Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports 2020 Struggle for Sovereignty: An African-American Colonization Attempt and Delicate Independence in Mid-Nineteenth Century Central America Matthew D. Harris West Virginia University, mdh0072@mix.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.edu/etd Part of the Diplomatic History Commons, Latin American History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Harris, Matthew D., "Struggle for Sovereignty: An African-American Colonization Attempt and Delicate Independence in Mid-Nineteenth Century Central America" (2020). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports.edu/etd/7600 This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by the The Research Repository @ WVU with permission from the rights-holder(s).
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Struggle for Sovereignty: An African-American Colonization Attempt and Delicate Independence in Mid-Nineteenth Century Central America Matthew Harris Thesis submitted to the Eberly College at West Virginia University in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Arts in History James Siekmeier, Ph., Chair Brian Luskey, Ph. Jason Phillips, Ph. Department of History Morgantown, West Virginia 2020 Keywords: African-American Colonization, Black Resettlement, Central America, Chiriquí, Civil War Foreign Policy, Nineteenth-Century U. Foreign Policy, Sovereignty, Race in Latin America, U.-Central America Relations.
Copyright 2020 Matthew Harris ABSTRACT Struggle for Sovereignty: An African-American Colonization Attempt and Delicate Independence in Mid-Nineteenth Century Central America Matthew Harris This thesis uses a series of United States foreign relations documents centered around an 1862 attempt by Abraham Lincoln to colonize parts of Central America with freed African- Americans. Traditionally, these communications have been used by historians for U. foreign relations or Black resettlement history. Here, instead, this collection is used to display the major threats to Central American sovereignty in the mid-nineteenth century in their own words.
The collection reveals that two of the threats were foreign imperialistic thought and racial instability. However, the third, and ultimately most destabilizing threat to the region, was the five nations' rivalry amongst each other. This thesis provides an image of Central American history previously overshadowed by other events in the region while explaining how both individual sovereignty and regional autonomy there began to disintegrate in the early 1860’s. 1 Table of Contents Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………….16 Note on Racial, Ethnic, and Political Terms…………………………………………………….22 Chapter I: Anglo-Aggressors…………………………………………………………………….24 Chapter II: Indians and Blacks………………………………………………………………….44 Chapter III: Central American Rivalry………………………………………………………….71 iii Introduction: Black Resettlement and Foreign Backlash Racial and regional tensions through the United States in the mid-nineteenth century quickly devolved into the United States Civil War by 1861.
As war raged across the country, figures across the North looked for solutions to their perceived current, and future, issues should the institution of slavery be abolished. Already in the spring of 1862, Abraham Lincoln had begun plans to emancipate the whole of the Confederate States of America’s slaves. However, while waiting for the right moment to do so, he and his peers tried to sift through the many options on how to rightly govern a nation where African-Americans could safely live side by side with Caucasian-Americans.1 Eventually, advocates for the colonization of liberated African-Americans looked to parts of Central American and the Caribbean began to form. However, the poorly laid plans of the Lincoln cabinet were met with hard rejection in Central America.
The five nations of Central America; Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua deemed the plan not only an individual threat to each of them, but one that could harm the entire region. Aggressive foreign incursions and racial instability had made the five countries wary of any threat to their sovereignty. However, the largest threat to both the region and each nation’s own sovereignty turned out to be their rivalries amongst each other. This thesis should illuminate how Central American governments of the mid-nineteenth century view threats to their sovereignty and their ability to work together to combat such threats - as well as the eventual collapse of that ability.
1 He waited until after the Union victory at Antietam to abolish all slavery in the states that had seceded. This was a political move to both punish the states that had left, while also destabilizing them by telling slaves that they were allowed to escape. 1 This Central American backlash against proposed U. colonization also displayed a complex tangle of nationalism and regionalism.
Each country was willing to work together to maintain the region’s independence from outside influence, but none had any qualms about manipulating another when no outside threats were present. Therefore, this series of events gives a close look at how nineteenth century Central American countries perceived outside threats, and how they each enacted their own strategies to retain regional autonomy while undermining each other's individual sovereignty. It should be kept in mind that this thesis does not argue about the success of the Central American countries in deterring black settlement in the region, it just uses it as a framework for how successful those nations were in organizing and resisting threats to their sovereignty. The Chiriquí colonization plan, and its surrounding narrative, failed for a variety of reasons.
Perhaps some of that was due to Central American resistance, but there was also a range of issues with the project due to the U. The war detracted money, organization, and focus away from the project. Even without those issues, the Chiriquí land described in this thesis was in a dispute zone between Costa Rica and Gran Colombia. Previously, the mid-nineteenth century relations of the United States and the Central American region have largely been confined to two narratives, the economic takeover of Cornelius Vanderbilt (among many other businessmen) and the military takeover of William Walker, both of which occurred in the 1850’s.
This thesis, however, argues that there was at least one other important foreign relation interaction during this time period, an attempt at resettling U. born African-Americans in Central America. This colonization plan helps put context into the policies and actions of the Central American countries of the time. 2 Lincoln’s colonization ‘scheme’ has been a footnote for Black resettlement or to the history of the American Colonization Society.
However, proper analysis of this event and the time period reveal new insights to the U.-Central American relationship of that era. Perhaps more importantly though, this article also reveals the delicate balance between nationalism, and regionalism, that characterized the five Central American countries of the time period. This was the last time that this cooperation successfully kept out foreign influences. Afterwards, the countries’ lack of regional cooperation and aggressive maneuvers towards each other undid this unique relationship in Central American history.
The region could unite strongly, but ultimately its five sovereign states undid this fraternal bond, to the detriment of all Central America. On April 16, 1862 Lincoln announced that every slave in Washington, D. It was apparent that the president was testing a larger emancipation plan that would take place six months later. In response to the freedom of so many people, his presidential cabinet, and the United States Congress began plans for the colonization of African-Americans outside of the country.
Their idea to do so was not groundbreaking. Many abolitionists and northern citizens believed that colonization was the only way to resolve the constant racial strife that had seized the country in the prior years. A several page pamphlet written by Lincoln’s Commissioner on Negro Colonization, James Mitchell, highlighted the benefits of a renewed colonization effort. His pamphlet began, “the peace and prosperity of the country and the permanency of our republican civilization, require a separation of the colored or negro race from us…” He wrote further, “The social and civil evils resulting for the presence of the negro race are numerous…” Going far beyond racism, Mitchell tried to weave a compelling argument of Armageddon and 3 future race wars should the Lincoln administration not act to migrate African Americans from the country.2 This fear-mongering pamphlet quickly spread beyond the walls of the presidential office, resulting in offers and bids from several swindlers, investors, and wealthy men throughout the U.
Eventually though, only one was being seriously considered by the summer of 1862. The place under consideration was the Chiriquí Peninsula, a region located in modern day Panama, and bordering Costa Rica. It was owned by questionable businessman Ambrose W. Thompson was most likely trying to use the U.
government for a quick profit once he and his father realized that their investment was mostly useless for several reasons that will be elaborated on.3 The hotly-contested Chiriquí peninsula had first been bought by a Frenchman, Gabriel Lafond, from Colombia in the 1850’s. It was then sold to Thompson a couple years later, on the basis of its great mineral wealth and prime coastal location. For the most part, the land was inaccessible and unprofitable.4 However, having the U. buy-out the land was an easy way to redeem his money and ensure further profits.
His first attempt to acquaint the U. with the land was an offer to the U. A year later, Thompson was actually suggested personally by the Secretary of the Interior, Caleb Smith, based on his previous year’s submission to the Navy. Smith inquired to Thompson, “if you would undertake their [African Americans] colonization and settlement on the lands of the “Chiriquí Improvement Company.”5 The faulty 2 Ambrose W.
Box 43, Chiriquí Improvement Company File, 1851-1866. Library of Congress, folder Sept. 3 Paul Schieps, ‘‘Lincoln and the Chiriquí Colonization Project,’’ The Journal of Negro History 37, no. 4 Paul Schieps, "Gabriel Lafond and Ambrose W.
Thompson: Neglected Isthmithian Promoters," Hispanic American Historical Review 36, no. 5 Letter from Ambrose W. Thompson to Columbian Government, Ambrose W. Thompson Papers, folder Sept.
4 science and beliefs of the era had misguided politicians. It was a commonly held belief, especially amongst whites, that African descended people were more resistant to tropical diseases and thrived in hot, humid climates. No doubt, a reason like this is why Smith thought that the otherwise unlivable, untamable jungle isthmus would be great for black resettlement. According to one letter of correspondence with the Colombian government, Thompson planned on building mines, roads, and ports.
Then after the initial investment in these projects and other infrastructure, he had bragged his land claim could host even more than fifty-thousand African Americans. Colombia at first conceded but wanted a promise that anyone migrating from the U. stay in that region for the first year and also renounce their citizenship.6 Knowing that the land was subject to Colombian control and negotiation, and not entirely Thompson’s would have immediately raised ‘red flags’ within the Lincoln administration over its usefulness. However, Thompson kept his communications private, in an attempt to keep the investment moving.
The administration also did not know of the claim to the same region by Costa Rica. Despite two powerful countries vying for power and sovereignty over the region, Thompson did little to make the U. government aware of this border dispute, and other issues, that he was all too aware of.7 Word began to spread during the summer of 1862 that African-American colonization in Central America was possible. The July 20, 1862 edition of the Honduras Official Gazette reprinted an article from the Boston Daily Advertiser and stated, “They [African Americans] desire to emigrate to Central America.
they desire to bring to the United States that great commerce of the Pacific, which ought to increase.the riches and power of their common 6 Ibid.”8 Central Americans did not see this as a faulty plan to solve race relations in the U., they viewed it as an invasion.