American Heathens

by Paddison, Joshua

• ISBN13: 9780873282444
• ISBN10: 0873282442
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-06-01
• Publisher: Huntington Library Pr

Summary

In the 19th-century debate over whether the United States should be an explicitly Christian nation, California emerged as a central battleground. Racial groups that were perceived as godless and uncivilized were excluded from suffrage, and evangelism among Indians and the Chinese was seen as a politically incendiary act. Joshua Paddison sheds light on Reconstruction's impact on Indians and Asian Americans by illustrating how marginalized groups fought for a political voice, refuting racist assumptions with their lives, words, and faith. Reconstruction, he argues, was not merely a remaking of the South, but rather a multiracial and multiregional process of reimagining the nation.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
A New Vision of Citizenship, 1861-1870	p. 11
Of One Blood, 187O-1876
The Politics of Chinese Evangelism	p. 35
The Place of California Indians	p. 57
Anti-Catholicism and the Limits of Protestant Consensus	p. 77
Fly From Evil, 1877-1887
The Fracturing of Protestant California	p. 105
California and the Consolidation of White Christian Nationalism	p. 139
Epilogue	p. 175
Notes	p. 185
Bibliography of Primary Sources	p. 241
Acknowledgments	p. 251
Index	p. 255
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