| Using the travel writings of twelve English and American travelers between 1833 and 1914, this dissertation answers the following question: What does a group of representative travelers tell us about the role of race in constructing English and American national identity? This dissertation uses the writings of six English travelers, Edward Abdy, Emmeline Stuart Wortley, Mary Seacole, Henry Latham, Mary Hardy, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and six American travelers, Alexander Mackenzie, William Wells Brown, David F. Dorr, Thomas Johnson, Mary Krout, and Hiram Collier.;By broadly considering what these twelve travelers had to say about topics related to national identity, this dissertation reveals the importance of rationalization in both the national and self-definition of travelers. While many travel studies look at specific groups of travelers based on their gender, color, or nationality, this dissertation shows how a variety of travelers often manipulated their observation in the process of defining national identity.;Between 1833 and 1914 English travelers shifted from identifying themselves with enlightened racial attitudes to identifying themselves with whiteness; and American travelers used race to justify American behavior and then to predict future American concerns. In both cases, travelers used race to rationalize national differences, national similarities, and social hierarchies within each nation. |
