Alabama in Africa: Booker T. Washington, the German Empire, and the Globalization of the New South

415 Pages·2012·3.26 MB·English

by  Andrew Zimmerman

Alabama in Africa

Alabama in Africa
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON,
THE GERMAN EMPIRE, AND
THE GLOBALIZATION OF THE NEW SOUTH
Andrew Zimmerman
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON AND OXFORD
Copyright©2010byPrincetonUniversityPress
PublishedbyPrincetonUniversityPress,41WilliamStreet,
Princeton,NewJersey08540
IntheUnitedKingdom:PrincetonUniversityPress,6OxfordStreet,
Woodstock,OxfordshireOX201TW
press.princeton.edu
AllRightsReserved
Secondprinting,andfirstpaperbackprinting,2012
PaperbackISBN978-0-691-15586-9
TheLibraryofCongresshascatalogedtheclotheditionof
thisbookasfollows
Zimmerman,Andrew.
AlabamainAfrica:BookerT.Washington,theGermanempire,
andtheglobalizationofthenewSouth/AndrewZimmerman.
p. cm.—(Americaintheworld)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-691-12362-2(cloth:alk.paper)
1.Cottontrade—Togo—History.2.Agriculturallaborers—
Togo—History.3.Germany—Colonies—Africa.4.TuskegeeInstitute.
5.Washington,BookerT.,1856–1915.I.Title.
HD9087.T62Z562010
338.1′35109668109041—dc22 2009044502
BritishLibraryCataloging-in-PublicationDataisavailable
ThisbookhasbeencomposedinSabon
Printedonacid-freepaper.∞
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
CONTENTS
ListofIllustrations vii
Preface ix
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER1
Cotton,the“NegroQuestion,”andIndustrial
EducationintheNewSouth 20
CottonandCoercion 23
GrowingCottonintheOldSouthandtheNew 32
The“NegroQuestion”andtheNewSouth 38
HamptonInstitute:FromColonialEducation
toIndustrialEducation 40
TuskegeeInstitute:AnAmbivalentChallenge
totheNewSouth 45
BookerT.Washington’sPan-Africanism
andtheTurntoEmpire 61
CHAPTER2
SozialpolitikandtheNewSouthinGermany 66
GermanSocialThoughtandtheAmericanCivilWar 67
EmancipationandFreeLaborinGermany 70
Germany’sNewSouth:SocialScience,SocialPolicy,
andtheFreedomofFreeLabor 73
GermanSettlersandPolishMigrants:InternalColonization
andtheStruggleoverLabor,Sexuality,andRace 80
SocialDemocracyversusInternalColonization
andStateSocialism 95
Raceandthe“DarkUrgeforPersonalFreedom”:
MaxWeberandW.E.B.DuBois 100
CHAPTER3
AlabamainAfrica:Tuskegeeandthe
ColonialDecivilizingMissioninTogo 112
TogobetweenAtlanticSlaveryandGermanColonialRule 113
MissionSchools,White-CollarWork,andPoliticalResistance 123
EweEducationandGermanColonialRule 128
Cotton,Conquest,andtheSouthernTurnofColonialRule 130
vi CONTENTS
FromColonialAfricanstoNewSouth“Negroes” 139
TuskegeeEducatorsandAfricanHouseholds 144
TheTransformationofTogoleseCotton 148
UndoingtheExodus:TheColonialDecivilizingMission
attheNotse´ CottonSchool 153
MissionaryEducationandIndustrialEducationinTogo 162
GermanInternalColonizationandAmerican
SharecroppinginTogo 166
CHAPTER4
FromaGermanAlabamainAfricatoaSegregationistInternational:
TheLeagueofNationsandtheGlobalSouth 173
E.D.Morel,CongoReform,andthe
German-TuskegeeColonialModel 176
BookerT.Washington,CongoReform,
andIndustrialEducationinAfrica 179
TheNegerfrageinGermany:ColonialPolicy,
ColonialSocialScience,andColonialScandals 187
SocialDemocracyversustheCivilizingMission 197
TheVersaillesTreatyandtheSegregationistInternational 198
CHAPTER5
FromIndustrialEducationfortheNewSouthtoaSociology
oftheGlobalSouth 205
MaxWeber,BookerT.Washington,andW.E.B.DuBois 207
From“TeachingtheNegrotoWork”tothe“ProtestantEthic” 212
SociologyfortheOldSouthandtheNew 217
RobertE.Park,fromGermanytoAfricatoTuskegee
andBackAgain 219
FromtheGlobalSouthtotheChicagoSchoolofSociology 222
TheGreatMigrationandtheTransformationofSociology 227
CONCLUSION
PrussianPathsofCapitalistDevelopment:
TheTuskegeeExpeditiontoTogobetweenTransnational
andComparativeHistory 237
Notes 251
Bibliography 347
Index 391
ILLUSTRATIONS
I.1 MapofGermanTogo. 2
I.2 JamesNathanCalloway,theleaderofthe
