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Bonds of Union: Religion, Race, and Politics in a Civil War Borderland by Bridget Ford (review)

Bonds of Union: Religion, Race, and Politics in a Civil War Borderland by Bridget Ford (review) REVIEWS � 189 of the various possibilities of Hamilton’s sense of identity, perhaps through that courtroom discussion of skin and hair or through the shift- ing stories Hamilton told about where he had been born. The portrait of Jeremiah Hamilton as a wealthy black man who turned his back on other African Americans feels too simple for an individual who was so compli- cated and in some ways remains mysterious. The Prince of Darkness is an accomplishment of research, an engaging narrative, and an important exploration of an astonishing black life. It is a long-overlooked story that deepens our understanding of the power of racial prejudice and unencumbered capital accumulation in the early republic. In his introduction, White compares Hamilton’s marginaliza- tion by his contemporaries to his invisibility among scholars, perhaps unable to see a black man who lived so far outside of well-worn stories of struggle and deprivation in the nineteenth century. Jeremiah G. Hamilton should lead us to think further not only about the possibilities of life in the early republic but also about the possibilities for the kinds of lives that historians might recover through our own creative maneuverings. Christopher Bonner is assistant professor at University http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of the Early Republic University of Pennsylvania Press

Bonds of Union: Religion, Race, and Politics in a Civil War Borderland by Bridget Ford (review)

Perry, Jeffrey Thomas
Journal of the Early Republic , Volume 38 (1) – Mar 3, 2018
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Publisher
University of Pennsylvania Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Society for Historians of the Early American Republic.
ISSN
1553-0620

Abstract

REVIEWS � 189 of the various possibilities of Hamilton’s sense of identity, perhaps through that courtroom discussion of skin and hair or through the shift- ing stories Hamilton told about where he had been born. The portrait of Jeremiah Hamilton as a wealthy black man who turned his back on other African Americans feels too simple for an individual who was so compli- cated and in some ways remains mysterious. The Prince of Darkness is an accomplishment of research, an engaging narrative, and an important exploration of an astonishing black life. It is a long-overlooked story that deepens our understanding of the power of racial prejudice and unencumbered capital accumulation in the early republic. In his introduction, White compares Hamilton’s marginaliza- tion by his contemporaries to his invisibility among scholars, perhaps unable to see a black man who lived so far outside of well-worn stories of struggle and deprivation in the nineteenth century. Jeremiah G. Hamilton should lead us to think further not only about the possibilities of life in the early republic but also about the possibilities for the kinds of lives that historians might recover through our own creative maneuverings. Christopher Bonner is assistant professor at University

Journal

Journal of the Early Republic – University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: Mar 3, 2018

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