Richard Clough Anderson, la Mancomunidad de Kentucky y el problema de la esclavitud en la causa patriótica hispanoamericana
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2016-12-13
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Universidad EAFIT
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Richard Clough Anderson fue el primer ministro plenipotenciario de los Estados Unidos en Colombia. Era originario de Kentucky, un Estado incorporado a la Unión Americana en 1792 que puede haber sido el primero en apoyar públicamente el movimiento independentista contra España. Siguiendo la pista de Kentucky a través de la vida de Anderson, este artículo sitúa históricamente la aparente precocidad política de ese Estado a la luz de las complejidades y contradicciones que caracterizaban a los Estados Unidos durante la república temprana: la práctica de la esclavitud, la ideología de la libertad, la ocupación de la frontera del Oeste, el despegue económico y las formas complejas de identificación política. El apoyo de Kentucky a la causa patriótica hispanoamericana surgió en medio de cálculos específicos sobre las limitaciones y el potencial económico de esa mancomunidad, una sociedad esclavista parcialmente truncada debido a su ubicación geográfica y su configuración social
Richard Clough Anderson, a lawyer from Kentucky, became the first US minister plenipotentiary to Colombia. Incorporated as a State of the Union in 1792, Kentucky seems to have been the first State to publicly support Spanish America’s independence movements. By following the Kentucky lead through the life of Anderson, this paper historically situates the seeming political precociousness of that State in light of the contradictions of the early American republic: the practice of slavery, the ideology of freedom, the settlement of the Western frontier, the economic takeoff, and complex forms of political identification. Kentucky’s support for the Spanish American patriotic cause crystalized amid specific calculations on the limitations and economic potential of that commonwealth, a slave society partially truncated by its geographic location and social configuration.
Richard Clough Anderson, a lawyer from Kentucky, became the first US minister plenipotentiary to Colombia. Incorporated as a State of the Union in 1792, Kentucky seems to have been the first State to publicly support Spanish America’s independence movements. By following the Kentucky lead through the life of Anderson, this paper historically situates the seeming political precociousness of that State in light of the contradictions of the early American republic: the practice of slavery, the ideology of freedom, the settlement of the Western frontier, the economic takeoff, and complex forms of political identification. Kentucky’s support for the Spanish American patriotic cause crystalized amid specific calculations on the limitations and economic potential of that commonwealth, a slave society partially truncated by its geographic location and social configuration.