In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863
In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863
by Leslie M. Harris afterword by Leslie M. Harris
University of Chicago Press, 2024 Paper: 978-0-226-82487-1 | eISBN: 978-0-226-82486-4 | Cloth: 978-0-226-82485-7 Library of Congress Classification F128.9.N4H37 2023 Dewey Decimal Classification 974.7100496073
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
A new edition of a classic work revealing the little-known history of African Americans in New York City before Emancipation.
The popular understanding of the history of slavery in America almost entirely ignores the institution’s extensive reach in the North. But the cities of the North were built by—and became the home of—tens of thousands of enslaved African Americans, many of whom would continue to live there as free people after Emancipation.
In the Shadow of Slavery reveals the history of African Americans in the nation’s largest metropolis, New York City. Leslie M. Harris draws on travel accounts, autobiographies, newspapers, literature, and organizational records to extend prior studies of racial discrimination. She traces the undeniable impact of African Americans on class distinctions, politics, and community formation by offering vivid portraits of the lives and aspirations of countless black New Yorkers. This new edition includes an afterword by the author addressing subsequent research and the ongoing arguments over how slavery and its legacy should be taught, memorialized, and acknowledged by governments.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Leslie M. Harris is professor of history at Northwestern University.
REVIEWS
“This is an absolutely superior work of social history. . . . Thoroughly researched, perceptively analyzed, cleverly argued, beautifully written.”
— Nikki Taylor, Journal of African American History
“For its treatment of antebellum class relations and urban community development, Harris’ In the Shadow of Slavery ought to become a staple of undergraduate reading lists for several years to come.”
— Scott Miltenberger, Journal of Social History
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Slavery in Colonial New York
Chapter 2. The Struggle against Slavery in Revolutionary and Early National New York
Chapter 3. Creating a Free Black Community in New York City during the Era of Emancipation
Chapter 4. Free but Unequal: The Limits of Emancipation
Chapter 5. Keeping Body and Soul Together: Charity Workers and Black Activism in Post-emancipation New York City
Chapter 6. The Long Shadow of Southern Slavery: Radical Abolitionists and Black Political Activism against Slavery and Racism
Chapter 7. “Pressing Forward to Greater Perfection”: Radical Abolitionists, Black Labor, and Black Working-Class Activism after 1840
Chapter 8. “Rulers of the Five Points”: Blacks, Irish Immigrants, and Amalgamation
Chapter 9. The Failures of the City
Afterword (2024)
Notes
Works Consulted
Index
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