Reviewed by:

• Breakaway Americas: The Unmanifest Future of the Jacksonian United States by Thomas Richards Jr.
• Eric R. Schlereth

The most compelling histories of nineteenth-century North America are those that offer innovative ways to remind readers that there was nothing foreseeable or inevitable about the course of U.S. expansion. Thomas Richards Jr. provides such a reminder in his important and persuasively argued book, Breakaway Americas. As suggested by its title, Richards rejects Manifest Destiny as an accurate description of the United States' standing or its national ambitions in the early 1800s. Instead, he describes a nation with uncertain prospects by the late 1830, the beginning of what Richards labels the "Texas Moment," an era when doubts about the United States prompted thousands of Americans to consider alternative forms of independent self-governance.

The Texas Moment lasted from 1838 to 1846, thus on a slightly different timescale than the Republic of Texas. This was more than a historical coincidence, Richards argues. Once the Republic of Texas proclaimed itself [End Page 349] a sovereign state, it became a powerful example for Americans willing to form their own sovereign states outside the United States. According to Richards, "Texas became a language through which to understand the future geopolitics of the continent," while Texas's "independent existence augured an era when not just Texas but other independent polities would arise on the continent" (7). The primary significance of Richards's book comes from his work to map the continental scope of the Texas Moment.

Based on archival research at institutions throughout the United States, and a broad reading in published primary sources from government records to newspapers, Richards focuses on five groups of "breakaway Americans." These include White men from the Great Lakes region who joined the Patriot War to create a republic in British Canada; Mormon efforts to create a sovereign theocracy in the Salt Lake Valley; Cherokee ideas for an Indigenous republic in Indian Territory; White American settlers in Mexican California who considered independent lives undergirded by large landholdings and control over Indigenous labor; and, finally, American settlers in Oregon who sought to build a political community that ensured land for White families through the exclusion of enslaved labor and free Black settlers. Richards dedicates a chapter to each of these groups, carefully describing their particular histories and their unique motivations. Richards identifies the interests that these disparate breakaway Americans held in common by explaining how the Texas Moment allowed each group of breakaway Americans to decide for themselves questions about gender, race, and equitable land ownership, questions that roiled U.S. politics in the 1830s and 1840s. In each instance, Richards describes movements led by men in pursuit of a patriarchal standing that rested on property ownership and control over human labor, be it the labor of enslaved people or household dependents. Moreover, Richards notes that each group of breakaway Americans shared their era's racial attitudes that Black people were inferior. In this regard, breakaway Americans propagated racial slavery, as in the Texas Republic and in Indian Territory, but also advanced nascent free soil views hostile to Black landowning and settlement, as in California and especially Oregon. Thus Richards develops an important distinction throughout the book. Breakaway Americans identified with some aspect of American culture but not with the United States as a nation-state. This view led each group of breakaway Americans to conclude that their interests—primarily in self-governance, patriarchal authority, and control over property, be it landed or human—could never be secure in the United States.

Ultimately, none of the breakaway Americans created lasting sovereign powers. Nevertheless, Richards argues that their potential success raised plausible fears in the 1840s that the United States might forever remain weak if forced to share a continent with multiple independent powers, some hostile to the United States and several under the influence of Great [End Page 350] Britain. Richards thus concludes that the Polk administration worked to prevent such a future for the United States by successfully adopting expansionist policies to end...

审核人：

• 《脱离美洲：杰克逊主义美国的无与伦比的未来》，托马斯·理查兹（Thomas Richards Jr.）
• 埃里克·施莱雷斯（Eric R. Schlereth）

十九世纪北美最引人注目的历史是那些提供创新方式来提醒读者，美国扩张的过程没有可预见或不可避免的历史。小托马斯·理查兹（Thomas Richards Jr.）在他的重要而有说服力的书《脱离美洲》（Breakaway Americas）中提供了这样的提醒。正如标题所暗示的那样，理查兹（Richards）拒绝将“舱单命运”（Manifest Destiny）准确地描述为1800年代初期美国的地位或国家野心。取而代之的是，他描述了一个到1830年末，理查兹（Richards）称其为“德克萨斯时刻”（Texas Moment）的前景广阔的国家，在这个时代，人们对​​美国的疑虑促使成千上万的美国人考虑采用其他形式的独立自治。

德州片刻持续了1838年至1846年，因此时间尺度与德州共和国略有不同。理查兹认为，这不仅仅是历史上的巧合。一旦得克萨斯共和国宣布自己[End Page 349]为主权国家，它便成为愿意在美国以外组建自己的主权国家的美国人的有力榜样。理查兹认为，“得克萨斯州成为了解该大陆未来地缘政治的一种语言，”而德克萨斯州的“独立存在预示着一个时代，不仅得克萨斯州还会出现其他独立政体”（7）。理查兹的书的主要意义来自于他绘制德克萨斯时刻的大陆范围的工作。

理查兹（Richards）基于美国各地机构的档案研究以及从政府记录到报纸的主要原始出版物的广泛阅读，着眼于五个“脱离美国人”群体。这些人包括来自大湖区的白人，他们加入了爱国者战争，在加拿大不列颠建立共和国；摩门教徒努力在盐湖谷创建一个主权神权政体；切诺基关于在印度领土上建立土著共和国的想法；在墨西哥加利福尼亚州的美国白人定居者认为，独立的生活由于拥有大量土地而无法控制土著劳工；最后，俄勒冈州的美国定居者试图建立一个政治社区，以通过排除奴役和自由的黑人定居者来确保白人家庭的土地。理查兹（Richards）为这些团体中的每一个章节专门介绍了他们的特殊历史和独特动机。理查兹（Richards）通过解释德州时刻（Texas Moment）如何让每组脱离美国的美国人自己决定有关性别，种族和公平土地所有权的问题，这些问题使1830年代和1840年代的美国政治动荡不安，从而确定了这些不同的脱离美国的人的共同利益。理查兹（Richards）在每种情况下都描述了由男性领导的运动，其追求的是父权制的地位，这种地位建立在财产所有权和对人工的控制上，无论是奴役的人还是家属的劳动。此外，理查兹（Richards）指出，每一个脱离种族的美国人都分享他们那个时代的种族态度，即黑人逊色于黑人。在这方面，分离的美国人传播了种族奴隶制​​，例如在得克萨斯共和国和印度领土，但也传播了对黑人土地所有权和定居点怀有敌意的新生自由土地观，例如在加利福尼亚州，尤其是在俄勒冈州。因此，理查兹（Richards）在整本书中都建立了重要的区别。脱离美国的美国人认同美国文化的某些方面，但不认同美国是一个民族国家。这种观点导致每一个脱离美国的美国人得出的结论是，在美国，他们的利益-主要是在自治，父权制以及对财产（无论是土地还是人为财产）的控制中-永远是不安全的。因此，理查兹（Richards）在整本书中都建立了重要的区别。脱离美国的美国人认同美国文化的某些方面，但不认同美国是一个民族国家。这种观点导致每一个脱离美国的美国人得出的结论是，在美国，他们的利益-主要是在自治，父权制以及对财产（无论是土地还是人为财产）的控制中-永远是不安全的。因此，理查兹（Richards）在整本书中都建立了重要的区别。脱离美国的美国人认同美国文化的某些方面，但不认同美国是一个民族国家。这种观点导致每一个脱离美国的美国人得出的结论是，在美国，他们的利益-主要是在自治，父权制以及对财产（无论是土地还是人为财产）的控制中-永远是不安全的。

最终，没有一个分裂的美国人创造了持久的主权大国。然而，理查兹认为，他们的潜力成功提高似是而非的担忧在1840年，如果强行用多个独立的权力同一个大陆，美国可能永远保持疲软，一些敌视美国和几个大的影响[尾页350 ]英国。理查兹因此得出结论，波尔克政府通过成功地采取扩张主义政策来结束美国，以防止美国出现这样的未来。