Reviewed by Bruce Dain | Book Review | The William and Mary Quarterly, 60.4 | The History Cooperative

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the WMQ online. About 393 words from this article are provided below; about 1778 words remain.

If you are a individual subscriber to the William and Mary Quarterly, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a subscriber to the William and Mary Quarterly, you can:: • subscribe here.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the William and Mary Quarterly (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the William and Mary Quarterly.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

Reviewed by Bruce Dain | Book Review | The William and Mary Quarterly, 60.4 | The History Cooperative

Reviews of Books

Black New York

Stories of Freedom in Black New York. By SHANE WHITE . (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002. Pp. x, 260. $27.95.)
In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626–1863. By LESLIE M. HARRIS . Historical Studies in Urban America. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Pp. xii, 380. $42.50.)

Reviewed by Bruce Dain, University of Utah

In 1827, slavery formally ended in New York State. New York City's black community of more than twelve thousand celebrated in the streets; two black editors founded the first African American newspaper, appropriately named Freedom's Journal. In its pages, the free black community was praised, white hypocrisy and prejudice castigated, and ordinary black folk told to restrain their exuberance and set a good example for others. Historians usually take such prickly and "respectable" black expression, and the idea of a middle class/lower class, respectability/boisterousness divide, as unchanging characteristics of northern free black life. In two imaginative and resourceful studies, Shane White and Leslie M. Harris go beyond this rather static conventional picture to evoke a dynamic urban black community that lived an ambiguous freedom in slavery's shadow. 1

With great panache, White recreates remarkable, sometimes stunning, instances of freedom's possibilities and foreclosures in the decade surrounding final emancipation in New York City. He recovers an edgy and assertive black street life that was both respectable and boisterous, imitative and original, highbrow and low. In White's account, these blacks' forum was literally a stage. New York City's African Company opened in 1821 with a performance of Richard III, an ex-slave playing the lead. Whites attended, despite black jibes that they had to sit at the back of the house; soon the African Company rented theater space on the block next to the city's most prominent white theater. And after police arrested the actors and made them promise not to play Shakespeare (seen as white cultural property), the African Company responded with a play about the successful slave rebellion and "black" revolution in Saint Domingue. Whites applauded and jeered. The African Company went bankrupt in 1823, but its leading man, William Hewlett, became the first American actor, white or black, to launch a successful solo career; he performed what were the first one-man variety shows in American history. . . .

There are about 1778 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.