Examining newpsapers, conventions, public protest meetings, and fugitive slave rescues, Christopher James Bonner highlights a spirited debate among African Americans in the nineteenth century, the stakes of which could determine their place in U.S. society and shape the terms of citizenship for all Americans.

Introduction: Making Black Citizenship Politics
Chapter 1. An Integral Portion of This Republic
Chapter 2. "Union Is Strength": Building an American Citizenship
Chapter 3. Nations, Revolutions, and the Borders of Citizenship
Chapter 4. Runaways, or Citizens Claimed as Such
Chapter 5. Contesting the "Foul and Infamous Lie" of Dred Scott
Chapter 6. Black Politics and the Roots of Reconstruction
Epilogue: The Enduring Search for Home
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments