| This dissertation examines African American attitudes towards Africa, African colonization, and African identity. It addresses the question: what did Africa mean to these African Americans by defining a spectrum of African identity. It focuses on elite African American sources, mainly pamphlets, sermons, and books, but it places them in the broader context of American history and efforts to define an American identity. It begins with the gradual abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania and ends with the jailing of Marcus Garvey, tracing the changing debates about Africa over space and time. |
