DOCSLIB.ORG

Agonistic Homegoing: Frederick Douglass, Joseph Lowery, and The

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Agonistic Homegoing: Frederick Douglass, Joseph Lowery, and The American Political Science Review Vol. 104, No. 4 November 2010 doi:10.1017/S0003055410000481 Agonistic Homegoing: Frederick Douglass, Joseph Lowery, and the Democratic Value of African American Public Mourning SIMON STOW College of William and Mary hat does the furor over the “politicization” of Coretta Scott King’s funeral reveal about contem- porary black mourning practices? What does it reveal about black political thought, rhetoric, W and practice? Identifying two key modes of mourning and their concomitant conceptions of democracy, this article situates the funeral within a tradition of self-consciously political responses to loss that played a significant role in abolitionism and the struggle for civil rights. Tracing the tradition’s origins, and employing the speeches of Frederick Douglass as an exemplar, it considers the approach’s democratic value and the consequences of its failure. Arguing that the response to the King funeral indicates that the tradition is in decline, the article locates causes of this decline in significant changes among the black population and in the complex consequences of the tradition’s previous successes. It concludes by considering the decline’s potentially negative impact, both for African Americans and for the broader political community. n February 2006, the alleged politicization of the and the ways in which each serves to shape politi- funeral of civil rights icon Coretta Scott King gen- cal outcomes, this article situates Mrs. King’s funeral Ierated a media furor. Remarks by the Reverend within an African American tradition of tragic and self- Joseph Lowery and former President Jimmy Carter consciously political responses to loss that was central that were critical of the Bush administration drew par- to the fight against slavery and the struggle for civil ticular fire. Despite the presence of the president, for- rights. While acknowledging that, for most Americans, mer presidents, and numerous members of Congress, the furor over the King funeral was little more than it was widely suggested—in a response that cut across a passing media frenzy, it suggests that many African ethnic and party lines—that a funeral was neither the American responses were significant because of what time nor the place for politics. The history of the funeral they reveal about the decline of this black mourning oration seems to confirm the claim. In Plato’s Menex- tradition, and about changes in contemporary black enus, Socrates satirizes the banality of democratic pub- political rhetoric, thought, and action. This article lo- lic mourning by offering his own eulogy marked by cates the causes of this decline in socioeconomic, de- anachronism, cliche,´ and platitude. That his speech was mographic, and theological changes among the black repeated in Antiquity by those who failed to get the population, and in the complex consequences of the joke seems to confirm that he was right about what tradition’s previous successes. Employing the history democracy demands from public mourning: that the of black mourning as an analytical precedent, it con- Athenians be praised in Athens (Plato 1984, 235d). The siders the effects of the decline on both contemporary relationship between democratic politics and public black politics and on the wider political community. mourning has, however, long been a close one. Nicole The article closes by suggesting that the tradition might, Loraux (1986) argues that the funeral oration invented nevertheless, still serve as a model for a reconstituted Athens as much as Athens invented the funeral ora- approach to American public mourning. tion, and Garry Wills (1992), that Abraham Lincoln The article that follows is in five sections. The first founded the Second American Republic in the Get- offers definitions of key terms and sets out a twofold tysburg Address. Identifying two key modes of public typology of public mourning as a theoretical frame- mourning (tragic and romantic), their corresponding work for the subsequent analysis. Employed as “a pro- conceptions of democracy (agonism and consensus), ductive hermeneutical lens” (Gooding-Williams 2009, 18), the framework neither constitutes the totality of possible mourning practices nor exhausts the set of democratic understandings. The classifications simply Simon Stow is Associate Professor, Department of Government, function as ideal types for the identification of two key College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA 23187 (sastow@ wm.edu). public responses to loss. Arguing that romantic pub- For their careful readings and insightful comments on earlier lic mourning both generates and reflects a consensus- drafts, the author thanks Lisa Disch, Steven Johnston, Kirstie