
In the Shadow of Slavery
African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863
Leslie M. Harris(Author)
University of Chicago Press
Published on 2. February 2003
Book
Hardback
360 pages
978-0-226-31774-8 (ISBN)
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Description
In 1991 in lower Manhattan, a team of construction workers made an astonishing discovery. Just two blocks from City Hall, under twenty feet of asphalt, concrete and rubble, lay the remains of an 18th-century "Negro Burial Ground". Closed in 1790 and covered over by roads and buildings throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the site turned out to be the largest such find in North America, containing the remains of as many as 20,000 African Americans. The graves revealed to New Yorkers and the nation an aspect of American history long hidden: the vast number of enslaved blacks who laboured to create our nation's largest city. "In the Shadow of Slavery" lays bare this history of African Americans in New York, starting with the arrival of the first slaves in 1626, moving through the turbulent years before emancipation in 1827, and culminating in one of the most terrifying displays of racism in US history, the New York City Draft Riots of 1863. Drawing on extensive travel accounts, autobiographies, newspapers, literature and organizational records, Leslie M. Harris extends beyond prior studies of racial discrimination.
She traces the undeniable impact of African Americans on class, politics, and community formation, offering vivid portraits of the lives and aspirations of countless black New Yorkers. Written with clarity and grace, "In the Shadow of Slavery" is an ambitious new work that should prove indispensable to historians of the African American experience, as well as anyone interested in the history of New York City.
She traces the undeniable impact of African Americans on class, politics, and community formation, offering vivid portraits of the lives and aspirations of countless black New Yorkers. Written with clarity and grace, "In the Shadow of Slavery" is an ambitious new work that should prove indispensable to historians of the African American experience, as well as anyone interested in the history of New York City.
Reviews / Votes
"The black experience in the antebellum South has been thoroughly documented. But histories set in the North are few. In the Shadow of Slavery, then, is a big and ambitious book, one in which insights about race and class in New York City abound. Leslie M. Harris has masterfully brought over two centuries of African American history back to life in this illuminating new work." - David Roediger, author of The Wages of WhitenessMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Chicago
United States
Publishing group
The University of Chicago Press
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
20 halftones, 7 maps
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 159 mm
Weight
650 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-226-31774-8 (9780226317748)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions

Book
12/2023
University of Chicago Press
€99.04
Shipment within 10-20 days
Person
Leslie M. Harris is associate professor of history at Emory University.