ABSTRACT
George Washington Williams fought in the Civil War in Mexico to overthrow Emperor Maximilian and after the war in the Indian Territory before being wounded and discharged from the US military. He then studied at Newton Theological Seminary, becoming the first African-American to graduate from there in 1874. He then became an ordained Baptist minister in Boston before moving to Cincinnati, where he studied law. Williams's oration in 1876 especially in its larger context shows the evolution of exceptionalist discourse after the era of American slavery and in the age of European imperialism in Africa. Pre-Civil War writings extolling national virtue, when they addressed the situation of African-Americans, often advocated the emigration of blacks to Africa for settlement in the 'colonies' of Liberia and Sierra Leone. Williams's Independence Day oration, therefore, makes no direct argument for American exceptionalism. Instead, he emphasizes the problem of exceptionalist discourse defined by the country's founding and revolutionary success accomplished by white Europeans and descendants.
