Domestic Stability and Imperial Continuities

Abstract

This chapter explores how influential figures in the United States conceptualized race and empire during the Reconstruction Era. This is done through an examination of the debates surrounding President Ulysses S. Grant’s attempts to annex the Dominican Republic and the administration’s stance on the Ten Years’ War in Cuba. More specifically, the work asserts that Grant’s Secretary of State, Hamilton Fish, drew on his personal relationships with the Spanish community, as well as the pre-existing bonds that existed between the United States and Spain, as he attempted to maintain domestic stability at home and imperial continuities abroad. By taking this approach, the chapter challenges the prevalence of the Black Legend narrative and intertwines beliefs surrounding Reconstruction and race with American expansion into the Caribbean Basin.