Brother Jonathan and John Bull build a nation: the transactional nature of American nationalism in the early nineteenth century

Abstract

This article employs a transactional approach to examine the role of national stereotypes in the rise of American nationalism in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Despite deep sectional and partisan divisions within the US population, an American national identity was constructed in contrast to the British national character and perceived British ideals. This identity was constructed on an external categorization by the elite males of other nations, particularly England. Political satires and caricatures, particularly in the character of Brother Jonathan and John Bull, illustrate the oppositional nature of this nascent national identity during the early nineteenth century.

Keywords:

• nationalism
• national identity
• Brother Jonathan
• political satires
• oppositional
• transactional

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Susan Maguire is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Buffalo State, The State University of New York specializing in historical archaeology. Her research interests include military archaeology, the War of 1812, and the emergence of American national identity in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Notes

1. National identity is used in this article, but this paper could just as easily use the term national identities as the notion of the nation will be understood and performed differently by different members of the nation based on gender, race, ethnicity, religion, class, and citizenship status, among other statuses.

2. Greenfeld (1992, p. 4) argues that this categorization is merely a geographic reference and does not reflect an existing unity. But, similar to the other collective terms that Greenfeld presents, ‘Africa,’ ‘the Third World,’ ‘Eastern Europe,’ or ‘the West,’ the term ‘American’ takes on social meanings much greater than a location on a map. Here, the term ‘American’ also refers to the character of people in that place and shapes national identity through the active categorization of the colonists by European nations, particularly Great Britain. In fact, all of the terms that Greenfeld presents as simple geographic references carry cultural meanings and reflect an imposed unity based on external categorization but that carry strong meanings for both insiders and outsiders.

3. The character of Brother Jonathan is sometimes attributed to George Washington in reference to John Trumbull, the Governor of Connecticut. While there are no written references to support this use of Brother Jonathan, this narrative acknowledges the perceived cultural differences between Washington, a Southerner, and Trumbull, a Northerner, who formed an alliance to fight the British during the revolution. Mathews (1901) reports that the earliest version of this account was published in 1846. In fact, the term was used as early as the mid-seventeenth century in England by city dwellers poking fun at unsophisticated country folk. The name of the Brother Jonathan caricature probably derives from Puritan or Masonic practices of referring to members of the community as Brother. Thus, this term indicates a kinship type relationship (Hackett Fischer, 2005; Mathews, 1901; Morgan, 1988).