Racial Violence and the Creation of National Spaces

Canada and the United States embarked on nation building and rebuilding projects in the wake of the American Civil War and Canadian Confederation. Both countries lacked sufficient federal personnel and resources to police the boundary properly. Instead they relied on a series of racially based border control strategies that utilized military violence, starvation, deprivation, informants, vigilantism, and extra-legal abductions to create and maintain their national spaces.