The grammar of good intentions: race and the antebellum culture of benevolence

Introduction: toward a cultural history of good intentions

Benevolent violence: Indian removal and the contest of national character

Misgivings: duplicity and need in Melville's late fiction

The racial politics of self-reliance

Pedagogies of emancipation

Charity begins at home: Stowe's antislavery novels and the forms of benevolent citizenship

"Save us from our friends": free African Americans and the culture of benevolence

Epilogue: the afterlife of benevolent citizenship.