H. C. C. Astwood: minister and missionary, diplomat and politician, enigma in the annals of US history. In Dominican Crossroads, Christina Cecelia Davidson explores Astwood’s extraordinary and complicated life and career. Born in 1844 in the British Caribbean, Astwood later moved to Reconstruction-era New Orleans, where he became a Republican activist and preacher in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. In 1882 he became the first Black man named US consul to the Dominican Republic. Davidson tracks the challenges that Astwood faced as a Black politician in an era of rampant racism and ongoing cross-border debates over Black men’s capacity for citizenship. As a US representative and AME missionary, Astwood epitomized Black masculine respectability. But as Davidson shows, Astwood became a duplicitous, scheming figure who used deception and engaged in racist moral politics to command authority. His methods, Davidson demonstrates, show a bleaker side of Black international politics and illustrate the varied contours of transnational moral discourse as people of all colors vied for power during the ongoing debate over Black rights in Santo Domingo and beyond.
- Cover
- Contents
- Note on Terminology
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I. Beginnings
- 1. A Shadowy Past: Henry Astwood and the Transition from Slavery to Freedom
- 2. A Reconstructed Life: Becoming H. C. C. Astwood in the US-Caribbean Sphere
- Part II. Black Political Authority
- 3. The Other Black Republic: Segregated Statecraft and the Dual Nature of US-Dominican Diplomacy
- 4. Death and Deceit: Black Political Authority and the Forging of US Moral Logic Abroad
- 5. Between Tolerance and Tyranny: Protestant Dominicans, Social Morality, and the Making of a Liberal Nation
- 6. Leasing Columbus: Holy Relics, Public Ridicule, and the Reconstruction of Two Americas
- 7. “The Cheekiest Man on Earth”: H. C. C. Astwood and the Politics of White Moral Exclusivity
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
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