This paper uses writings by black and white travelers to explore the changing role racial attitudes played in expressions of British national identity. Between 1833 and 1904, travelers became increasingly concerned with providing an honest description of conditions in the United States. Many travelers' stated purpose was to provide the definitive evaluation of the United States and its people in an attempt to correct the image presented by more inflammatory writers such as Frances Trollope. This correcting impulse did not always apply in dealing with black Americans. Unless black people were servants, white British travelers often maintained physical, verbal, and rhetorical distance. Despite such uneasiness on the part of many white British travelers, contact with black Americans inspired black and white British travelers to compare both nations' racial policies.
Britain's earlier abolition of slavery in 1833 served as a major source of national pride for many Britons in America, but the travelers' attitudes and behavior rarely reflected an advanced racial sensitivity. I will analyze how varying racial attitudes were adapted into a shared British national identity of racial equality. Race was an important part of British national identity between 1833 and 1904.
The published travel writings and letters of Edward Abdy, Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley, Mary Seacole, Henry Latham, Mary Duffus Hardy, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor provide a wide range of perspectives on the part racial attitudes played in British national identity. While topics such as manners and nature suggested comparisons and contrasts with Britain, race most consistently inspired travelers' criticism of America and praise for Britain. In examining the role racial attitudes played in British national identity among these travelers, I will look at how travelers interacted with black people, how they described the interaction, and how and if such interactions inspired comparisons or contrasts with Britain. Mary Seacole and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, two black travelers, will also give added perspective on British racial attitudes.
Although the travelers I have selected represent a wide variety of racial attitudes, they all identify Britain's earlier abolition as a significant element of national pride when in the United States. The incongruity between how individual travelers talked and behaved regarding racial issues and how they imagined their nation with respect to race issues illustrates the role that myth-making plays in national identity formation. In Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson has highlighted the importance of myth-making for collective identity construction, but he has also discounted race as a factor in national identity construction. My study will both expand on myth making's role and challenge Anderson's neglect of race by showing how central race matters were to national identity formation in the 19th century.
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