July 3, 2024: Models of Critical Patriotism: Suffrage Activists at the Centennial Exposition

[For my Patriots’Day series this year, I highlighted examples of mythic patriotism fromacross American history. So I thought for my July 4th series I wouldAmericanStudy examples of the other, directly opposed category at the heart of OfThee I Sing: critical patriotism. Leading up to a weekend post on the stateof critical patriotism in 2024!]

Onnational divisions and critical patriotism at America’s 100thbirthday celebration.

Birthday parties tend to bring out boththe best and the worst in those being celebrated, so perhaps it should be nosurprise that America’s 100th birthday party, the Centennial Exposition held overthe six months between May and November of 1876 in Philadelphia’s newlydesigned FairmountPark, was nothing if not profoundly divided in all sorts of complexways. I’ve written at length (in the Intro tomy first book) about the most defining such division, between the Exposition’sostensible purpose (to celebrate the 100th anniversary of theDeclaration of Independence and thus reflect on America’s historical originsand identity) and its central focus and tone (a thoroughly forward-lookingcelebration of the nation’s material and cultural prowess and possibilities forcontinued upward progress). But on any number of specific issues and themes theExposition displayed similarly multiple personalities: for example, it featuredthe firstAmerican statue dedicated to an African American figure (AfricanMethodist Episcopal Church founder Richard Allen) but alsoincluded a restaurant known as theSouthern Restaurant where a group of “old-time darkies”continually serenaded patrons with happy songs of the antebellum South.

Of the many such divisions andcontradictions present on and around the Exposition grounds, though, I don’tknow that any were as striking as those connected to women’s identities,perspectives, and issues. The Exposition was the first World’s Fair to includewomen’s voices in a central way, both in planning (through an all-female Women’sCentennial Executive Committee) and on the ground (through the Women’sPavilion that was created as a result of that committee’s efforts andfundraising). The Pavilion was certainly a striking success in many respects,featuring work created and designed solely by women; yet it was equallystriking for the near-complete absence of political perspectives or issues,including the most prominent such issue of the period, women’s suffrage. Sincethe inception of the Women’s Committee organizations such as the National Woman Suffrage Association hadprotested the absence of such perspectives and voices from the committee and inthe planning process, not only from a representational standpoint but throughthe lens of a particularly salient irony: that women from around the countrywere asked to contribute money and support to this federal organization, butcould not themselves vote in a federal (or any other kind of) election. TheNWSA in fact scheduled their national meeting for Philadelphia in May, on thesame day that the Exposition (including the Women’s Pavilion) opened,presenting another division within that city and moment for sure.

Yet the most overt and symbolic (yetalso very real and critically patriotic) such division would be presented onJuly 4th. On that day, for obvious reasons, the Exposition reachedits fever pitch, with numerous activities and events focused around a mainstage where impressive speakers and Americans gathered to lead the festivities.The NWSA asked if they could be a part of that stage and those festivities andwere refused, but in truly American (and Revolutionary) fashion they created asecond stage of their own elsewhere on the grounds. From that stagethey read the full text of the “Declaration of Rights and Sentimentsof Women,” a text that had been initially composed for the 1848 women’srights convention in Seneca Falls, NY, and had become as much a foundingdocument for this organization and cause as the Declaration of Independence wasfor the nation of which they were a complicated but vital part. Thosecontrasting stages were only one of many July 4th, 1876 events thathighlighted such complex national conversations and divisions—word was justreaching the East on this day of Custer’s defeat at Little Big Horn; a group ofparading black militiamen in Hamburg,South Carolina refused to cede the sidewalk to a white group, leading to aviolent reprisal and the start of multiple days of anti-black violence in thetown—but their location and proximity can drive home just how multi-vocalAmerica was in this Centennial year, and in particular how much criticalpatriots like these suffrage activists were adding their voices to the mix.

Nextcritical patriot tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Other examples or forms of patriotism you’d highlight?