based understanding of democracy—and tragic public McClure, Joel Schwartz, and the coeditors and anonymous review- mourning, an agonistic understanding of the same— ers at the American Political Science Review. Additional thanks it identifies the ways in which each approach helps are due to John Baltes, Kelvin Black, David Dessler, Caroline Hanley, Jon Hesk, Melvin Rogers, George Shulman, Dennis Smith, shape political outcomes. The second section identi- and Mike Tierney for useful discussions about these topics, as well as fies a tradition—understood as a core set of ideas or to Shirley Aceto, Hugh and Susan Babinski, David Baumflek, Ben practices with clear historical evidence of influence and Bowyer, John and Sandra Hanley, Kip Kantelo, Naomi Levy, Robyn shared understandings across time (Bevir 1999; Shelby Marasco, John McGlennon, Rani Mullen, Christine Nemacheck, Ara Osterweil, Ron and Patricia Rapoport, Matthew Rudolph, Clare and 2005, 31)—of self-consciously political black responses Daniel Schoenheimer, John Seery, and Graham and Christine Stow. to loss and locates it within the analytical framework. 681 Agonistic Homegoing November 2010 Using Frederick Douglass’ Decoration Day speeches of reconciliation and agreement that—consciously or and eulogies for Abraham Lincoln as its exemplars, unconsciously—eschews politics, democracy as consen- the article’s third section then shows how this tradition sus finds expression in not only the Greek obsession offers a democratic pedagogy that seeks to generate with political unity, but also in more recent attempts and reinforce the ambivalent “double consciousness” by John Rawls (1993) and Jurgen¨ Habermas (1992) to of black life (Du Bois 2003, 9) in its audience as a means identify a position of political consensus beyond liberal of overcoming the social conditions that produced it: neutrality. Arguing that this commitment to consensus girding African Americans for their struggle and un- serves as an “ideology for the divided city,” Loraux dermining white complacency about issues of race. By (2002a, 30) notes that it can exist in tandem with— identifying the consequences of Douglass’ inability to and sometimes exacerbate—the sectional conflict that establish this tragic sense in his white audience, and it seeks to suppress. That such an ideology is frequently contrasting it with Lincoln’s success at Gettysburg, this a rhetorical commitment rather than a political reality section further provides an historical precedent for does not diminish its capacity to shape political out- considering the impact of the decline of this mourn- comes. Indeed, for its critics, the overriding concern ing tradition and its tragic ethos on the contemporary with consensus excludes minority voices in a way that polity. Establishing the tradition’s continuity by identi- undermines democracy,with the drive toward “normal- fying its importance to post-Reconstruction resistance ization” and agreement marking out disagreement as and the struggle for civil rights, the fourth section sit- deviant or “other.” Thus, not only are minority views uates Mrs. King’s funeral at a generational intersec- often excluded, they are also frequently demonized, tion of conflicting demands for romantic and tragic with democratic politics becoming marked by shrill responses to loss, locating many of the causes of this antagonisms rather than reasoned debate (Connolly generational shift in the history of the tradition’s previ- 2005; Mouffe 2005). The object of Socrates’ scorn in ous successes. As befits the complexity of tragedy, the the Menexenus, romantic public mourning is singular article concludes by considering the potentially nega- in vision, uncritical, purely comforting, and historically tive consequences of these successes and failures, both ubiquitous: as evident in Pericles’ Funeral Oration as for African Americans and for the broader democratic it was in the choice of the Gettysburg Address as a polity. eulogy for New York City’s September 11 dead (Stow 2007). Tragic public mourning—understood as response not THE ROMANTIC AND THE TRAGIC condition—is, in contrast, pluralistic, critical, and self- consciously political. It is built on, and generative of, an In the face of death, romantic public mourning de- agonistic understanding of democracy in which conflict mands little of its audience except a recommitment to and disagreement are recognized as central to demo- the polity’s idealized vision of itself. Employed in the cratic politics. In this model, all parties to a disagree- sense suggested by Blight (2001, 2002), Foner (2002), ment recognize that there is no rational final solution and Laderman (1996), the term “romantic” identifies to their conflict, but nevertheless acknowledge the le- a narrative that draws on, and shares much with, cer- gitimacy of their opponents
Load more

Recommended publications
  • African American Religious Leaders in the Late Antebellum South
