Race and Class Politics in New York City Before the Civil War


Book Description

Challenging the studies of several historians regarding 19th-century politics, Anthony Gronowicz reveals how the Democratic Party employed the racist ideology of democratic republicanism to shape the political values of New York's labor force. This insightful volume enriches one's understanding of antebellum politics, economics, and culture. Illustrations.




Race and Class Politics in New York City Before the Civil War


Book Description

Challenging the studies of several historians regarding 19th-century politics, Anthony Gronowicz reveals how the Democratic Party employed the racist ideology of democratic republicanism to shape the political values of New York's labor force. This insightful volume enriches one's understanding of antebellum politics, economics, and culture. Illustrations.




The Politics of Race in New York


Book Description

Black suffrage was a crucial and volatile issue in the North during the Civil War era. In The Politics of Race in New York, Phyllis F. Field studies the development of racial policies in the Empire State. Asserting that it is not possible to understand the move toward black suffrage by examining national trends and the actions of individual politicians, she takes a close look at the social context of reform.Field assesses popular reaction to the idea of black suffrage by systematically analyzing the results of a series of referenda on the issue held in New York State between 1846 and 1869. Tracing the relation between changes in public opinion and the positions taken by political parties, Field concludes that party leaders tried both to express the views of their constituents and to mold those views so as to strengthen and unify their own political organizations. Inevitably, this intrusion of political considerations in the issue of race had long-term consequences for the process of social change in the United States.The Politics of Race in New York shows clearly how, in 1870, black suffrage could be achieved even though the battle for black equality had yet to begin.




New Orleans after the Civil War


Book Description

We often think of Reconstruction as an unfinished revolution. Justin A. Nystrom’s original study of the aftermath of emancipation in New Orleans takes a different perspective, arguing that the politics of the era were less of a binary struggle over political supremacy and morality than they were about a quest for stability in a world rendered uncertain and unfamiliar by the collapse of slavery. Commercially vibrant and racially unique before the Civil War, New Orleans after secession and following Appomattox provides an especially interesting case study in political and social adjustment. Taking a generational view and using longitudinal studies of some of the major political players of the era, New Orleans after the Civil War asks fundamentally new questions about life in the post–Civil War South: Who would emerge as leaders in the prostrate but economically ambitious city? How would whites who differed over secession come together over postwar policy? Where would the mixed-race middle class and newly freed slaves fit in the new order? Nystrom follows not only the period’s broad contours and occasional bloody conflicts but also the coalition building and the often surprising liaisons that formed to address these and related issues. His unusual approach breaks free from the worn stereotypes of Reconstruction to explore the uncertainty, self-doubt, and moral complexity that haunted Southerners after the war. This probing look at a generation of New Orleanians and how they redefined a society shattered by the Civil War engages historical actors on their own terms and makes real the human dimension of life during this difficult period in American history.




Civil Rights in New York City


Book Description

Clarence Taylor is Professor of History and Black and Hispanic Studies at Baruch College and Professor of History at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. --Book Jacket.




The New Jim Crow


Book Description

One of the New York Times’s Best Books of the 21st Century Named one of the most important nonfiction books of the 21st century by Entertainment Weekly‚ Slate‚ Chronicle of Higher Education‚ Literary Hub, Book Riot‚ and Zora A tenth-anniversary edition of the iconic bestseller—"one of the most influential books of the past 20 years," according to the Chronicle of Higher Education—with a new preface by the author "It is in no small part thanks to Alexander's account that civil rights organizations such as Black Lives Matter have focused so much of their energy on the criminal justice system." —Adam Shatz, London Review of Books Seldom does a book have the impact of Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow. Since it was first published in 2010, it has been cited in judicial decisions and has been adopted in campus-wide and community-wide reads; it helped inspire the creation of the Marshall Project and the new $100 million Art for Justice Fund; it has been the winner of numerous prizes, including the prestigious NAACP Image Award; and it has spent nearly 250 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Most important of all, it has spawned a whole generation of criminal justice reform activists and organizations motivated by Michelle Alexander's unforgettable argument that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." As the Birmingham News proclaimed, it is "undoubtedly the most important book published in this century about the U.S." Now, ten years after it was first published, The New Press is proud to issue a tenth-anniversary edition with a new preface by Michelle Alexander that discusses the impact the book has had and the state of the criminal justice reform movement today.




In the Shadow of Slavery


Book Description

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.




Slavery's Long Shadow


Book Description

How interactions of race and religion have influenced unity and division in the church At the center of the story of American Christianity lies an integral connection between race relations and Christian unity. Despite claims that Jesus Christ transcends all racial barriers, the most segregated hour in America is still Sunday mornings when Christians gather for worship. In Slavery’s Long Shadow fourteen historians and other scholars examine how the sobering historical realities of race relations and Christianity have created both unity and division within American churches from the 1790s into the twenty-first century. The book’s three sections offer readers three different entry points into the conversation: major historical periods, case studies, and ways forward. Historians as well as Christians interested in racial reconciliation will find in this book both help for understanding the problem and hope for building a better future. Contributors: Tanya Smith Brice Joel A. Brown Lawrence A. Q. Burnley Jeff W. Childers Wes Crawford James L. Gorman Richard T. Hughes Loretta Hunnicutt Christopher R. Hutson Kathy Pulley Edward J. Robinson Kamilah Hall Sharp Jerry Taylor D. Newell Williams




Between Freedom and Bondage


Book Description

Between Freedom and Bondage looks at the fluctuations of black suffrage in the ante-bellum North, using the four states of New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Rhode Island as examples. In each of these states, a different outcome was obtained for blacks in their quest to share the vote. By analyzing the various outcomes of state struggles, Malone offers a framework for understanding and explaining how the issue of voting rights for blacks unfolded between the drafting of the Constitution, and the end of the Civil War.




Race and Class Politics in New York City Before the Civil War


Book Description

Challenging the studies of several historians regarding 19th-century politics, Anthony Gronowicz reveals how the Democratic Party employed the racist ideology of democratic republicanism to shape the political values of New York's labor force. This insightful volume enriches one's understanding of antebellum politics, economics, and culture. Illustrations.