Those Without Sin: Voices of Color on White Protestant Christianity in Nineteenth-Century American Literature
Redmond, Charles.
2017
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Abstract: This dissertation illustrates how whiteness as property, reified by
unjust laws and domestic policies in the United States in the nineteenth century, corrupts
Protestant Christianity as practiced by white people. Through an analysis of the writings
of William Apess, William Wells Brown, Harriet E. Wilson, John Rollin Ridge, María Amparo
Ruiz de Burton, and ZitkalaŠa, I show that writ... read moreers of color were unafraid to criticize
openly the rampant racism masquerading as religion. Through both their fiction and
non-fiction, these authors, when read together, critique whiteness and its pernicious
effect on all of American society, demonstrating that Christian charity and democratic
civilization are incompatible with principles that elevate one race of people over all
others. Drawing upon a range of disciplines, including theology, critical race studies, and
legal theory, I situate the texts I discuss as part of a discourse that creates a portrait
of the white race as a people incapable of reconciling their race prejudice with the
rhetoric of Christian virtue and the U.S. Constitution's promise of life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness. Apess, Brown, Wilson, Ridge, Ruiz de Burton, and Zitkala-Ša all call
upon their white counterparts to live up to their professed ideals of democracy or give up
the fantasy of American Exceptionalism. Most importantly, all of them draw attention to the
unresolved question of which version of Christianity people should follow and what role it
will play in shaping the nation. Arguing that these authors of color recognized whiteness
as property as an evil antithetical to Christianity, as well as to the U.S. Constitution,
my first chapter focuses on Apess's works (1833-1836) as an early attack on
whiteness—specifically, skin color—being used to determine church membership and
citizenship. I then read Wilson's Our Nig (1859) and Brown's Clotel (1853) in Chapter Two
as examples of what Veronica T. Watson calls "the literature of white estrangement," with
each author detailing how Christian charity comes second only to whiteness in white
American hearts. Chapter Three discusses Ridge's The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta
(1854) and Ruiz de Burton's Who Would Have Thought It? (1872) as continuations of the
critique of whiteness, with each author critiquing Protestant Christianity's role in the
imperialist designs of the U.S. by focusing on its investment in whiteness as property. My
final chapter analyzes Zitkala-Ša's American Indian Stories (1921) as a wholesale rejection
of a white-led Indian reform project that, despite its purportedly charitable Christian
intentions, was in reality intended to deny Native Americans the rights and economic
privileges of full citizenship. Politically, persons of color were virtually non-existent
in the original composition of the U.S. Constitution and consequently lacked any political
means to challenge the social contract that governed them. White men championed and fought
for revolution, white men championed and pushed for nullification of federal laws, and
white men championed and initiated secession. Denied a political voice, some of those who
were not white males used literature to affect the world around them. Recognizing this
fact, my dissertation explores the links that exist among authors typically relegated to a
status outside both the right to citizenship and the traditional canon. In grouping these
authors, I am reminded of Winston Churchill's oft-quoted bon mot: "History is written by
the victors." But instead of despairing at this commonplace, I listen to voices of dissent,
especially those of writers of color who point out the blatant hypocrisy of white
Christians in the nineteenth century. Ultimately, the texts I discuss prove that resistance
to whiteness is perhaps the oldest form of political activism in the United
States
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2017.
Submitted to the Dept. of English.
Advisor: Elizabeth Ammons.
Committee: Nate Wolff, Modhumita Roy, and Elizabeth Fenton.
Keywords: American literature, and Religion.read less - ID:
- qn59qg280
- Component ID:
- tufts:22440
- To Cite:
- DCA Citation Guide EndNote
