The Fruits of Citizenship: African Americans, Military Service, and the Cause of Cuba Libre, 1868-1920.

Abstract

The Fruits of Citizenship examines the multiple links between African American political activism and the United States' involvement in the War for Cuban Independence. It explores the overlapping and entangled histories of two regiments that emanated from hubs of African American political activism—Illinois and Louisiana—and situates them within the history of the intervention. In the preceding months, Illinois had maintained its vibrant Republican party with a strong black political constituency, whereas in Louisiana, the longstanding history of black political activism was being challenged by the ascendant white supremacy. In 1898, when the United States intervened, it seemed to offer black Americans the opportunity to use military service as a means to buttress their calls for full recognition as citizens.

Some men enlisted with hopes of taking up the cause of Antonio Maceo, the slain Cuban Revolutionary leader. However, charged with disarming the revolutionary forces and restoring peace, black soldiers found themselves at the center of a conflict over how to govern the Cuban island and to protect American interests in the post-colonial era. Environmental conditions and diseases proved to be the greatest challenge for the soldiers, however. Though, when they returned home, they found their pension claims largely rejected by the Veterans Bureau.

I approach the question of how black men—and women— attempted to translate military service into concrete gains by embedding their efforts within a history of African American politics surrounding the intervention. I begin with studies of New Orleans and Illinois politics, and then explore how local activists engaged with the ongoing work of securing political, social, and economic freedoms, including what the 1868 Louisiana Constitution had referred to as public rights. I subsequently examine how their battles drew upon specific notions of manhood and womanhood, not to mention morals and sexual propriety. Drawing on pension files, military records, newspapers, and Cuban secondary sources, I use microhistorical techniques to demonstrate the multiple links between African Americans’ political activism and the War in Cuba. This dissertation reveals a new dimension of the claims-making that developed around the question of the privileges and responsibilities of citizenship.