Originally published on July 16, 2020 (Episode 167)
Introduction
On January 15, 1817, a group of some of the most prominent African-American leaders in Philadelphia called a public meeting at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, which had at that time one of the largest communities of free blacks in the United States.
They had intended to support a plan for settling American blacks in Africa. But the audience of supposed supporters vociferously disagreed. They saw themselves as American citizens, and had no desire to go to an Africa which they had never seen.
My guest Christopher Bonner argues that African-Americans did not seize onto American citizenship; they actually created it. Citizenship in the early nineteenth century was a concept in the process of being created. African-Americans took advantage of that, and by contributing to the developing legal and political definition of citizenship were an essential part of transforming the legal order of the republic.
About the Guest
Christopher Bonner is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Maryland, College Park. He specializes in African-American history, the early American republic, and the history of law and citizenship. He is the author of Remaking the Republic: Black Politics and the Creation of American Citizenship (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020).
For Further Investigation
Christopher Bonner, Remaking the Republic: Black Politics and the Creation of American Citizenship (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020)
Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia
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