A Native American sachem who fought on the American side of the Revolutionary War, Captain Hendrick Aupaumut was tapped by President George Washington to serve as a diplomat to the British-allied Miami and Shawnee leaders who fought against white frontier settlers. Aupaumut recorded his negotiations in his 1792 “A Short Narration of My last Journey to the Western Contry,” and this paper considers how Aupaumut conceives of racialized political alliances. Aupaumut evokes the concept of “one color” as a part of one’s past and identity that can be mobilized politically, even if members of a group do not agree on what “race” itself is. As we shall see, he thus crucially reworks several late eighteenth-century conceptions of racial difference.

All papers are pre-circulated electronically to those who plan to attend the seminar in person. For a copy of the paper, e-mail Jenny Butler at scholl@newberry.org, or call (312) 255-3524.

The Newberry Library Seminar in Early American History and Culture is co-sponsored by the University of Chicago,DePaul University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Northern Illinois University, and Northwestern University

http://www.newberry.org/scholl/schollhome.html