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In this paper, I revisit and problematize “blackness” in THH by building on Toni Morrison’s call for the theorization of “blackness” in American literature. THH has received much critical attention in the decades that followed its revival, but this paper argues that the meaning of “Africanist presence” has not been adequately addressed in 19th-century women writers’ works. This paper is an effort to fill in this gap, and examines the ways in which “blackness” informed and shaped this most popular text of 19th-century America. This paper argues that THH demonstrates contemporary America’s fear of “blackness,” and rather than celebrating Capitola’s feminist credentials or criticizing the lack of sensitivity to racial issues in THH, shows that the significance of the text lies in the ways in which it prophesies an impending national crisis mediated through the disruptive force of Capitola and Black Donald. THH certainly reiterates the popular, contemporary racial paradigms and excludes blacks from the conceptualization of “manhood,” and it may seem that the issue of race is subsumed under gender issues when the text continuously privileges gender over race. However, at the same time, Black Donald and Capitola’s disruptive energies signify the fear of explosive “blackness,” and the disruptive stirrings of “blackness” permeate the novel as the energy that might rupture the seemingly tranquil order of antebellum South. The novel encodes and reflects the fear of blackness in the minds of its readers, and the popularity of this novel foretells nothing less than the explosion of Civil War.
