An educated propertied Black elite existed in the United States by 1903

Evidence

Teaching Native American studies, I always begin with a simple exercise. I ask students to quickly draw a rough outline of the United States at the time it gained independence from Britain. Invariably most draw the approximate present shape of the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific—the continental territory not fully appropriated until a century after independence. What became independent in 1783 were the thirteen British colonies hugging the Atlantic shore. When called on this, students are embarrassed because they know better. I assure them that they are not alone. I call this a Rorschach test of unconscious “manifest destiny,” embedded in the minds of nearly everyone in the United States and around the world. This test reflects the seeming inevitability of US extent and power, its destiny, with an implication that the continent had previously been terra nullius, a land without people. — Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the…, 7 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The 1783 United States comprised only the thirteen Atlantic colonies — Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the…, 7; Educated black elites were trained as a mediating restraint against mass violence — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 154

Related

• The 1783 United States comprised only the thirteen Atlantic colonies (similarity 0.91)

Broader Connections

• The 1783 United States comprised only the thirteen Atlantic colonies #qualifies (0.35) — Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the…, 7