Bind Us Apart

How Enlightened Americans Invented Racial Segregation

Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, 19th Century
Cover of the book Bind Us Apart by Nicholas Guyatt, Basic Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Nicholas Guyatt ISBN: 9780465065615
Publisher: Basic Books Publication: April 26, 2016
Imprint: Basic Books Language: English
Author: Nicholas Guyatt
ISBN: 9780465065615
Publisher: Basic Books
Publication: April 26, 2016
Imprint: Basic Books
Language: English

Why did the Founding Fathers fail to include blacks and Indians in their cherished proposition that "all men are created equal"? The usual answer is racism, but the reality is more complex and unsettling. In Bind Us Apart, historian Nicholas Guyatt argues that, from the Revolution through the Civil War, most white liberals believed in the unity of all human beings. But their philosophy faltered when it came to the practical work of forging a color-blind society. Unable to convince others-and themselves-that racial mixing was viable, white reformers began instead to claim that people of color could only thrive in separate republics: in Native states in the American West or in the West African colony of Liberia.

Herein lie the origins of "separate but equal." Decades before Reconstruction, America's liberal elite was unable to imagine how people of color could become citizens of the United States. Throughout the nineteenth century, Native Americans were pushed farther and farther westward, while four million slaves freed after the Civil War found themselves among a white population that had spent decades imagining that they would live somewhere else.

Essential reading for anyone disturbed by America's ongoing failure to achieve true racial integration, Bind Us Apart shows conclusively that "separate but equal" represented far more than a southern backlash against emancipation-it was a founding principle of our nation.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Why did the Founding Fathers fail to include blacks and Indians in their cherished proposition that "all men are created equal"? The usual answer is racism, but the reality is more complex and unsettling. In Bind Us Apart, historian Nicholas Guyatt argues that, from the Revolution through the Civil War, most white liberals believed in the unity of all human beings. But their philosophy faltered when it came to the practical work of forging a color-blind society. Unable to convince others-and themselves-that racial mixing was viable, white reformers began instead to claim that people of color could only thrive in separate republics: in Native states in the American West or in the West African colony of Liberia.

Herein lie the origins of "separate but equal." Decades before Reconstruction, America's liberal elite was unable to imagine how people of color could become citizens of the United States. Throughout the nineteenth century, Native Americans were pushed farther and farther westward, while four million slaves freed after the Civil War found themselves among a white population that had spent decades imagining that they would live somewhere else.

Essential reading for anyone disturbed by America's ongoing failure to achieve true racial integration, Bind Us Apart shows conclusively that "separate but equal" represented far more than a southern backlash against emancipation-it was a founding principle of our nation.

More books from Basic Books

Cover of the book Basic Economics by Nicholas Guyatt
Cover of the book Travel Therapy by Nicholas Guyatt
Cover of the book Adventures in Human Being by Nicholas Guyatt
Cover of the book Super You by Nicholas Guyatt
Cover of the book The Virtue of Nationalism by Nicholas Guyatt
Cover of the book Passed and Present by Nicholas Guyatt
Cover of the book Act of Creation by Nicholas Guyatt
Cover of the book How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America by Nicholas Guyatt
Cover of the book In Search Of Robinson Crusoe by Nicholas Guyatt
Cover of the book Cannae by Nicholas Guyatt
Cover of the book Popular Culture and High Culture by Nicholas Guyatt
Cover of the book Out Of America by Nicholas Guyatt
Cover of the book The Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Reader by Nicholas Guyatt
Cover of the book Chasing Churchill by Nicholas Guyatt
Cover of the book The Last 100 Days by Nicholas Guyatt
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy