The Declaration of Independence and Antebellum Philadelphia Gothic

This book reconsiders the founding document of the United States at a crucial moment in its history. Focusing on gothic fiction published in Philadelphia roughly during the period 1830–1855, Henry argues that the newly developing American national mythology also gave rise to much darker accounts of the nation’s descent into mob violence, corruption, and the breakdown of the rule of law. In stories that reconceive history as gothic romance, Edgar Allan Poe, George Lippard, and Robert Montgomery Bird developed a literary mode Henry calls “civic horror,” a mode that frequently wandered into the speculative territory of “what if.” What if Independence Hall were razed to the ground, and in its place a royal palace was built? What if George Washington had accepted the King’s offer of a British peerage and turned traitor to the patriot cause? What if an unruly mob appropriated the Declaration of Independence as justification for its lawlessness or what if the lawlessness of the frontier came to characterize city life? Henry analyses such scenarios in Philadelphia’s antebellum gothic fiction and considers their relevance to U.S. politics at the Declaration’s 250th anniversary.