University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--History History 2013 Whiteness in Africa: Americo-Liberians and the Transformative Geographies of Race Robert P. Murray University of Kentucky, [email protected] Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Murray, Robert P., "Whiteness in Africa: Americo-Liberians and the Transformative Geographies of Race" (2013). Theses and Dissertations--History. 23. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/history_etds/23 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the History at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--History by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. Proper attribution has been given to all outside sources. 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Murray, Student Dr. Joanne Pope Melish, Major Professor Dr. David Hamilton, Director of Graduate Studies WHITENESS IN AFRICA: AMERICO-LIBERIANS AND THE TRANSFORMATIVE GEOGRAPHIES OF RACE DISSERTATION A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Robert Paul Murray Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Joanne Pope Melish, Professor of History Lexington, Kentucky Copyright © Robert Paul Murray 2013 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION WHITENESS IN AFRICA: AMERICO-LIBERIANS AND THE TRANSFORMATIVE GEOGRAPHIES OF RACE This dissertation examines the constructed racial identities of African American settlers in colonial Liberia as they traversed the Atlantic between the United States and West Africa during the first half of the nineteenth century. In one of the great testaments that race is a social construction, the West African neighbors and inhabitants of Liberia, who conceived of themselves as “black,” recognized the significant cultural differences between themselves and these newly-arrived Americans and racially categorized the newcomers as “white.” This project examines the ramifications for these African American settlers of becoming simultaneously white and black through their Atlantic mobility. This is not to suggest that those African Americans who relocated to Liberia somehow desired to be white or hoped to “pass” as white after their arrival in Africa. Instead, the Americo-Liberians utilized their African whiteness to lay claim to an exotic, foreign identity that also escaped associations of primitivism. This project makes several significant contributions to scholarship on the colonization movement, whiteness, and Atlantic world. Importantly for scholarship on Liberia, it reestablishes the colony as but one evolving point within the Atlantic world instead of its usual interpretative place as the end of a transatlantic journey. Whether as disgruntled former settlers, or paid spokesmen for the American Colonization Society (ACS), or visitors returning to childhood abodes, or emancipators looking to free families from the chains of slavery, or students seeking medical degrees, Liberian settlers returned to the United States and they were remarkably uninterested in returning to their formerly downtrodden place in American society. This project examines the “tools” provided to Americo-Liberians by their African residence to negotiate a new relationship with the white inhabitants of the United States. These were not just metaphorical arguments shouted across the Atlantic Ocean and focusing on the experiences of Americo-Liberians in the United States highlights that these “negotiations” had practical applications for the lives of settlers in both the United States and Africa. The African whiteness of the settlers would function as a bargaining chip when they approached that rhetorical bargaining table. KEYWORDS: Black Atlantic, colonization, Liberia, African Americans and colonization, mobility studies ______Robert Paul Murray_____ Student’s Signature _______12/7/2013____________ Date For Amy ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I arrived at the University of Kentucky in the fall of 2008 prepared to write the definitive history of conservative antislavery reformers in the upper South and explore the region’s historical memory of slavery and emancipation. Needless to say, this isn’t that project. As a bit of scholarly drifter, I have many debts to colleagues who helped me as my interests evolved. First and foremost, Joanne Pope Melish guided this dissertation from the beginning and remained committed to project even as it changed from my initial plan to “bring her book South” into the current study of African Americans in Liberia. Although we never seemed to be in Lexington at the same time between academic leaves and fellowships, she still found a way to shepherd this project to completion. It is only fitting that after completion it turns out we will be “neighbors” of sorts in New England. Erik Lars Myrup, Ronald P. Formisano, and Tracy Campbell, in addition to contributing to this project as dissertation committee members, have long been supportive of my work in the history department and I thank them for those years of encouragement. Erik has proven to be an especially collegial and generous scholar, both in his excellent suggestions for teaching and providing much-needed breaks during my office hours this semester. Richard Schein provided spirited feedback during the defense and greatly assisted this historian in understanding the geographer’s methodology. The history department provided financial support for this project in the form of a Dorothy Leathers fellowship. Armed with their generous support, I was able to conduct a long research trip between Washington, D.C. and Dartmouth. I am especially indebted to the staff of the Library of Congress and Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College. The whole research expedition could have been endangered by a broken pipe iii and subsequent flood at the FHL had not the staff pulled my material from the waters and allowed me to continue my work. I am privileged to work within the same field as some truly remarkable and generous scholars. I am especially indebted to Beverly Tomek who, in addition to finding a space for my scholarship within her edited collection of essays on colonization, continues to generously support my work. Within the department of history, my thinking and social skills have been mutually reinforced by wonderful conversations with colleagues who have always had the good sense to know when was the appropriate time to theorize and when was the appropriate time to enjoy a beer and watch basketball. In the marathon of graduate school, Andrew Adler, Amanda Higgins, Patrick and Jenny Lewis, Anthony and Stephanie Miller, Stephen Pickering, and James Savage have made the time fly with only occasional disruptions to my workflow. As my carpool companion for a year in which I was intensively writing, Patrick Lewis deserves special mention as someone who unexpectedly found himself editing chapters and conceptualizing ideas about colonization and the Black Atlantic. My favorite part of book acknowledgments is the canned summation many authors utilize in which after naming those individuals who have been most helpful, they then conclude with a promise that all errors within the work are the author’s responsibility alone (as though there was another option!). I personally take the opposite approach: any errors in this dissertation are probably the fault of Patrick Lewis and I recommend that all complaints be forwarded on to him. In all seriousness, Patrick and my other incredibly dedicated colleagues at the Kentucky Historical Society represent all that is good in this profession. Finally, my greatest debt is to my wife, Amy, who has lived with these Liberians far longer than any mere mortal could withstand. She has been a constant reminder that iv there is more to life than the constant clicking of a keyboard even as she has been my most studious, supportive, and correct companion/critic. I have learned to type with a cat in the lap and she has learned to accept that the cat she brought into our home simply likes