Mobilizing Linear Histories: Violence, the Printed Word, and the Construction of Euro-American Identities in an "American County"

by Linda Heidenreich

NAPA COUNTY LIES JUST 40 miles northeast of San Francisco and 70 miles southwest of Sacramento. It is ideal for the study of the development of disparate American identities because it has functioned as a microcosm of trends and issues throughout the history of the larger United States West. The County's history is comprised of a number of interwoven and overlapping stories, among them Wappo and Patwin stories, Californiana and Californio histories, Chinese and Mexican immigrant histories and African American histories. In the mid-to-late nineteenth century, however, a recently arrived community of Euro-Americans created myths to justify the subjugation of peoples who preceded them to the area, as well as racialized peoples who arrived following the United States¬Mexico War (1846¬48). These Euro-Americans themselves were recent immigrants, and until the Bear Flag Incident, had little in common other than their immigrant status and a belief in Manifest Destiny. Their construction of a linear history, which began with the arrival of Euro-Americans to Napa, and ended with their rise to power, built upon and reinforced their common belief in Manifest Destiny. It also served to minimize differences among the white immigrants and to forge a unified white identity.