Stories of Freedom in Black New York

Abstract

Stories of Freedom in Black New recreates the experience of black New Yorkers as they moved from slavery to freedom. In the early decades of the 19th 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 obd<@serve the style of black men and women, to watch their public behaviour, and to hear the cries of black hawkers, the strident music of black parades, and the sly stories of black conmen. Taking centre stage in this story is the African Company, a black theatre 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 disgust by many whites for whom the theatre's existence epitomized the horrors of emancipation. Stories of Freedom in Black New intertwines black theatre 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.