It is striking to realize that the most prevalent metaphors of nationalism stem from the "private" sphere: the nation as family, as home, as body. The provenance of these kinds of nationalist metaphors may suggest that the still-emerging private sphere in the early nineteenth century -- which would be defined as the realm of women and slaves -- was more integral to the creation of American nationalism than has generally been considered. This brief paper uses the widespread commemorations following Washington's death in December 1799 to ask broad questions about the relationship between slavery and American nationalism. Specifically, the paper takes issue with, and tries to complicate, the argument among historians and literary critics that White-American identity was in large measure created through a process of "othering."
The paper connects Washington's role as a public figure leading the nation in war and politics to his role as private citizen -- and owner of hundreds of slaves. It argues that these roles could not be, and were not, neatly separated into public and private selves. It argues that slavery was not so much seen as an "Other" against which a free American identity was constructed. Rather, slavery was -- and was seen as -- an integral part of American life at the time; it was intimately connected to the nationalism being created in the nineteenth century. The paper ranges from George Washington, and some of his more eloquent eulogists, to Martha Washington to P.T. Barnum in suggesting new ways of thinking about the connections between slavery and American nationalism. In sum, it argues that if we wish to understand what tied nineteenth-century Americans together, we must begin with the bonds of American slavery, and see how they in turn forged the bonds of American nationalism.