Education, Citizenship, and African American Community in Nineteenth-Century Cincinnati: Issues of Social, Cultural, and Human Capital

Abstract

In Cincinnati, Ohio, the history of the social and economic status of blacks as it relates to educational and civic participation have received attention from a number of scholars, especially with respect to the nineteenth century. In this article, the authors focus on human, social, and cultural capital as a conceptual framework for understanding this history. The authors find that the interconnections between human, social, and cultural capital in these real-world circumstances were complex and significant. The authors find evidence of the social and cultural capital developed by African Americans in nineteenth-century Cincinnati in their schools and organizations as well as their narrative of their own historical past. Nevertheless, the authors also find that maintaining social and cultural capital was an ongoing individual and collective struggle for blacks in the city. The conclusions about cultural, social, and human capital in Cincinnati’s nineteenth-century African American community are linked to our understanding of the significance of African American migration from the South and emphasize the creative responses of African Americans, even in the face of extraordinary constraints that made it difficult to sustain institutional continuity.