A Different Manifest Destiny: U.S. Southern Identity and Citizenship in Nineteenth-Century South America

The U.S. South looked outward to Latin America to solve internal tensions over slavery and economic competition, seeking to establish a vast empire rooted in slavery. Claire M. Wolnisty's book explores how elite white U.S. southerners positioned themselves as modern individuals engaged in struggles for transnational power from the antebellum to the Civil War era, complicating traditional narratives about southern identities and Manifest Destiny.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 182 pages
Publication date: 01 December 2023
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

The U.S. South had a long history of looking outward, particularly southward, to address internal tensions over slavery and economic competition from the 1820s through the 1860s. Nineteenth-century southerners invested in their futures and their identity as southerners when they expanded their economic and proslavery connections to Latin America, seeking to establish a vast empire rooted in slavery that stretched southward to Brazil and westward to the Pacific Ocean. For these modern expansionists, failure to cement those connections meant nothing less than the death of the South.

In A Different Manifest Destiny, Claire M. Wolnisty explores how elite white U.S. southerners positioned themselves as modern individuals engaged in struggles for transnational power from the antebellum to the Civil War era. By focusing on three groups of people not often studied together—filibusters, commercial expansionists, and postwar southern emigrants—Wolnisty complicates traditional narratives about Civil War-era southern identities and the development of Manifest Destiny. She traces the ways southerners capitalized on Latin American connections to promote visions of modernity compatible with slave labor and explores how southern-Latin American networks spanned the years of the Civil War.

The expansion of slavery into Latin America was a significant part of the Southern economy and culture in the 19th century. Southern elites saw it as a way to expand their wealth and power, while also promoting the values of white supremacy and Christian civilization. They believed that slavery was a natural and necessary institution that had been practiced for centuries and that it was essential to the development of the South's economy and society.

To promote their expansionist goals, southerners worked to strengthen their economic and political connections with Latin America. They established trade routes, invested in infrastructure projects, and promoted the development of agriculture and industry in the region. They also worked to influence political institutions in Latin America, supporting governments that were friendly to their interests and opposing those that were opposed to slavery.

One of the most significant examples of this expansionist strategy was the establishment of the Confederacy in 1861. The Confederacy was a group of southern states that seceded from the United States to protect the institution of slavery. The Confederacy's primary goal was to preserve the right to own slaves, and it was willing to use force to do so.

The Confederacy's expansionist strategy was ultimately unsuccessful, however. The Civil War, which began in 1861, resulted in the defeat of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery in the United States. The war also had a significant impact on the Southern economy and society, leading to the decline of the plantation system and the rise of a new industrial economy.

Despite the defeat of the Confederacy, the legacy of expansionism in the South continued to shape American politics and society for decades to come. The South's economic and political connections with Latin America remained strong, and the region continued to play an important role in American foreign policy. The expansionist mindset also continued to influence the development of American culture and society, with the South's influence on music, literature, and art continuing to be felt today.

In conclusion, the expansion of slavery into Latin America was a significant part of the Southern economy and culture in the 19th century. Southern elites saw it as a way to expand their wealth and power, while also promoting the values of white supremacy and Christian civilization. The Confederacy's expansionist strategy was ultimately unsuccessful, but the legacy of expansionism in the South continued to shape American politics and society for decades to come.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781496237064