Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: July 6, 2021 at 1:28:58 PM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Early-America]: Burin on Mills, 'The World > Colonization Made: The Racial Geography of Early American Empire' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Brandon Mills. The World Colonization Made: The Racial Geography of > Early American Empire. Early American Studies Series. Philadelphia > University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020. 253 pp. $45.00 (cloth), > ISBN 978-0-8122-5250-7. > > Reviewed by Eric Burin (University of North Dakota) > Published on H-Early-America (July, 2021) > Commissioned by Patrick Luck > > Burin on Mills > > Over the past twenty years, there has been a surge in scholarship > concerning the American Colonization Society (ACS), Liberia, and > related topics. During this wave's initial stages, many researchers, > often focusing on a single state, emigrant party, or individual, > revisited the long-standing debates about how the colonization > movement affected US disputes over slavery, freedom, and race. More > recently, however, scholars have reconceptualized the subject. They > have peered at colonization through new analytical lenses, including, > perhaps most revealingly, the lens of empire. This is the perspective > showcased in Brandon Mills's _The World Colonization Made: The Racial > Geography of Early American Empire_, a far-ranging work that will be > required reading for anyone wishing to keep atop this still-surging > field. > > Mills notes that colonizationism emerged during the > post-Revolutionary period. It arose in response to white Americans' > fear that enslaved people would violently seize freedom, their > opposition to racial equality within the nation's boundaries, and > lastly their expectation that the United States would expand across > North America. Within this context, most colonizationists championed > a Black colony in the West. A colony of this sort, whether loosely > affiliated with the United States or wholly independent, would > provide an avenue to abolition and thereby diminish the chance of a > slave rebellion, preserve white supremacy in the United States, and > advance the nation's interests in the West. Some colonizationists > expressed doubts about a western site, however. Among the skeptics > was Thomas Jefferson, who warned that a Black colony there would > impede and threaten white settlers who migrated to the region, > especially those who arrived with enslaved laborers in tow. Such > misgivings became more pronounced over time. Indeed, Native American > resistance during the War of 1812 prompted colonizationists to > consider whether a Black colony in the West would give rise to an > "African Tecumseh" and invite an alliance between indigenous people > and African American settlers (p. 34). For these reasons, by the > mid-1810s, colonizationists were casting their eyes elsewhere. > > Following the ACS's establishment in December 1816, most > colonizationists favored planting a prospective Black colony in > western Africa. This change in locations necessitated an equally > profound change in rationalizations. Among other things, an African > venture, which struck some observers as nothing like a North American > enterprise, required colonizationists to articulate a novel vision of > American imperialism. To this end, colonizationists insisted that > Liberia (which was founded in the early 1820s with federal aid that > was available thanks to President James Monroe's loose interpretation > of the Slave Trade Act of 1819) would be different from European > colonial endeavors. It would be based on enlightened and benevolent > principles and in time Liberia would become an independent nation, a > Black republic that reproduced US values and countenanced US > interests. As Mills notes, these arguments "meshed with the > anticolonial imperialism of U.S. foreign policy during this period," > particularly the Monroe Doctrine (p. 38). > > Monroe's thinking about Native Americans was also influenced by > colonizationism. In the early nineteenth century, US policy mostly > had aimed to appropriate Native lands in the East by encouraging > indigenous people to adopt white customs and integrate into the > American body politic. By contrast, Monroe proposed using federal > resources to move Native Americans to western territories, where they > could establish an Indian republic not unlike the one Black settlers > were creating in Liberia. According to Mills, colonizationists like > Monroe were entertaining "radically ambitious nation-building efforts > aimed at both incorporating non-whites within the republican project > and actively reinscribing racial hierarchy" (p. 92). Yet > colonizationists' racial republicanism was an unstable construct > precisely because it required a simultaneous commitment to non-white > self-governance and white supremacy. Those inherent tensions left > both African and Indian colonization vulnerable to devastating blows > during Andrew Jackson's presidency, when the ACS's attempts to secure > additional US aid for Liberia failed miserably and Indian removal > policy "all but abandoned the benevolent pretenses of early > colonization proposals" (p. 66). > > Although