In the Shadow of Haiti: US Black Internationalism in the Dominican Republic, 1860–1904

Abstract: This article examines nineteenth-century African Americans’ perspectives of the Dominican Republic in comparison to Haiti. As independent Black republics in the US purview, Hispaniola’s two nations seemed fit for African American emigration, Black Protestant evangelization, and Black US diplomatic representation. Yet, while historians have examined African Americans’ ideas about Haiti, scholarly attention on the Dominican Republic has been limited to Frederick Douglass’s diplomatic roles in 1871 and 1889–91. Moving beyond Douglass, this article analyzes the viewpoints of other Black Americans who wrote about the Dominican Republic from the 1860s to 1904. It especially analyzes the perspectives and actions of US Black foreign service officers appointed to Santo Domingo beginning in 1882. By doing so, this article shows that African Americans sometimes subsumed Dominican affairs under Haiti and at other times used the Dominican Republic as a foil to Haiti, marking the Dominican Republic’s distinct significance to Reconstruction-era US Black internationalism.