Philhellenism and the Greek Revolution in Early America by Dr. Maureen Connors Santelli

Popular support for the Greek Revolution garnered attention in the United States at a level unparalleled to any other international event in the early nineteenth century. Early Americans supported the Greek cause because they felt a strong, sympathetic tie with the ancient Greeks and because they had a long- standing distrust of the Muslim world. American philhellenes believed the Greek Revolution would be successful if the Greeks followed the United States’ example regarding the course of the revolution and the type of government they should eventually establish. Although they were not interested in nation- building in the modern sense, American philhellenes did imagine they were engaging in a civic duty by aiding the Greeks to create a free nation in the image of the United States. At a time when politics and slavery had begun to pull the North and South apart, support for the Greek Revolution brought Americans from all classes and regions together in one of the first humanitarian efforts in the early United States.

Dr. Maureen Connors Santelli is an Assistant Professor of History at Northern Virginia Community College and is a specialist in Classical influence in 18th and 19th century American discourse and social movements. She holds undergraduate degrees from the University of Montana in History and Classics, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in American History from George Mason University. Her dissertation was on the Greek War for Independence and American reform movements from 1780 to 1860, and her recently published book with Cornell University Press, on this same subject, is entitled “The Greek Fire: American-Ottoman Relations and Democratic Fervor in the Age of Revolutions.”

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