The First American Republic: An Alternative Genealogy

Abstract: This article complicates the history of American republicanism by arguing that that it has not proceeded in a linear fashion but has risen and fallen with time. The contestation between authoritarianism and democracy that began with the Revolution continues to shape US history. The American Revolution gave birth to the First American Republic and the Civil War the Second American Republic. The article examines an alternative genealogy of the first American republic by looking at how abolitionists, Africans Americans, women, and Native Americans sought to refashion American republicanism to create a modern democratic republic. Their ideas helped seed the legal and constitutional transformation of the republic during the Civil War and Reconstruction.