    Teaching Christianity in the face of adversity: African American religious leaders in the late antebellum South A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of English and American Studies PhD in the Faculty of Humanities 2011 Thomas Strange School of Arts, Histories, and Cultures Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Abbreviations 2 Abstract 3 Declaration 4 Copyright Statement 5 Acknowledgements 6 Introduction 7 Chapter 1: „For what God had done to their souls‟: the black preacher in the 19 colonial and early antebellum South Chapter 2: Preacher, teacher, counsellor or rebel: The multiple functions of 66 the black preacher on the plantation Chapter 3: The licensed black minister in the biracial and independent black 107 churches in the late antebellum South Chapter 4: The white evangelical reaction to African American religious 148 leaders and slave Christianity Conclusions 196 Appendix 204 Table 1: Statistics on WPA interviewee relocation 204 Table 2: Statistics on the location of black preachers in the WPA 205 narratives Bibliography 206 Word Count: 79,876 1 Abbreviations used Avery Avery Research Center, Charleston Caroliniana South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia Duke Duke University Special Collections, Durham ERO Essex Record Office, Chelmsford SHC Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill VHS Virginia Historical Society, Richmond VSL Virginia State Library, Richmond 2 Abstract Religious leaders were key figures within African American society in the late antebellum South. They undertook a vital religious function within both the plantation slave community and the institutionalised biracial and independent black church and many became a focal point for African American Christianity amongst slaves and free blacks.
    [Show full text]
  • The Development of Slavery in the Natchez District, 1720-1820
    The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Spring 5-2012 Slavery and Empire: The Development of Slavery in the Natchez District, 1720-1820 Christian Pinnen University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Cultural History Commons, Social History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Pinnen, Christian, "Slavery and Empire: The Development of Slavery in the Natchez District, 1720-1820" (2012). Dissertations. 821. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/821 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi SLAVERY AND EMPIRE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF SLAVERY IN THE NATCHEZ DISTRICT, 1720-1820 by Christian Pinnen Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2012 ABSTRACT SLAVERY AND EMPIRE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF SLAVERY IN THE NATCHEZ DISTRICT, 1720-1820 by Christian Pinnen May 2012 “Slavery and Empire: The Development of Slavery in the Natchez District, 1720- 1820,” examines how slaves and colonists weathered the economic and political upheavals that rocked the Lower Mississippi Valley. The study focuses on the fitful— and often futile—efforts of the French, the English, the Spanish, and the Americans to establish plantation agriculture in Natchez and its environs, a district that emerged as the heart of the “Cotton Kingdom” in the decades following the American Revolution.
    [Show full text]
  • George Liele :Negro Slavery's Prophet of Deliverance
    George Liele :Negro Slavery's Prophet of Deliverance EORGE LIELE (Lisle, Sharpe) is o:p.e of the unsung heroes of Greligious history, whose exploits and attainments have gone vir­ tually unnoticed except in a few little-known books and journals of Negro history. Liele's spectacular but steady devotion to the cause of his Master began with his conversion in 1773 and subsequent exercise of his ·cc call" in his own and nearby churches; it ended with mUltiple thousands of simple black folk raisec;I from the callous indignity of human bondage to freedom and a glorious citizenship in the king­ dom of God, largely as a consequence of this man's Christian witness in life and word. George was born a slave to slave parents, Liele and Nancy, in servitude to the family of Henry Sharpe in Virginia. From his birth, about 1750, to his eventual freedom in 1773, Liele belonged to the Sharpe family, with whom' he was removed to Burke County, Georgia, prior to 1770. Henry Sharpe, his master, was a Loyalist supporter and a deacon in the Buckhead Creek Baptist Church pastored by the Rev. Matthew Moore. Of his own parents and early years Liele reported in a letter of 1791 written from. Kingston, Jamaica: ~'I was born in Virginia, my father's name was Liele, and my mother's name Nancy; I cannot ascertain much of them, as I went to several parts of America when young, and at length resided in New Georgia; but was informed both by white and black people, that my father was the only black person who knew the Lord in a spiritual way in that country.