colonizationism had proved remarkably adaptable since the > post-Revolutionary era, one thing that remained unchanged was the > assumption that the United States was emphatically a white settler > society. The fact that free Black people resided there struck > colonizationists not just as unfortunate but nearly unnatural. > African Americans, in their minds, simply were not legitimate > occupants of the land. They were essentially aliens or foreigners. > This brand of thinking encouraged white mobs to attack Black > northerners and their property while government officials > circumscribed their rights. If African Americans wanted to enjoy > citizenship and self-determination--and in the gendered rhetoric of > the day, every self-respecting "man" would desire such things--they > could have them only in Liberia, which colonizationists pointedly > called Black Americans' "native" land. > > Colonizationists' beliefs regarding Liberia's distinctive virtues > grew stronger when the colony declared its national independence in > 1847. The elite settlers who crafted Liberia's Declaration of > Independence did not denounce the ACS (even though over the years the > organization's officials often had been unwilling to cede political > power to the colonists) but rather the United States, where racism, > they wrote, was so widespread, relentless, and cruel it had driven > them from the land of their birth. As for Liberia's constitution, it > proclaimed that only "Negroes or persons of Negro descent" could be > citizens of the new republic (p. 141). ACS leaders privately objected > to this provision, but the codification of racial privilege bolstered > their claims that in Liberia alone were Black rights secure. Even so, > most northern African Americans were not buying what the > colonizationists were selling. The United States, they insisted with > "manly" defiance, was their rightful home. Yet during the 1850s, some > Black northerners expressed a newfound interest in colonization, > partly because of Liberia's status as a Black republic and partly > because the Fugitive Slave Law and other manifestations of racism > strengthened white settler republicanism in the United States. > > Colonizationism was reimagined once again during the late 1850s and > early 1860s. This time, its supporters focused on Latin America and > the Caribbean. From the colonizationists' perspective, the push to > acquire "All Mexico" following the US-Mexican War and the exploits of > proslavery filibusterers like William Walker constituted a highly > problematic model of US expansion. They proposed instead establishing > Black colonies in the region, which they contended would enhance the > United States' hemispheric power without "large-scale military > interventions, the annexation of territory, the extension of slavery, > or the threat of racial mixture" (p. 167). Far more than Liberia, the > prospective colonies would safeguard US geopolitical and commercial > interests, particularly from British encroachments. These ideas found > a home in the Republican Party, and during the Civil War, they were, > to a limited extent, actually implemented. As Mills observes, > President Abraham Lincoln used diplomatic channels when pursuing such > endeavors, but he also tellingly tapped experienced businessmen with > investments in the region to oversee the enterprises. These ventures > came to naught, of course. But even in failure, they illustrate how > colonizationism was not merely a part of the debate over wartime > emancipation but rather reflected the United States' race-based > imperial ambitions. > > The United States became a global power in the postwar period. Its > expansion embodied, in many ways, the ideas that colonizationists had > touted for decades (that is, the establishment of racially distinct > and nominally independent polities that would serve as proxies for US > interests). Although colonization languished as an organized movement > in the postbellum era, as Mills concludes, "Americans, whether they > recognized it or not, lived in a world made by colonization" (p. > 200). > > At the risk of carping about "the book that should have been > written," one could highlight a certain unevenness in Mills's > monograph. For example, the discussion of the post-Revolutionary > period notwithstanding, the volume mostly concerns northerners' > thoughts on colonization, leaving southerners largely silenced. > Likewise, while Black Americans make periodic and important > appearances in the work, white people usually occupy center stage. > Nevertheless, The World Colonization Made is a superb book, one that > will occupy a prominent and well-deserved place in the scholarly > literature on colonization. > > Citation: Eric Burin. Review of Mills, Brandon, _The World > Colonization Made: The Racial Geography of Early American Empire_. > H-Early-America, H-Net Reviews. July, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=56439 > > 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 (#9748): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/9748 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/84026179/21656 -=-=- 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]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
