| dc.description.abstract | On August 8, 1899, hurricane San Ciriaco ravaged Puerto Rico, killing nearly 3,000 people in the floodwaters. The U.S. military’s occupational government reacted quickly in the aftermath and petitioned the federal government for relief supplies. Only a few months had passed since the island’s sovereignty had transferred from Spanish to American rule in 1898. The military governor Brigadier General George Davis saw this as the perfect opportunity to demonstrate American benevolence to people of the newly acquired territory. On September 8, 1900, exactly one year and a month after hurricane San Ciriaco struck Puerto Rico, a great storm lambasted Galveston, Texas claiming the lives of over 6,000 people. The American Red Cross (ARC), led by Clara Barton, swiftly answered Galveston’s plea for relief and partnered with the elite of Galveston to administer aid.
I argue that both storms should be examined together because the relief efforts were informed by Progressive Era ideas about race, class, and poverty. In both cases elites determined who received aid, imposed conditions that were attached to the aid, and created distinctions between worthy and unworthy poor. These common trends employed by elites deliberately excluded people of color and furthered disenfranchisement. Thus, these two storms also highlight what scholar Thomas Leonard calls the “Progressive Paradox” which was the inconsistency between elite reformers promoting progress while preserving social control over domestic and foreign affairs. The Progressive Paradox was symptomatic of the Federal government’s increased presence in domestic and foreign concerns. The two relief efforts showcase the escalated Federal role because they were the first instances of Federally organized disaster relief. Therefore, these two disasters foreground how prominently environmental factors impacted the history of the Progressive Era and American imperialism. | en |
