“We are a Nation within a Nation”: The Making of the Diasporic Midwest and Black Nationalism before the Twentieth Century

Chapter 1 provides a prehistory of midwestern Garveyism by tracing the history of Black nationalism, Black community-making, and diaspora-making in the region now called the Midwest prior to the twentieth century. The chapter begins with a discussion of the physical, environmental, and human landscape before Contact. The chapter then sketches the arrival and the making of African-descended in what became the Midwest beginning in the sixteenth century. The chapter calls attention to how the pre– and post–Civil War Midwest was a land of unprecedented opportunity and unbridled terror for Black people, spawning fierce African American resistance. Key debates around colonization, emigration, and the meaning of freedom that animated twentieth-century Black midwesterners had already taken shape before Marcus Garvey came on the scene.