Bind us apart : how enlightened Americans invented racial segregation

417 Pages·2016·8.87 MB·English

by  Guyatt

More Advance Praise for B U A
ind s pArt
“Nicholas Guyatt brilliantly captures the tragically unintended conse-
quences of liberal reformers’ efforts to create a just and enlightened multi-
racial society in the new United States. Dedication to the principles of the
Declaration of Independence ultimately led reformers to embrace both the
colonization of former slaves and the removal of Native Americans. Sym-
pathetically engaging with his well-intentioned subjects, Guyatt compels us
to engage with what it has meant—and still means—to be American. Pow-
erfully argued and beautifully written, Bind Us Apart is essential reading.”
—Peter S. Onuf, author of Jefferson’s Empire:
The Language of American Nationhood
“Connecting Indian removal and the African colonization movement to
early US liberalism, Nicholas Guyatt offers a new origins story for American
segregation. Brilliant and engrossing, Bind Us Apart reinterprets a formative
era, while identifying legacies that continue to shape the present.”
—Christina Snyder, author of Slavery in Indian Country:
The Changing Face of Captivity in Early America
“In colorful and lively prose, Nicholas Guyatt recovers the history of white
Americans who agonized over slavery and the treatment of Native Ameri-
cans. Some were famous presidents and generals; others were obscure figures.
Almost all rejected the nation’s founding credo of ‘all men are created equal’
to promote racial separation instead. A fascinating and little known history.”
—Margaret Jacobs, author of White Mother to a Dark Race

BI N D US
A PA RT
How Enlightened Americans
Invented Racial Segregation
Nicholas Guyatt
1
1
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, ox2 6dp
United Kingdom
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© Nicholas Guyatt 2016
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First Edition published in 2016
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Designed by Jack Lenzo
For Tess, Sid, and Kate

When you are persecuted in one city, flee unto another.
—Edward Coles, “Notes on Slavery”
(after Matthew 10:23)
We often congratulate ourselves more on getting rid
of a problem than on solving it.
—W. E. B. Du Bois, The Suppression
of the African Slave Trade

Contents
Maps ..................................................................................................x
Introduction: The Prehistory of “Separate but Equal” ..................1
Part I: Degradation
1. Becoming Good Citizens ................................................................17
2. A Few Bad Men .................................................................................39
3. Correcting Ill Habits ........................................................................61
4. One Nation Only ..............................................................................87
Part II: Amalgamation
5. To the Middle Ground ...................................................................115
6. We Shall All Be Americans ...........................................................133
7. The Practical Amalgamator ..........................................................159
Part III: Colonization
8. Of Color and Country ...................................................................197
9. The Choice ......................................................................................225
10. Opening the Road .........................................................................247
11. In These Deserts .............................................................................281
Epilogue: An Enterprise for the Young .........................................307
Acknowledgments .........................................................................335
Notes .............................................................................................341
Index .............................................................................................389
ix