愛国心，男らしさ，米西戦争をめぐる黒人知識人の言説――サットン・E・グリッグスの描く国家／地域／自画像――

<p>In his article “The Trope of New Negro” (1988), Henry Louis Gates, Jr. initiated the reexamination of turn-of-the-century black intellectuals and their attempts at reconstructing their self-image. Black leaders like Booker T. Washington were eager to present a “New Negro” image to fit the ideal American-self and claim his citizenship rights. Sutton E. Griggs, a Baptist preacher, published several novels in the same period, also to establish a “New Negro” as autonomous race/nation. This article examines the rhetoric employed by Griggs, when black manhood was openly obliterated and denied, to reclaim it through complex maneuvering. I argue that Griggs was not just concerned with influencing southern blacks with racial-uplift messages, but freeing them and offering a new race construction.</p><p>The Spanish American War provided an opportunity for black leaders to confirm the patriotism and citizenship of black men at a time when their image was degraded or even erased. After the Civil War, black troops were sent to the West to fight, and were thus literally removed from the sight of southern blacks and American publications. The success of black soldiers in Cuba followed by the disregard of their heroic exploits in the mainstream press prompted scores of literary works written by African Americans who wanted to both record black soldiers’ courageous acts and counter negative images imparted by Theodore Roosevelt, who had originally praised black troops.</p><p>Washington also recognized the need for blacks to show their patriotism and manhood in order to win the approval of Northern whites and claim citi-zenship. He repeatedly called for party loyalty among blacks. For Washington, the black community had to maintain a politically united front; both party loyalty and war participation were essential to show patriotism and to affirm that blacks could achieve the dominant white culture’s masculine ideal.</p><p>However, not all blacks thought it was wise to stake their wellbeing on one political alliance. Griggs’ novels, Imperium in Imperio (1399) and Unfettered (1902)―both written immediately after the Spanish American War―show more complicated black tactics and self-images. Griggs emphasized communal loyalty which permits splitting blacks politically. He advocated patriotism to the country while depicting a black nation within a larger American nation. Griggs insisted that offering counter-representations of black was not enough to legitimize their racial-self, just as mass-voting is ineffective and mass-patriotism is futile in gaining citizenship. Griggs’ idea of manhood is different; his is grounded in the southern manhood that values martial prowess, Christian piousness, and social autonomy. He triple-layered his rhetoric to match the consciousness of American-self (patriotism), southern-self (regional attachment) and racial-self (communal responsibility).</p><p>Griggs, in his novels, repeatedly questioned impending disfranchisement and suggested a way to stop losing voting power. After the emancipation, voting rights more than anything was what defined southern black manhood. While Washington spoke to the larger audience that included many whites, self-publishing Griggs wrote for the predominantly black audience. Through his novels Griggs revealed choices for blacks to change the southern degenerate race policies. His writings helped shape the “New Negro” consciousness.</p>