become the dominant literary form in America. I examine the work of three writers — James Kirke Paulding, William Gilmore Simms and Robert Montgomery Bird — each of whom historicizes the frontier, legitimising the contemporary ideologies articulated in their fiction by association with an earlier ‘golden age’ of American history. Contents A cknowledgements ........................................................................................................................5 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 6 i. Writing the Frontier.................................................................................................................. 10 ii. Literary Nationalism and the American Canon...............................................................15 iii. The Ideology of Frontier Literature..................................................................................19 P a r t I: The Early Republic, 1783-1815 ..................................................26 1. Constructions of the Frontier in the Early Repu blic..........................................27 i. Defining the Virtuous Republic...........................................................................................27 ii. The Size of the Republic.......................................................................................................31 iii. Land as Commodity ..............................................................................................................33 iv. The Threat of Western Secession......................................................................................39 V . Thomas Jefferson, the West and the Indians...................................................................43 2. From R evolution to Constitution .................................................................................. 52 i. Order out of Confusion: John Filson's Providential Vision........................................ 52 ii. Ann Eliza Bleecker’s reversed prospect.......................................................................... 58 iii. The ‘Panther Captivity’ and Shays’s Rebellion............................................................70 3. Hugh Henry B rackenridge a nd the Collapse of A grarian Idealism .............83 i. The Rising Glory ...................................................................................................................... 84 ii. Pearls Before Swains: Classics on the Frontier..............................................................87 iii. The Mississippi Question.................................................................................................... 93 iv. How to fight Indians and influence people....................................................................96 V . Land, Value and Meaning on the Frontier.................................................................... 107 4. A cculturation in the Fiction of Charles Brockden B r o w n ........................... 115 i. The Evils of Party...................................................................................................................117 ii. Landscape and Ideology in Wieland and ‘Memoirs o f Carwin’ .............................120 iii. Representing ‘The Savage’...............................................................................................129 iv. Order Through Language.................................................................................................. 133 V . Unity in Adversity.................................................................................................................143 P a r t II: T h e J a c k s o n ia n E r a ,1815-1837 ............................................... 149 5. A ndrew Jackson , In dia n Rem oval, and the Interior Frontier .......................150 i. Paternalism and Expansionism...........................................................................................150 ii. Old Hickory: The Jackson Legend...................................................................................155 iii. Reasons and Justifications for Indian Removal..........................................................159 iv. Indian Removal vs Indian Reform........................................................................162 V . The Implementation and Impact of Removal..........................................................169 6. History , R ace a nd N ationalism : James Kirke Pa u l d in g ....................................173 i. ‘A very useful man by his pen.’ .................................................................................174 ii. American Literary Autonomy and the W est...........................................................177 iii. Racism and Nationalism.......................................................................................... 180 iv. Wrestling with the Romance....................................................................................189 V . The Moderate Frontier................................................................................................193 7. W illiam Gilmore Sim m s, the Old S outh and the N ew S o u th w est................204 i. Booming Off For the New C anaan...........................................................................204 ii. Hierarchy and Heroism............................................................................................. 209 iii. Dissident Voices inThe Yemassee..........................................................................215 iv. ‘W hy do we thus seek to rob them of their lands?”............................................. 219 V . Snakes in the Grass..................................................................................................... 227 8. R obert M ontgomery B ird and the Politics of In d ia n -h a tin g ........................ 236 i. ‘A Whig, a very good one’.........................................................................................238 ii. ‘The Children of the Sunset, where are they?’.......................................................249 iv. Nick of the Woods ....................................................................................................256 Conclusion : R omance , Realism , a nd Popular Fiction .........................................265 B ibliography of W orks Consulted ..................................................................................
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