Leslie M. Harris. In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863.

Leslie M. Harris. In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2003. 380 pp. $42.50 cloth/$25.00 paper.

In the Shadow of Slavery is a compelling account of African Americans in New York City over a period of more than two decades following the arrival of the first slaves in 1626. Leslie M. Harris, who teaches history at Emory University, brings to light what she calls "an aspect of history long hidden" as she tells the story of "the large numbers of enslaved African and African American men, women, and children who labored to create colonial Manhattan." Harris grabs the reader at the very start with her description of the discovery by a team of construction workers of the remains of a "Negro Burial Ground" closed in 1790. Hidden under 20 feet of rubble, the cemetery contained what was left of 20,000 African Americans and provided evidence of a large number of people, now forgotten, who played an important role in New York's past. Working with this evidence, and then examining newspapers, various forms of literature, and organizational records from black groups as well as white, Harris provides a gracefully nuanced picture of the impact of this vibrant and vital African American community.

In the Shadow of Slavery makes several important points. Harris notes, for example, that prior to final emancipation in 1827, New York held the largest urban slave population outside of the South. After 1827, that population became one of the most sizable free black communities in the North. But Harris further observes that numbers hardly tell the whole story. Blacks played major roles in economic, social and cultural affairs. And in delineating this role, Harris pays close attention to how class relations developed. Building on the work of such notable labor historians as Herbert Gutman in the United States and E. P. Thompson in Great Britain, she examines how class and community developed in the intersecting lives of both blacks and whites. As her Introduction asserts, her work is part of "a continuing and increasingly exciting discussion about the interplay of race and racism, class and gender in U. S. history."

Harris deals effectively with four periods in this account. She begins with the era of slavery, which she dates as extending from 1626 to 1785. She then tracks the development of antislavery sentiment and the movement toward gradual emancipation between 1785 and 1827. She looks next at the era of radical abolitionism that began in 1830 and assesses its impact on New York's African American community. And finally she examines the disillusionment in the years after 1840 and the violent draft riots during the Civil War that led many blacks to leave the city.

Harris notes perceptively the importance of black labor in the New York City region. She highlights European reliance on African labors, and describes the different kinds of work blacks did. She also observes that they were "the most stable element of the New Netherland working class and population." Later, under British rule, she observes how they stole more from their masters' homes than they had under Dutch rule, and ran away more often as well.

Then Harris describes the developing struggle against slavery. The Revolutionary War failed to free all blacks, but the New York Manumission Society, founded in 1785, gave black slaves a new ally in their struggle. Harris points to Quaker influence, and notes as well the efforts of the Methodists. Meanwhile, she points to the increase in the city's free black population. By 1790, it included 1,036 out of a total African American population of 3,092. When the New York legislature failed to pass an emancipation law, some slaves ran away. Finally, in 1799, a law provided for limited freedom, given prevailing attitudes about black dependency.

Harris provides a sensitive portrait of the development of a free black community during this emancipation period. Shared housing was often essential, as many blacks could not afford single-family dwellings. Lucrative jobs were scarce, and many African Americans were forced to assume low-paying, unskilled positions. Yet most remained optimistic, even as they encountered the limits of emancipation.

The problem, Harris notes, was white ambivalence about black freedom. As she observes, whites "linked black public life to criminal activity in the postwar period." And she cites the case of Rose Butler, an African American convicted of arson to make her point. As hard as they might try, blacks could not easily discard the "badge of servitude." Even charitable whites remained silent on questions of social and political equality.

Radical abolitionists, she writes, were different from most whites, as they sought both an end to slavery and the establishment of racial equality. Yet she also observes that some of their tactics "heightened class divisions among blacks." Middle class values did not always work for members of the working class. And the continuing debate about the role of blacks in American society provoked occasional physical confrontations between blacks and whites. One result was a rift between black and white abolitionists.

An important result of the growing tension was a new black activism in the 1840s. Frederick Douglass, though not a New York City resident, offers an example of the emerging new black leadership. At midcentury, there gradually developed as well a black alignment with Irish communities in the Five Points district of the city.

Finally, Harris writes about developments during the Civil War. Some blacks had been leaving the city, discontented at the slow rate of progress. The onset of the war halted that exodus as blacks saw the war as a possible source of positive change. Then, in 1863, when the government passed a stricter draft law, five days of rioting, starting on July 13, ravaged the city. Down by the docks, white longshoreman used the riots as an excuse to destroy all evidence of both black and interracial activity in that area. Rioters singled out both black men and women for attacks as long-smoldering frictions erupted. At the end of the rioting, 11 black men had been lynched and hundreds had been forced to flee the city.

In this powerful and compelling account, Harris notes that the more than two centuries she describes unfolded as "a never-ending process of change and conflict, of contestation for power and influence over the resources and life of the city." Blacks, she writes in her conclusion, were an integral part of city life as they "manifested an audacious capacity to survive, to resist repression, and to sustain a diverse community." In the process, they played an important part in helping to define both African American and American identity, not just in the city, but in the nation at large.

Allan M. Winkler 

Miami University