Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewGosse and Waldstreicher have assembled a well-organized and carefully edited collection. The editors and the authors have thoughtfully merged the unique historical research and analysis of each author with the volume’s larger arguments about nineteenth-century Black people’s political engagement. Their collection is only a preview of a developing body of work that will surely transform scholarly understandings of the evolution of US politics. * Early American Literature *
[This] rich collection of essays brings together scholars of the Early Republic, the Civil War era, and African American life to reconceptualize Black political activism in the period between the Revolutionary and Reconstruction eras. Arguing that revolution, emancipation, and Reconstruction were interrelated processes, the editors open up a new vista through which historians will analyze these historical periods and Black political resistance. * The Journal of the Civil War Era *
Revolutions and Reconstructions brilliantly reimagines the black political landscape before 1900. Each chapter is based on cutting edge work and the whole volume convincingly shows how African American political actors, whether at the local or national level, played pivotal roles on a number of civic and institutional fronts. It's an essential volume. * Richard Newman, Rochester Institute of Technology *
This timely volume highlights the agency of African Americans by demonstrating that their efforts were ongoing, multifaceted, and driving American politics. The image of a nation going through a postwar reconstruction that was similar across regions has long been in need of correction, and this book is a significant contribution to that effort. * Beverly Tomek, University of Houston-Victoria *
Table of ContentsIntroduction. Black Politics and U.S. Politics in the Age of Revolutions, Reconstructions, and Emancipations
Van Gosse and David Waldstreicher
Chapter 1. Women's Politics, Antislavery Politics, and Phillis Wheatley's American RevolutionDavid Waldstreicher
Chapter 2. Rethinking White Supremacy: Black Resistance and the Problem of Slaveholder Authority
Padraig Riley
Chapter 3. In the Woodpile: Negro Electors in the First Reconstruction
Van Gosse
Chapter 4. Freedom and the Politics of Migration After the American Revolution
Samantha Seeley
Chapter 5. Black Migration, Black Villages, and Black Emancipation in Antebellum Illinois
M. Scott Heerman
Chapter 6. Practicing Formal Politics Without the Vote: Black New Yorkers in the Aftermath of 1821
Sarah L. H. Gronningsater
Chapter 7. "Agitation, Tumult, Violence Will Not Cease": Black Politics and the Compromise of 1850
Andrew Diemer
Chapter 8. Black Politics and the "Foul and Infamous Lie" of Dred Scott
Christopher James Bonner
Chapter 9. The "Free Cuba" Campaign, Republican Politics, and Post-Civil War Black Internationalism
James M. Shinn Jr.
Chapter 10. The Southern Division: Freedpeople, Pensions, and Federal State Building in the Post-Confederate South
Dale Kretz
Epilogue. Telling and Retelling: The Diversity of Black Political Practices
Kellie Carter Jackson
Afterword
Laura F. Edwards
