The 1860 Japanese Embassy and the Antebellum African American Press
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8958880 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Natalia Doan (0000-0001-8138-6942, University of Oxford, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 62 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 997-1020 |
| Publication date | 2019-03-28 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Historical Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0018246x19000050 |
| OpenAlex | W2926482990 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 26 |
The 1860 Japanese embassy inspired within the antebellum African American press an imagined solidarity that subverted American state hierarchies of ‘civilization’ and race. The bodies of the Japanese ambassadors, physically incongruous with American understandings of non-white masculinity, became a centre of cultural contention upon their presence as sophisticated and powerful men on American soil. The African American and abolitionist press, reimagining Japan and the Japanese, reframed racial prejudice as an experience in solidarity, to prove further the equality of all men, and assert African American membership to the worlds of civility and ‘civilization’. The acceptance of the Japanese gave African Americans a new lens through which to present their quest for racial equality and recognition as citizens of American ‘civilization’. This imagined transnational solidarity reveals Japan's influence in the United States as African American publications developed an imagined racial solidarity with Japanese agents of ‘civilization’ long before initiatives of ‘civilization and enlightenment’ appeared on Japan's diplomatic agenda. Examining the writings of non-state actors traditionally excluded from early historical narratives of US–Japan diplomacy reveals an imagined transnational solidarity occurring within and because of an oppressive racial hierarchy, as well as a Japanese influence on antebellum African American intellectual history
Civility · Civilization · Enlightenment · Political science · Politics · Racial hierarchy · Racism · Sociology · Solidarity · State (computer science · Theology · White (mutation · Asian American and Pacific Histories · Gender Studies · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Race, History, and American Society
Slaves without masters
The rise of American democracy
The African American Encounter with Japan and China
Time, Space, and the Evolution of Afro-American Society on British Mainland North America
Time, Space, and the Evolution of Afro-American Society on British Mainland North America
Across the Pacific
As We Saw Them
The Transformation of the World
Japan Encounters the Barbarian
The Clash
Beyond an Alliance of Color
Free People of Color
Black Musicians and Early Ethiopian Minstrelsy
The First Japanese Embassy to the United States
As We Saw Them
Japan Encounters the Barbarian
Exodus
Free People of Color
Bodies in Contact
The American Negro as Historical Outsider, 1836-1935
Imagined communities
Across the Pacific
Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |