Introduction: American literary fraudulence -- "One vast perambulating humbug" : literary nationalism and the rise of the puffing system -- Backwoods and blackface : the strange careers of Davy Crockett and Jim Crow -- "Slavery never can be represented" : James Williams and the racial politics of imposture -- Mediums of exchange : Fanny Fern's unoriginality -- Conclusion: The confidence man on a large scale.