In the name of the father: Washington's legacy, slavery, and the making of a nation

What the nation was up against

The farewell

The threats: geographical, political, international

Consent, slavery, and the problem of U.S. nationalism

1. The apotheosis of George Washington

Washington dies

The nation's uncertain future

Civic texts: creating a new future

Partisanship

Nationalism and religion

Resignation, gratitude, and consent

2. Washington's family: slavery and the nation

George's death and Martha's predicament

Slavery and the national family

Washington as abolitionist

Washington and paternalism

Toward a consenting republic?

3. Mason Locke Weems: spreading the American gospel

Clergyman to evangelical bookseller: "true philanthropist and prudent speculator"

Weems and antipartisanship

Weem's Washington: a primer

An "ad captandum" book

Discriminating the "populi"

Selling Marshall's biography: Weems and civic texts

4. Civic texts for slave and free: inventing the autonomous American

Schoolbooks ad civic texts: the hidden bestsellers of early American literature

From the Columbian orator to the English reader: the making of the autonomous individual

Slavery and reading: the specter of uncontrolled slaves

Civic texts for slaves, self-control, and the inculcation of slave autonomy

5. Slavery and the American individual

Revolution, resistance, and autonomy

Fit to be free

The extended legacy of civic texts.

What the nation was up against

The farewell

The threats: geographical, political, international

Consent, slavery, and the problem of U.S. nationalism

1. The apotheosis of George Washington

Washington dies

The nation's uncertain future

Civic texts: creating a new future

Partisanship

Nationalism and religion

Resignation, gratitude, and consent

2. Washington's family: slavery and the nation

George's death and Martha's predicament

Slavery and the national family

Washington as abolitionist

Washington and paternalism

Toward a consenting republic?

3. Mason Locke Weems: spreading the American gospel

Clergyman to evangelical bookseller: "true philanthropist and prudent speculator"

Weems and antipartisanship

Weem's Washington: a primer

An "ad captandum" book

Discriminating the "populi"

Selling Marshall's biography: Weems and civic texts

4. Civic texts for slave and free: inventing the autonomous American

Schoolbooks as civic texts: the hidden bestsellers of early American literature

From the Columbian orator to the English reader: the making of the autonomous individual

Slavery and reading: the specter of uncontrolled slaves

Civic texts for slaves, self-control, and the inculcation of slave autonomy

5. Slavery and the American individual

Revolution, resistance, and autonomy

Fit to be free

The extended legacy of civic texts.