Abstract
In 1825, Frances Wright, British author and protégée of the aging Marquis de Lafayette, proposed an antislavery experiment that became known as Nashoba. Although Nashoba soon failed, it has made its way into the broad narrative of U.S. history (and many U.S. history textbooks) as an inspiring interracial Utopia—a noble, if transient, step on the road to abolitionism and racial equality. As one recent textbook puts it, “Influenced by Robert Owen and New Harmony, Frances Wright established an interracial Utopian community, Nashoba, near Memphis, Tennessee” (Clark et al. 459). Another characterizes Nashoba as “a bold plan to set up a Utopian community of whites and freed slaves who would live together in full equality” (Henretta et al. 336).1
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Works Cited
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© 2007 Organization of American Historians
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Bederman, G. (2007). Revisiting Nashoba: Slavery, Utopia, and Frances Wright in America, 1818–1826. In: Jones, J. (eds) The Best American History Essays 2007. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-06439-4_5
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