    [Show full text]
  • “Methinks I See Grim Slavery's Gorgon Form”: Abolitionism in Belfast, 1775
    “Methinks I see grim Slavery’s Gorgon form”: Abolitionism in Belfast, 1775-1865 By Krysta Beggs-McCormick (BA Hons, MRes) Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences of Ulster University A Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) October 2018 I confirm that the word count of this thesis is less than 100,000 words. Contents Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………………… I Illustration I …………………………………………………………………………...…… II Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………………. III Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………… 1 Chapter One – “That horrible degradation of human nature”: Abolitionism in late eighteenth-century Belfast ……………………………………………….…………………………………………….. 22 Chapter Two – “Go ruthless Avarice”: Abolitionism in nineteenth century Georgian Belfast ………………………………………………………………………................................... 54 Chapter Three – “The atrocious system should come to an end”: Abolitionism in Early Victorian Belfast, 1837-1857 ……………………………………………………………... 99 Chapter Four - “Whether freedom or slavery should be the grand characteristic of the United States”: Belfast Abolitionism and the American Civil War……………………..………. 175 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………….. 206 Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………... 214 Appendix 1: Table ……………………………………………………………………….. 257 Appendix 2: Belfast Newspapers .…………….…………………………………………. 258 I Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible without the help and guidance of many people to whom I am greatly indebted. I owe my greatest thanks to my supervisory team: Professor
    [Show full text]
  • How the Dismal Science Got Its Name How the Dismal Science GOT ITS NAME
    How the Dismal Science Got Its Name How the Dismal Science GOT ITS NAME Classical Economics and the Ur-Text of Racial Politics David M. Levy Ann Arbor Copyright © by the University of Michigan 2001 All rights reserved Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America c Printed on acid-free paper 2004 2003 2002 2001 4321 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or trans- mitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Levy, David M. How the dismal science got its name : classical economics and the ur-text of racial politics / David M. Levy. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-472-11219-8 (Cloth : alk. paper) 1. Economics. 2. Economics—Sociological aspects. 3. Racism. I. Title. HB71 .L546 2001 330'.09—dc21 2001001402 Ur-Text The hidden original from which all others descend in confused and imperfect fashion. Contents Acknowledgments ix Preface: Answering the Obvious Question xiii Part 1. Two Sciences in Collision: The Dismal and the Gay 1. Poets Come, Bringing Death to Friends of the Dismal Science 3 2. Ecce Homo: Symbols Make the Man 29 3. Beginning with an Exchange or with a Command? 41 4. A Rational Choice Approach to Scholarship 58 Part 2. Market Order or Hierarchy? 5. Debating Racial Quackery 81 6.
    [Show full text]
  • Black Evangelicals and the Gospel of Freedom, 1790-1890
    University of Kentucky UKnowledge University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2009 SPIRITED AWAY: BLACK EVANGELICALS AND THE GOSPEL OF FREEDOM, 1790-1890 Alicestyne Turley 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 Turley, Alicestyne, "SPIRITED AWAY: BLACK EVANGELICALS AND THE GOSPEL OF FREEDOM, 1790-1890" (2009). University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations. 79. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/gradschool_diss/79 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Alicestyne Turley The Graduate School University of Kentucky 2009 SPIRITED AWAY: BLACK EVANGELICALS AND THE GOSPEL OF FREEDOM, 1790-1890 _______________________________ ABSTRACT OF 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 Alicestyne Turley Lexington, Kentucky Co-Director: Dr. Ron Eller, Professor of History Co-Director, Dr. Joanne Pope Melish, Professor of History Lexington, Kentucky 2009 Copyright © Alicestyne Turley 2009 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION SPIRITED AWAY: BLACK EVANGELICALS AND THE GOSPEL OF FREEDOM, 1790-1890 The true nineteenth-century story of the Underground Railroad begins in the South and is spread North by free blacks, escaping southern slaves, and displaced, white, anti-slavery Protestant evangelicals. This study examines the role of free blacks, escaping slaves, and white Protestant evangelicals influenced by tenants of Kentucky’s Second Great Awakening who were inspired, directly or indirectly, to aid in African American community building.
    [Show full text]
  • AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORIC PLACES in SOUTH CAROLINA ////////////////////////////// September 2015
    AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORIC PLACES IN SOUTH CAROLINA ////////////////////////////// September 2015 State Historic Preservation Office South Carolina Department of Archives and History should be encouraged. The National Register program his publication provides information on properties in South Carolina is administered by the State Historic in South Carolina that are listed in the National Preservation Office at the South Carolina Department of Register of Historic Places or have been Archives and History. recognized with South Carolina Historical Markers This publication includes summary information about T as of May 2015 and have important associations National Register properties in South Carolina that are with African American history. More information on these significantly associated with African American history. More and other properties is available at the South Carolina extensive information about many of these properties is Archives and History Center. Many other places in South available in the National Register files at the South Carolina Carolina are important to our African American history and Archives and History Center. Many of the National Register heritage and are eligible for listing in the National Register nominations are also available online, accessible through or recognition with the South Carolina Historical Marker the agency’s website. program. The State Historic Preservation Office at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History welcomes South Carolina Historical Marker Program (HM) questions regarding the listing or marking of other eligible South Carolina Historical Markers recognize and interpret sites. places important to an understanding of South Carolina’s past. The cast-aluminum markers can tell the stories of African Americans have made a vast contribution to buildings and structures that are still standing, or they can the history of South Carolina throughout its over-300-year- commemorate the sites of important historic events or history.
    [Show full text]
  • A Defense of a Sentiocentric Approach to Environmental Ethics
    University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 8-2012 Minding Nature: A Defense of a Sentiocentric Approach to Environmental Ethics Joel P. MacClellan University of Tennessee, Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation MacClellan, Joel P., "Minding Nature: A Defense of a Sentiocentric Approach to Environmental Ethics. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2012. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/1433 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Joel P. MacClellan entitled "Minding Nature: A Defense of a Sentiocentric Approach to Environmental Ethics." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Philosophy. John Nolt, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Jon Garthoff, David Reidy, Dan Simberloff Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) MINDING NATURE: A DEFENSE OF A SENTIOCENTRIC APPROACH TO ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Joel Patrick MacClellan August 2012 ii The sedge is wither’d from the lake, And no birds sing.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 the Spectre of the Slave Ship: Caryl Phillips's Adaptation for the Stage Of
    The Spectre of the Slave Ship: Caryl Phillips’s Adaptation for the Stage of Rough Crossings by Simon Schama. Winsome Pinnock The Problem of Representation Representation of the trans-Atlantic slave trade confronts both the dramatist and the historian with two problems which threaten the authenticity of their endeavours: a) the conventions of narrative structure which may, as historian Berel Lang (2000) asserts, pose the danger of aestheticizing horrific or traumatic events and b) a methodology that relies on archives that contain scant traces of the experiences of the trade’s traumatised victims, or their response to those experiences. Simon Schama’s Rough Crossings recounts the hitherto underrepresented history of the contribution of black enslaved peoples to the American war of Independence while Caryl Phillips’s dramatized adaptation of Schama’s narrative history is both a response to and critique of Schama’s methodology, revealing its limitations and unintentional biases. Both historian and playwright use formal narrative or dramaturgical devices to resolve the restraints of historiographical methodology, employing linguistic strategies which themselves pose various ontological challenges. This paper examines how emplotment, while making the story Schama tells vivid and engaging, also marginalises some of its chief actants, privileging the role of the white abolitionists over the agency of the black protagonists. On the other hand, Phillips uses emplotment and other dramaturgical devices – especially the rejection of authenticity and the deployment of anachronism - to reposition the black protagonists at the centre of the narrative, while constructing a dialogue between past and present, revealing in the process the impact of the ongoing legacy of the trans-Atlantic slave trade on contemporary life.
