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H. C. C. Astwood: minister and missionary, diplomat and politician, enigma in the annals of US history. In Dominican Crossroads, Christina Cecelia Davidson explores Astwood’s extraordinary and complicated life and career. Born in 1844 in the British Caribbean, Astwood later moved to Reconstruction-era New Orleans, where he became a Republican activist and preacher in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. In 1882 he became the first Black man named US consul to the Dominican Republic. Davidson tracks the challenges that Astwood faced as a Black politician in an era of rampant racism and ongoing cross-border debates over Black men’s capacity for citizenship. As a US representative and AME missionary, Astwood epitomized Black masculine respectability. But as Davidson shows, Astwood became a duplicitous, scheming figure who used deception and engaged in racist moral politics to command authority. His methods, Davidson demonstrates, show a bleaker side of Black international politics and illustrate the varied contours of transnational moral discourse as people of all colors vied for power during the ongoing debate over Black rights in Santo Domingo and beyond.
Price: $30.95
Pages: 384
Publisher: Duke University Press
Imprint: Duke University Press
Publication Date:
18 October 2024
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9781478030942
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
“This well-written and insightful book sheds new and penetrating light on Black internationalism.”—Gerald Horne, author of, Confronting Black Jacobins: The United States, the Haitian Revolution, and the Origins of the Dominican Republic
“Christina Cecelia Davidson truly brings to life an acknowledged but often overlooked time period in the history of US-Dominican relations. She introduces us to H. C. C. Astwood: a politically connected Protestant minister and unscrupulous representative of US commercial interests and imperialist expansion into the Dominican Republic. Davidson emphasizes Astwood’s complicities, manipulations, and prejudices, all while underscoring the racist and imperialist infrastructure that informed his perspective on the world and understanding of his role. Showing how Astwood did not fit the stereotype of the politically conscious ‘race man,’ Davidson demonstrates that there was no one way to do ‘Black politics’ during this crucial time in the nineteenth century.”—April J. Mayes, author of, The Mulatto Republic: Class, Race, and Dominican National Identity
"Dominican Crossroads . . . is an exceptional publication and a riveting read, offering a rare insight into nineteenth-century race-making in the Dominican Republic, the Caribbean, the United States and beyond."—Eve Hayes de Kalaf, Journal of Latin American Studies
“Christina Cecelia Davidson truly brings to life an acknowledged but often overlooked time period in the history of US-Dominican relations. She introduces us to H. C. C. Astwood: a politically connected Protestant minister and unscrupulous representative of US commercial interests and imperialist expansion into the Dominican Republic. Davidson emphasizes Astwood’s complicities, manipulations, and prejudices, all while underscoring the racist and imperialist infrastructure that informed his perspective on the world and understanding of his role. Showing how Astwood did not fit the stereotype of the politically conscious ‘race man,’ Davidson demonstrates that there was no one way to do ‘Black politics’ during this crucial time in the nineteenth century.”—April J. Mayes, author of, The Mulatto Republic: Class, Race, and Dominican National Identity
"Dominican Crossroads . . . is an exceptional publication and a riveting read, offering a rare insight into nineteenth-century race-making in the Dominican Republic, the Caribbean, the United States and beyond."—Eve Hayes de Kalaf, Journal of Latin American Studies
"Davidson taps into an underutilized and tremendously instructive archive . . . [and] makes significant contributions to Latin American and Caribbean studies, Afro-diasporic religion, and US diplomatic history."
—Mónica Espaillat Lizardo, American Historical Review
Christina Cecelia Davidson is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Southern California.
Note on Terminology ix
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xxiii
Introduction 1
Part I. Beginnings
1. A Shadowy Past: Henry Astwood and the Transition from Slavery to Freedom 27
2. A Reconstructed Life: Becoming H.C.C. Astwood in the US-Caribbean Sphere 53
Part II. Black Political Authority
3. The Other Black Republic: Segregated Statecraft and the Dual Nature of US-Dominican Diplomacy 85
4. Death and Deceit: Black Political Authority and the Forging of US Moral Logic Abroad 120
Part III. Social Morality
5. Between Tolerance and Tyranny: Protestant Dominicans, Social Morality, and the Making of a Liberal Nation 159
6. Leasing Columbus: Holy Relics, Public Ridicule, and the Reconstruction of Two Americas 195
7. “The Cheekiest Man on Earth”: H.C.C. Astwood and the Politics of White Moral Exclusivity 228
Conclusion 261
Notes 271
Bibliography 317
Index 337
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xxiii
Introduction 1
Part I. Beginnings
1. A Shadowy Past: Henry Astwood and the Transition from Slavery to Freedom 27
2. A Reconstructed Life: Becoming H.C.C. Astwood in the US-Caribbean Sphere 53
Part II. Black Political Authority
3. The Other Black Republic: Segregated Statecraft and the Dual Nature of US-Dominican Diplomacy 85
4. Death and Deceit: Black Political Authority and the Forging of US Moral Logic Abroad 120
Part III. Social Morality
5. Between Tolerance and Tyranny: Protestant Dominicans, Social Morality, and the Making of a Liberal Nation 159
6. Leasing Columbus: Holy Relics, Public Ridicule, and the Reconstruction of Two Americas 195
7. “The Cheekiest Man on Earth”: H.C.C. Astwood and the Politics of White Moral Exclusivity 228
Conclusion 261
Notes 271
Bibliography 317
Index 337