Archive and Hemisphere: Moby-Dick and the Age of Discovery

Authors

Antonio Barrenechea, University of Mary WashingtonFollow

Document Type

Article

Journal Title

Voice of Han

Publication Date

Fall 2009

Abstract

Just sixteen years after the signing of the Constitution in 1787, the Louisiana Purchase marks the passage of the United States from postcolonial republic to emerging empire. In a letter to Thomas Jefferson from 1803, Andrew Jackson, then a colonel in the Tennessee militia, celebrates this acquisition while implying U.S. ownership of an even grander empire: “all the western Hemisphere rejoices at the Joyful news of the Cession of Louisiana—an event which places the peace happiness and liberty of our country on a permanent basis, an event which generations yet unborn in each revolving year will hail the day and with it the causes that gave it birth.” By merging the agency of the European colonies, Native Americans, and Africans into a single exultation, Jackson performs one of the first acts of political ventriloquism in the Americas

Comments

Dr. Barrenchea's article begins on page 31.

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Publisher Statement

The Voice of Han is an educational journal in Chinese studies and international relations published by the Hai Hung Foundation. The Hai Hung Foundation (https://haihungfound.org/) is a non-profit organization established in Virginia, USA in 2000.

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NOTE: This article is openly available on the web.

Recommended Citation

Barrenechea, Antonio. “Archive and Hemisphere: Moby-Dick and the Age of Discovery” Voice of Han 4 (Fall 2009): 31–41. https://haihungfound.org/the-voice-of-han.