Stories of Freedom in Black New York / Shane White.
White, Shane, author.
2022
F128.9.N4 ǂb W48 2002eb
Available Online

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Title Stories of Freedom in Black New York / Shane White.
Author White, Shane, author.
ISBN 9780674045149
DOI https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674045149
Published Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2022]
Copyright ©2002
Language English
Language Note In English.
Description 1 online resource (270 p.)
Other Standard Identifiers 10.4159/9780674045149 doi
Call Number F128.9.N4 ǂb W48 2002eb
Dewey Decimal Classification 974.7100496073
Summary Stories of Freedom in Black New York recreates the experience of black New Yorkers as they moved from slavery to freedom. In the early decades of the nineteenth century, New York City's black community strove to realize what freedom meant, to find a new sense of itself, and, in the process, created a vibrant urban culture. Through exhaustive research, Shane White imaginatively recovers the raucous world of the street, the elegance of the city's African American balls, and the grubbiness of the Police Office. It allows us to observe the style of black men and women, to watch their public behavior, and to hear the cries of black hawkers, the strident music of black parades, and the sly stories of black conmen. Taking center stage in this story is the African Company, a black theater troupe that exemplified the new spirit of experimentation that accompanied slavery's demise. For a few short years in the 1820s, a group of black New Yorkers, many of them ex-slaves, challenged pervasive prejudice and performed plays, including Shakespearean productions, before mixed race audiences. Their audacity provoked feelings of excitement and hope among blacks, but often of disgust by many whites for whom the theater's existence epitomized the horrors of emancipation. Stories of Freedom in Black New York brilliantly intertwines black theater and urban life into a powerful interpretation of what the end of slavery meant for blacks, whites, and New York City itself. White's story of the emergence of free black culture offers a unique understanding of emancipation's impact on everyday life, and on the many forms freedom can take.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics text file PDF
Source of Description Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 31. Jan 2022)
In HUP eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013 (Canada)
Harvard University Press eBook Package Backlist 2000-2013
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Frontmatter
Contents
INTRODUCTION
1 THE END OF SLAVERY
2 STAGING FREEDOM
3 SHAKESPEARE'S PROUD REPRESENTATIVE
4 IMITATION
EPILOGUE
NOTES
Acknowledgments
Index

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