The White Pacific: U.S. Imperialism and Black Slavery in the South Seas after the Civil War

by Gerald Horne

Worldwide supplies of sugar and cotton were impacted dramatically as the U.S. Civil War dragged on. New areas of production entered these lucrative markets, particularly in the South Pacific, and plantation agriculture grew substantially in disparate areas such as Australia, Fiji, and Hawaii.

The increase in production required an increase in labor; in the rush to fill the vacuum, freebooters and other unsavory characters began a slave trade in Melanesians and Polynesians that continued into the 20th century. The White Pacific ranges over the broad expanse of Oceania to reconstruct the history of "blackbirding" (slave trading) in the region.

This book examines the role of U.S. citizens (many of them ex-slaveholders and ex-confederates) in the trade and its roots in Civil War dislocations. What unfolds is a dramatic tale of unfree labor, conflicts between formal and informal empire, white supremacy, threats to sovereignty in Hawaii, the origins of a White Australian policy, and the rise of Japan as a Pacific power and putative protector. The book also pieces together a wonderfully suggestive history of the African American presence in the Pacific.

Based on deft archival research in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii, the United States, and Great Britain, The White Pacific uncovers a heretofore hidden story of race, labor, war, and intrigue that contributes significantly to the emerging intersectional histories of race and ethnicity.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Race

Paperback

First published June 1, 2007

About the author

Dr. Gerald Horne is an eminent historian who is Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. An author of more than thirty books and one hundred scholarly articles and reviews, his research has addressed issues of racism in a variety of relations involving labor, politics, civil rights, international relations, war and the film industry.

Reviews

[Kavya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting approach that centers the Pacific in 19th and 20th century history of U.S. imperial expansion and other European actors. The author explored the diplomatic and social dimensions of white supremacy, including perspectives of beachcombers, ex-navy men, agricultural labor as well as political leaders. The rare insights in regards to gender issues in the Pacific appears here and there. One critique: The role of Japan and its interactions with Hawai'i in the last two chapters appear as too deterministic, making war seem more likely than it was. The author does not take into account the widely divided opinions in Japan as well as in Hawai'i towards the increasingly militant character of the Japanese state in the 1930s-1940s. A student of East Asian history at Yale has recently explored the newspapers of first and second generation Japanese people in Hawai'i during the 1940s and found that their opinions in regards to their role in the Pacific conflict were divided alongside generational lines.

[Degenerate Chemist · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The White Pacific" is an overview of how the US exported the slave trade to the Pacific Islands after the US Civil War. It covers the time post Civil War to the events leading to Japan bombing Pearl Harbor during WW2. It focuses on Australia,, Fiji, and Hawaii. It is a fairly quick read coming in around 180 pages.

Horne lays out how former members of the Confederacy moved their operations to the South Pacific after the Civil War. Horne describes the process of "blackbirding" or kidnapping indigenous people of the South Pacific and forcing them into slave labor on other islands as an extension of US slavery. He shows how ideas of white supremacy that grew up in the US were exported to white colonists on Australia.

Horne does an excellent job showing that the genocide and depopulation of entire peoples was driven by the loss of unpaid labor following the Civil War. The political maneuverings of the US and the UK created a lawless zone where slave traders acted with impunity. However, when white lives were threatened these powers were quick to put aside their differences.

Horne also explores the racism behind immigration quotas from China and Japan into the Kingdom of Hawaii. He carefully debunks the popular American myth that Japan had no reason to declare war on the US during WW2.

This is an excellent book, but ultimately, I wanted more. I didn't know all that much about the US and the South Pacific going into this so this was a good overview.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

pretty good book if you want to read about the pacific slave trade, early US imperialism, the fijian ku klux klan and other stuff like that.

[OvercommuniKate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well this is shocking and unpleasant. I've never seen the ripple effect of the US Civil War to the Pacific laid out in any medium as clearly as this book.

It does drift around, talking a lot about the UK without wrapping up the USA part, so not quite a 5 star.