Stories of Freedom in Black New York

by Shane White

"Stories of Freedom in Black New York re-creates the experience of black New Yorkers as they moved from slavery to freedom. In the early decades of the nineteenth century, New York City's black community strove to realize what freedom meant and to find a new sense of itself, and, in the process, it 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. He allows us to observe 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 con men.". "Taking center stage in this story is the African Company, a black theater 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 p