By Kristen Layne
Anderson
Historians have long known that German immigrants provided
much of the support for emancipation in southern Border States. Kristen Layne
Anderson's Abolitionizing Missouri, however, is the first analysis of the
reasons behind that opposition as well as the first exploration of the impact
that the Civil War and emancipation had on German immigrants' ideas about race.
Anderson focuses on the relationships between German immigrants and African
Americans in St. Louis, Missouri, looking particularly at the ways in which
German attitudes towards African Americans and the institution of slavery
changed over time. Anderson suggests that although some German Americans
deserved their reputation for racial egalitarianism, many others opposed
slavery only when it served their own interests to do so. When slavery did not
seem to affect their lives, they ignored it; once it began to threaten the
stability of the country or their ability to get land, they opposed it. After
slavery ended, most German immigrants accepted the American racial hierarchy
enough to enjoy its benefits, and had little interest in helping tear it down,
particularly when doing so angered their native-born white neighbors.
Anderson's work counters prevailing interpretations in
immigration and ethnic history, where until recently, scholars largely accepted
that German immigrants were solidly antislavery. Instead, she uncovers a
spectrum of Germans' "antislavery" positions and explores the array
of individual motives driving such diverse responses.. In the end, Anderson
demonstrates that Missouri Germans were more willing to undermine the racial
hierarchy by questioning slavery than were most white Missourians, although
after emancipation, many of them showed little interest in continuing to
demolish the hierarchy that benefited them by fighting for black rights.
ISBN 978-0807161968, LSU Press, © 2016, Hardcover, 272
pages, Tables, End Notes, Bibliography & Index. $48.00. To
purchase this book click HERE.
No comments:
Post a Comment