Tuskegeeexpedition,travelsbyhammockinTogo. 6
I.3 JohnWinfreyRobinsonatthetwenty-fifth-
anniversarycelebrationofTuskegeeInstitute,1906. 7
1.1 Spinningjenny. 26
1.2 BalesofAmericancottoninawarehouseatthe
BremenCottonExchange. 29
1.3 The“kinaesthetic”processbywhichthestaplelength
and“character”ofcottonwasdetermined. 30–31
1.4 Cottonharvest. 33
1.5 MalesEngagedinAgricultureinSeven
SoutheasternStates. 38
1.6 Interiorofthe“Negrobuilding”atthe
AtlantaExposition. 50
1.7 The“OldPlantation”onthemidwayofthe
AtlantaExposition. 51
2.1 Sugarbeet. 83
2.2 Weedingsugarbeetfieldswithhoes. 84
2.3 Thinningouttheyoungbeets. 85
3.1 OilpalmsalongtheroadtoTove. 117
3.2 MarketdayinTogo. 119
3.3 MixedcultivationinTogo. 121
3.4 Spinningcotton,Togo. 122
3.5 Weavingcotton,Togo. 123
3.6 AfricandandiesinTogo. 127
3.7 OneoftheTuskegeeplantationbuildings
stillstandinginTove. 135
3.8 Polizeisoldaten. 141
3.9 PlowinginTove,1905. 144
3.10 TransportingcottonontheroadfromHotoPalime. 145
3.11 “RailroadandCottonMapofTogo,”c.1909. 150
3.12 PackingcottoninTogo.SEM,062 152
3.13 Cottonpurchasingagent,Noepe,1906. 153
3.14 PurchasingcottoninaTogolesemarket. 154
3.15 CourtyardinNotse´. 157
3.16 CottonfieldinNotse´. 158
viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
3.17 Recentreconstructionofthemudwallbuilt
byKingAgokoli’ssubjects. 161
3.18 Ginstation,Notse´,1906–1907. 163
4.1 CarryingcottontoaSocie´te´ togolaisedecoton(Sotoco)
depot,nearAtakpame. 174
4.2 ColonialcottoncultivationinAfrica,1915. 175
4.3 Studentshoeingcottoninexperimentalfields,
TuskegeeInstitute,1902. 181
PREFACE
IN JANUARY 1901 four African American men from Tuskegee Institute,
the Alabama teacher-trainingschool founded by BookerT. Washington,
arrived in the German colony of Togo, West Africa, to help transform
the territoryinto a source ofcotton for the Europeanspinning industry.
Alabama in Africa reconstructs this expedition and its global conse-
quencesfromtheperspectivesofitsAmerican,African,andGermanparti-
cipants.Itexploresthetransnationaleconomic,political,andideological
networks that connected Booker T. Washington’s American South, the
kaiser’sGermany,andcolonialWestAfrica.Theglobalcollapseofunfree
labor—both Atlantic slavery and European serfdom—profoundly af-
fectedeachoftheseregionsinthenineteenthcentury.TheAtlantictransi-
tionto freelabor unleashednewpolitical andeconomic energiesamong
former bondspeople, energies that employers and states endeavored to
redirectfortheirownprofitandpower.
Alabama in Africa reveals how early, tentative efforts by Booker T.
WashingtontotransformtheplaceofblacksintheAmericanSouthgave
way to his better-known “accommodationism” as a result of his work
with German imperialism in Africa. The pioneering interest of German
colonialpersonnelinTuskegeeInstitute,inturn,helpedmaketheAmeri-
can South of segregation and sharecropping a model for the supposedly
humanitarian internationalism of the League of Nations. The model of
the American South and individual African Americans, including Wash-
ingtonandW.E.B.DuBois,alsoinfluencedthehistoryoffreelaborinside
the borders of Germany, shaping the development of the social sciences
andthestatesocialpoliciesforwhichGermanyhasbeensoadmired,as
well asthe treatment ofPoles forwhich it hasbeen so reviled.Alabama
in Africa rejects empire-centered approaches to colonialism that regard
Africansasrawclayforcolonialsculpting,demonstratingratherthatthe
history of Togolese self-fashioning in the aftermath of Atlantic slavery
structured and resisted the various attempts by missionaries, colonial
states,andTuskegeeInstitutetocreateanAfricaaftertheirowndesires.
Alabama in Africa offers a transnational historical narrative, grounded
inarchivalresearchandrecentmethodsinthehistoryofculture,gender,
andsexualityasananswertoanowvenerabletopicofcomparativesocial
scienceabouttheriseofcapitalismaroundtheworld.Itsuggests,finally,
thatracismandimperialism,aswellasstrugglesofclass,culture,gender,