Remaking the Republic

Black Politics and the Creation of American Citizenship (America in the Nineteenth Century)

De: Christopher James Bonner

Narrado por: Kevin W Cragwell

Duración: 9 h y 36 m

Resumen del Editor

Citizenship in the nineteenth-century United States was an ever-moving target. The Constitution did not specify its exact meaning, leaving lawmakers and other Americans to struggle over the fundamental questions of who could be a citizen, how a person attained the status, and the particular privileges citizenship afforded.

Black people suffered under this ambiguity, but also seized on it in efforts to transform their nominal freedom. By claiming that they were citizens in their demands for specific rights, they were, Christopher James Bonner argues, at the center of creating the very meaning of American citizenship. Free African Americans used newspapers, public gatherings, and conventions to make arguments about who could be a citizen, the protections citizenship entailed, and the obligations it imposed. They thus played a vital role in the long, fraught process of determining who belonged in the nation and the terms of that belonging.

Remaking the Republic chronicles the various ways African Americans from a wide range of social positions throughout the North attempted to give meaning to American citizenship over the course of the nineteenth century. Examining newpsapers, state and national conventions, public protest meetings, legal cases, and fugitive slave rescues, Bonner uncovers a spirited debate about rights and belonging among African Americans.

The book is published by University of Pennsylvania Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©2020 University of Pennsylvania Press (P)2024 Redwood Audiobooks

Reseñas de la Crítica

"An important contribution to the intellectual, political, and legal history of the United States." (Journal of the Civil War Era)

"A rich analysis of how American citizenship was fashioned and defended by African American politicking." (American Nineteenth Century History)

"A scholarly gem that enriches our knowledge on this valuable subject." (The North Carolina Historical Review)