Radical Paternity: The Resistant Masculinity of Black Fatherhood from Anti-Slavery to Early Civil Rights

Abstract

This dissertation traces a partly intellectual, partly social history of Black fatherhood in the United States from the mid-nineteenth through the early twentieth century. It examines how African American fathers were positioned within national debates on race, gender, and citizenship, and how those debates were shaped by and helped shape ideas about family, masculinity, and social order. Drawing on a wide range of source materials—including slave narratives, speeches, children’s literature, popular fiction, illustrations, and photography—it investigates the competing portrayals of Black fatherhood by White supremacists, formerly enslaved men and their families, and Black intellectuals engaged in abolitionist and civil rights activism. The project introduces the concept of “Radical Paternity” to describe the ways African American men resisted racist ideologies by embracing fatherhood as a site of dignity, responsibility, and political commitment. This concept also captures how fatherhood motivated acts of resistance and inspired alternative visions of masculinity that rejected domination and violence. By centering the lived experiences and intellectual contributions of Black men, this study challenges narratives of pathological Black familial dysfunction and overly celebratory accounts of heroic paternal figures. It argues instead for a historically grounded understanding of African American fatherhood as a dynamic and contested site of struggle, creativity, and care within a racist society. In doing so, the dissertation contributes to broader conversations in African American history, gender studies, and the history of the family.