Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: May 10, 2021 at 11:42:39 AM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-CivWar]: Saba on Wolnisty, 'A Different Manifest > Destiny: U.S. Southern Identity and Citizenship in Nineteenth-Century South > America' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Claire M. Wolnisty. A Different Manifest Destiny: U.S. Southern > Identity and Citizenship in Nineteenth-Century South America. > Lincoln University of Nebraska Press, 2020. 180 pp. $50.00 > (cloth), ISBN 978-1-4962-0790-6. > > Reviewed by Roberto Saba (Wesleyan University) > Published on H-CivWar (May, 2021) > Commissioned by G. David Schieffler > > Claire M. Wolnisty's _A Different Manifest Destiny_ integrates a > growing scholarship on proslavery southerners' economic and political > power in the antebellum era. It raises important new questions by > pointing out that "multiple southern expansionistic ideologies > coexisted in the nineteenth-century United States" (p. xiv). Adapting > themselves to shifting hemispheric contexts, southerners came up with > different plans to exert influence abroad. For decades, they engaged > with Latin American societies as filibusters, merchants, and > settlers. Together, these enterprises gave life to a different sort > of Manifest Destiny--one that moved southward into Central and South > America instead of westward. According to Wolnisty, this southbound > expansionism relied on family and business networks, sought to > improve Latin American social systems, and openly defied the > influence of European powers in the Western Hemisphere. > > The first chapter of _A Different Manifest Destiny_ delves into > filibustering. Wolnisty argues that, far from being reckless > adventurers, the filibusters had a clearly designed plan to oust > European powers from Central America and establish Anglo-American > colonies based on slave labor. Convinced that the slave South had > established a superior form of civilization, the filibusters and > their supporters believed that their projected colony in Nicaragua > would be a major step in the direction of reverting the antislavery > tendency of the nineteenth century. As Wolnisty puts it, > "'Regenerated' Nicaraguan society would supposedly eclipse the > free-labor societies prevalent in Europe, which U.S. proslavery > advocates maintained were in inevitable decay" (p. 17). Filibusters > like William Walker believed that martial manhood, a rigid racial > hierarchy, plantation agriculture, and the revival of the slave trade > would transform Nicaragua into a new economic center in the Western > Hemisphere. Ultimately, the filibusters' reign in Central America was > a resounding failure, and Walker ended up being executed by Honduran > authorities. > > Chapter 2 deals with southerners' commercial ties to Brazil. Wolnisty > contends that while some influential southerners endorsed territorial > expansion, many others favored peaceful means, especially when it > came to the other major slave society of the Americas. Slaveholding > Brazil was not the target of southern landgrabbers, according to > Wolnisty. Rather, it came to integrate the networks of southern > merchants and investors. The chapter maps the social activities of > southerners in Rio de Janeiro, emphasizing their model behavior, > expertise, and modernizing views. These commercial expansionists > promoted steamship lines, railroads, agricultural machinery, and > other technologies. In Wolnisty's words, "Such a far-flung economic > vision rooted in industrial innovations such as 'monster locomotives' > highlights conscious attempts to incorporate the South into modern, > expansive, and hemispheric economies during the mid-nineteenth > century" (p. 53). Southerners who resided in Brazil believed that > southern technology and expertise would guarantee the maintenance > (and possibly encourage the expansion) of slavery in South America. > However, their efforts were cut short by the secession crisis in the > United States. > > Wolnisty's third and final chapter takes an interesting turn by > arguing that Confederate migration to Brazil in the 1860s was not > simply the consequence of defeat in the Civil War but relied on > previously established networks and worldviews. Their settlements > formed the final (and perhaps most enduring) attempt to secure > southern influence in Latin America. Wolnisty tells the story of > ingenious southerners who used their expertise--as agriculturalists > or medical doctors--to find a place for themselves and their kin in > slaveholding Brazil. Mostly upper-class southerners, they went to > great lengths to present themselves as an honorable group of people: > "They demonstrated southern identities as loyal, hardworking workers > and reformers once in Brazil" (p. 90). Although they were willing to > cultivate relations with aristocratic Brazilians, the southern > settlers sought to carve out an existence far away from the > government in their adopted country. Traumatized by recent events in > North America, they placed family first, rejected military service, > and embraced patriarchal autonomy. At the end of the day, however, > southern settlements in Brazil had a dismal ending. "They lacked > sufficient funds to move in the first place," Wolnisty explains, > "procured insufficient income in Brazil, and at times failed to adapt > to helpful but foreign languages and customs" (p. 97). Most émigrés > eventually returned to the United States. > > Wolnisty's work points to fascinating new directions in the study of > nineteenth-century southern expansionism. First, it shifts the focus > from the west of the continent to the south of the hemisphere. > Scholars of the antebellum South may take inspiration from this > approach to look beyond the North American hinterlands: there is much > to be written, for example, on proslavery interest in Asia and > Africa. The possibilities are numerous and exciting. Second, Wolnisty > successfully makes the argument that expansionism cannot be reduced > to territorial conquest. If historians want to fully map American > power abroad in the nineteenth century, they must look beyond land > grabbing and, like Wolnisty, decipher subtler ways to influence > foreign societies. > > The three chapters of _A Different Manifest Destiny_ portray > proslavery southerners as creative expansionists who employed an > array of strategies to exert power in Latin America before and > immediately after the Civil War. Yet it seems that the most fruitful > lesson that readers will take from this book is that, in the > aftermath of the Mexican War, southerners' international endeavors > were embarrassing fiascos. From filibustering to commercial expansion > and immigrant settlements, southerners failed time and again to > elaborate effective projects to promote their interests abroad. Try > as they might, despite all their varied strategies, southerners were > unable to exert influence in Latin American countries. And their > isolation had costly consequences: when the Civil War broke out the > Confederacy had to fight it alone, not even gaining the support of > slaveholding Brazil. > > Although the book discusses some of the reasons for southern > failures, Wolnisty does not address an essential aspect of the > question: proslavery southerners remained alone in the hemisphere > because Latin Americans, aware of what had happened to northern > Mexico in the 1830s and 1840s, chose to stay away from the slave > South. The scarcity of sources produced by Latin American historical > actors in this work prevents Wolnisty from fully exploring the > unravelling of southern enterprises abroad. Southern hemispheric > isolation had as much to do with the choices of proslavery > southerners and the context in North America as with Latin American > perceptions and actions. The failure of proslavery expansionism was > certainly determined by how Central and South American societies > understood southern plans and weighed them against other expansionist > projects of the era--for example, those of the British Empire and the > American North. > > Citation: Roberto Saba. Review of Wolnisty, Claire M., _A Different > Manifest Destiny: U.S. Southern Identity and Citizenship in > Nineteenth-Century South America_. H-CivWar, H-Net Reviews. May, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55774 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#8484): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/8484 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/82723893/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
