Manifest Manhood and the Antebellum American Empire

by Amy S. Greenberg

• ISBN13: 9780521600804
• ISBN10: 0521600804
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-06-06
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The US-Mexico War (18461848) brought two centuries of dramatic territorial expansionism to a close, seemingly fulfilling America's Manifest destiny. Or did it? As politicians schemed to annex new lands in Latin America and the Pacific, some Americans took expansionism into their own hands. From 18481860, an epidemic of unsanctioned attacks by American mercenaries (filibusters) took place. This book documents the potency of Manifest destiny in the antebellum era, and situates imperial lust in the context of social and economic transformations that were changing the meaning of manhood and womanhood in the US. Easy victory over Mexico in 1848 led many American men to embrace both an aggressive vision of expansionism and an equally martial vision of manhood. Debates about the propriety of aggression abroad polarized the public at home, shaping antebellum Presidential elections, foreign policies, gender relations, and ultimately the failure of sectional compromise before the Civil War.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Abbreviations Used in the Notes	xv
Introduction	1	(17)
1 The "New Frontier" as Safety Valve: The Political and Social Context of Manifest Destiny, 1800-1860	18	(36)
Enter the Filibusters	27	(6)
Political Repercussions and Responses in the Second Party System	33	(7)
Section, Class, and Race: The Horizontal Comradeship of Manifest Destiny	40	(7)
Filibustering as Seduction: Two Interpretations	47	(7)
2 An American Central America: Boosters, Travelers, and the Persistence of Manifest Destiny	54	(34)
Natural versus National Borders: Redrawing the Map	59	(19)
Manifest Destiny and the Traveler's Encounter with Central America	78	(10)
3 American Men Abroad: Sex and Violence in the Latin American Travelogue	88	(47)
Race and Manifest Destiny	91	(5)
Looking at the Latin American Man	96	(10)
The Manly American	106	(6)
Looking at Latin American Women	112	(11)
The Irresistible American	123	(12)
4 William Walker and the Regeneration of Martial Manhood	135	(35)
Substance versus Trappings in the Construction of Manly Character	139	(8)
The Promise of Regeneration	147	(4)
Restraint as a Virtue: Walker Condemned	151	(7)
The Heroic Viking of Our Time: Walker Celebrated	158	(7)
The Gray-Eyed Man Has Come	165	(5)
5 The Irresistible Pirate: Narciso López and the Public Meeting	170	(27)
Martial Manhood Comes Home	178	(19)
6 American Women Abroad	197	(34)
Manifest Domesticity in Latin America	200	(15)
Removing White American Women from Latin America	215	(6)
Female Filibusters? Lucy Holcombe and Cora Montgomery	221	(10)
7 Manifest Destiny and Manly Missionaries: Expansionism in the Pacific	231	(38)
The Game Cock	232	(11)
Health and Hula: Annexationists Consider Hawaii	243	(11)
Missionary Work as (Anti) Expansionism: Restrained Manhood in Hawaii	254	(7)
"Inevitable Consequences": The Perry Expedition to Japan, 1852-1854	261	(8)
Conclusion: American Manhood and War, 1860 to the Present	269	(14)
Bibliography	283	(24)
Index	307