Race and Republicanism in Philadelphia's Aurora: How Anglophobia and Antimonarchism Shaped William Duane's Views on Revolutions in Saint-Domingue and Latin America, 1798–1822

To better understand the relationship between race and partisan politics in the early American republic, this article examines the democratic ideology espoused by William Duane—editor of Philadelphia's Aurora—as it concerned multiracial independence movements in the Western Hemisphere. While Duane's views appear to be wholly contradictory, this paper argues that Anglophobia and antimonarchism consistently animated his ideology, undergirding both the prejudice in his attacks on Saint-Dominguans loyal to Britain and the universalism in his defense of Latin Americans hostile to Spain. Duane's willingness to incorporate slaves, free blacks, and Amerindians into his democratic worldview was at all times dependent upon the demographic group's politics, not the political group's demographics.