Paine and Race: Ideologies of Racial Liberalism and Settler Colonialism in the Founding of the United States.

Thomas Paine has long been heralded as a voice of universal egalitarianism. That representation proceeds from wishful misattributions of antislavery writings and concerted misreadings of the existing archive that continue to this day. Building on insights from critical race theory, Black Marxism, se...

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Published in:Early American Studies, An Interdisciplinary Journal Vol. 23; no. 2; pp. 177 - 215
Main Author: Rizzuto, Anthony Dean
Format: Article
Published: University of Pennsylvania Press Spring2025
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: Paine and Race: Ideologies of Racial Liberalism and Settler Colonialism in the Founding of the United States.
      aug:
        au: Rizzuto, Anthony Dean
        affil: Sonoma State University
      su:
        Paine, Thomas, 1737-1809
        Settler colonialism
        Racial capitalism
        Critical race theory
        American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783
        Race
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        subj:
          Paine, Thomas, 1737-1809
          Settler colonialism
          Racial capitalism
          Critical race theory
          American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783
          Race
      keyword:
        American Revolution
        Common Sense
        Critical Race Theory
        Haitian Revolution
        Indigenous Studies
        Native Americans
        Racial Capitalism
        Racial Liberalism
        Reception Studies
        Settler Colonialism
        Thomas Paine
        Trans-Atlantic Eighteenth Century
      ab: Thomas Paine has long been heralded as a voice of universal egalitarianism. That representation proceeds from wishful misattributions of antislavery writings and concerted misreadings of the existing archive that continue to this day. Building on insights from critical race theory, Black Marxism, settler colonial theory, and Indigenous studies, this article reveals a consistent pattern of white supremacy in Paine's published writings. It argues that the emerging Republic defined itself as foundationally white against Black and Indigenous others, and that Thomas Paine was instrumental in this process. The article begins by delineating the systematic scholarly misrepresentation of Paine on the subject of race. It then provides a brief overview of his career in a transatlantic eighteenth-century frame, and proceeds to a radically new reading of Common Sense. It culminates with a reinterpretation of the racial ideology of Paine's archive. A coda considers the significance of this argument in the current conjuncture.
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    language: English
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