1. TIL a strange tale of #medievalism and #racism in American toponymy. Not my period but I’ll try to be accurate.

Once upon a time, I drove from northern Indiana to St. Louis. On I-70, I passed through the little town of Vandalia, Illinois.

2. “That’s a strange name,” I thought. Being a medievalist, I recognized it must be named in some indirect way after the Germanic tribe of the Vandals, and not the word in its modern property-crime sense. But why?

3. Founded in 1819, it appears to have been named after the failed Vandalia Colony, an attempted 14th colony that was never recognized after the American Revolution. But nowhere near Illinois really. So why?

4. Well, it seems the Vandalia Colony was named after Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the consort of King George III, who was said to have Vandal ancestry. So Anglo-German medievalism? But again, why?

5. After all, we have Charlottesville VA, Charlotte NC. etc. Why Vandals specifically? Well it seems that Charlotte’s appearance (seen here in the “Ramsay portrait”) elicited (and still elicits) speculation that she was of (distant) African ancestry.

6. And what better way to whitewash away an African connection than by invoking medieval German tribes who had conquered North Africa—the Vandals. END

Addendum: Vandalia, IL was founded one year after Charlotte died, so there may be no direct connection to Vandalia Colony. But still. Vandals!