    [Show full text]
  • International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention Missionary Correspondence Files
    INTERNATIONAL MISSION BOARD OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FILES AR 551 – 2 Japan Baptist Mission meeting, 1908 Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives June, 2008 Updated December, 2012 1 International Mission Board Missionary Correspondence Files AR 551 – 2 Summary Main Entry: Southern Baptist Convention. International Mission Board. Missionary Correspondence Files Date Span: 1846 – 2005 Abstract: The Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) of the Southern Baptist Convention was formed in 1845 to manage the sending of missionaries to foreign countries. The correspondence files contain official missionary personnel and correspondence files between missionaries and mission administrators in Richmond, Virginia. The files include application forms and biographical data, as well as reports and correspondence related to the work and life of the mission and the missionaries. The collection also includes files of deceased, retired, and resigned missionaries. Size: 336 linear ft. Collection #: AR 551 – 2 Historical Sketch The Foreign Mission Board was one of the two missionary sending agencies established by the Southern Baptist Convention when it organized in Augusta, Georgia in 1845. The Board adopted some missionaries already in China and Africa at that time and began to commission individuals to mission service. The Board used excerpts from the missionaries’ letters in the Foreign Mission Board’s publications to inform Southern Baptists of the missionary activities and challenges and to encourage financial support. The Foreign Mission Board has always been located in Richmond, Virginia. In 1997, the name of the Foreign Mission Board was changed to the International Mission Board. The Archives of the Foreign Mission Board began transferring missionary correspondence files in 1985.
    [Show full text]
  • Freeborn Men of Color: the Franck Brothers in Revolutionary North America, 1755-1820
    FREEBORN MEN OF COLOR: THE FRANCK BROTHERS IN REVOLUTIONARY NORTH AMERICA, 1755-1820 Shirley L. Green A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2011 Committee: Ruth Wallis Herndon, Advisor Radhika Gajjala Graduate Faculty Representative Lillian Ashcraft-Eason Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina Rebecca Mancuso © 2011 Shirley Louise Swan Green All Rights Reserved iii Abstract Ruth Wallis Herndon, Advisor This dissertation examines the lives of William and Ben Franck, freeborn men of color, who used military service as a means to assert their manhood, gain standing in their community, and help to create free African American and African Canadian communities during the Revolutionary Era. It focuses on the lives and experiences of the Franck family from the 1750s, when Rufus Franck served in the French and Indian War, until the 1820s, when his younger son, Ben Franck, settled in Nova Scotia. At each step of the story, this study analyzes the communities of free people of color with whom the Franck brothers interacted. In doing so, this project challenges traditional narratives and stereotypes of African Americans during the Colonial and Revolutionary Eras. The Franck brothers’ individual histories, closely analyzed, have the power to expand the prism through which we view early American people of color, so that we see their reality more sharply in three ways. 1. The establishment of free families of color and communities throughout North America, from the pre-Revolutionary period until postwar America, was limited by social prejudices and legal prohibitions.
    [Show full text]
  • African Americans
    A People’s History of the American Revolution: A Guide for Teaching and Readers’ Groups Ray Raphael [email protected] 2004 Raphael A People’s History of the American Revolution: Teacher’s Guide 2 CHAPTER 6: AFRICAN AMERICANS THE PROMISE AND THE PANIC OF ‘75 Review: 1. (a) In April of 1775, what were whites in Virginia scared might happen? (b) What did Governor Dunmore do on April 21? (c) How did the white citizens of Williamsburg react? (d) What was Dunmore’s initial justification for his actions? (e) Later, what did Dunmore threaten to do? 2. (a) What was decided in the Sommersett case? (b) How did this affect slaves in America? 3. What did masters fear even more than a revolt among slaves? 4. According to reports from whites, what happened in the Tar River region of North Carolina? 5. When Andrew Estave’s 15-year-old slave tried to escape, where did she go, and why did she choose to go there? 6. How and why did Dr. Cobham’s slave die? 7. Upon what evidence was George of St. Bartholomew Parish hanged? 8. (a) What did Joseph Harris do for the British? (b) What did he do for himself? 9. (a) What was the charge against Jeremiah of Charleston? (b) What was the evidence? (c) Do you think race was a factor in his sentencing? Explain. Historical Reasoning/ Discussion: 1. According to Philip J. Schwarz in his book Twice Condemned: Slaves and the Criminal Laws of Virginia, in 1774 there were 50 accusations of felonies leveled against slaves in Virginia; during 1775, the height of revolutionary fever, the number of trials for felonies increased to 81.
    [Show full text]