Wanted! a Nation! - (Race in the Atlantic World, 1700-1900) by Claire Bourhis-Mariotti (Paperback)

About the Book

Original title: L'union fait la force: les Noirs amâericains et Haèiti, 1804-1893.

Book Synopsis

Covering the whole of the nineteenth century, Wanted! A Nation! reveals how Haiti remained a focus of attention for white as well as Black Americans before, during, and even after the Civil War. Before the Civil War, Claire Bourhis-Mariotti argues, the Black republic was considered by free Black Americans as a place where full citizenship was at hand. Haiti was essentially viewed and concretely experienced as a refuge during moments when free Black Americans lost hope of obtaining rights in the United States. Haiti is also at the heart of this book, as Haitian leaders supported the American emigration to Haiti (in the 1820s and early 1860s), opposed the American geostrategic and diplomatic diktats in the 1870s and 1880s, and finally offered an international platform to Frederick Douglass at the 1893 Columbian World's Fair, thus helping Black people who faced discrimination at home to fight first against slavery and the slave trade, and then for equal rights.

By spanning the entire nineteenth century, Wanted! A Nation! presents a complex panorama of the emergence of African American identity and argues that Haiti should be considered as an essential prism to understand how African Americans forged their identity in the nineteenth century. Drawing on a variety of sources, Wanted! A Nation! goes far beyond the usual framework of national American history and contributes to the writing of an Atlantic and global history of the struggle for equal rights.

Review Quotes

...Wanted! A Nation! is an important addition to the existing English-language scholarship on African Americans and Haiti...Her analyses of the significance of Haiti for African American abolitionists and the various ways in which they wrote and spoke about Haiti, interacted with the Haitian government, and traveled to Haiti before the Civil War makes a significant contribution to the scholarship on slavery, abolitionism, and Black internationalism in the 19th-century U.S.--Katharina Weygold "Journal of Global Slavery"

Wanted! A Nation! is a compelling testament to the enduring legacy of Haiti in shaping Black American identity and political consciousness. Bourhis-Mariotti's diligent research and insightful analysis make this book an essential contribution to the fields of Black history and diaspora studies, among others. Her work, with the support of Johnson, shows the importance of translation and language studies for scholars who want to get a more in-depth view of the literature.--Courtney Pierre Joseph "American Historical Review"

By striking a balance between micro- and macro-analyses and individual case studies to show that Black Americans were not a homogeneous group, and by showing that this story was part of the Black Atlantic, Claire-Bourhis Mariotti provides the reader with a compelling book for students and scholars with an interest not only in African American history but also in US diplomatic history and in the history of the Atlantic world.--Rahma Jerad "Idées d'Amériques"

Through impressive research and nuanced storytelling, the author paints a vivid portrait of Haiti's enduring impact on the collective imagination of Black Americans...Wanted! A Nation! is a compelling testament to the enduring legacy of Haiti in shaping Black American identity and political consciousness. Bourhis-Mariotti's diligent research and insightful analysis make this book an essential contribution to the fields of Black history and diaspora studies, among others. Her work, with the support of Johnson, shows the importance of translation and language studies for scholars who want to get a more in-depth view of the literature.--Courtney Pierre Joseph "American Historical Review"

This is a terrific book that brings new material and interpretations to a burgeoning field of study surrounding the links between the United States and Haiti and the place of Haiti in African American practice and thought. It places anglophone and francophone writing and scholarship into dialogue in an important and innovative way.--Laurent Dubois "author of Haiti: The Aftershocks of History"

About the Author

CLAIRE BOURHIS-MARIOTTI is a professor of African American history and the codirector of the research unit TransCrit at the University of Paris 8-Paris Lumières. She is the author of Isaac Mason: Une vie d'esclave and coeditor of Writing History from the Margins: African Americans and the Quest for Freedom.