German Immigrants, Race, and Citizenship in the Civil War Era (Publications of the German Historical Institute)
Cambridge University Press, 5/20/2013
EAN 9781107031937, ISBN10: 1107031931
Hardcover, 278 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm
Language: English
This study of Civil War-era politics explores how German immigrants influenced the rise and fall of white commitment to African-American rights. Intertwining developments in Europe and North America, Alison Clark Efford describes how the presence of naturalized citizens affected the status of former slaves and identifies 1870 as a crucial turning point. That year, the Franco-Prussian War prompted German immigrants to re-evaluate the liberal nationalism underpinning African-American suffrage. Throughout the period, the newcomers' approach to race, ethnicity, gender and political economy shaped American citizenship law.
Introduction
naturalized citizens, transnational perspectives, and the arc of reconstruction
1. The German language of American citizenship
2. The 'freedom-loving German', 1854–60
3. Black suffrage as a German cause in Missouri, 1865
4. Principal rising, 1865–9
5. Wendepunkt
the Franco-Prussian War, 1870–1
6. The Liberal Republican transition, 1870–2
7. Class, culture, and the decline of reconstruction, 1870–6
Epilogue
the Great Strike of 1877
Appendix
voting tables
Bibliography.