A moment in the sun : Black Manhattan before the Civil War / Shane White.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Dispelling the persistent narrative that abject poverty followed the end of slavery in New York City, acclaimed historian Shane White finally sets the historical record straight. A Moment in the Sun, a revisionist and immersive retelling of antebellum Manhattan, depicts a long-forgotten, nineteenth-century era when ordinary Black men and women, now free, "stood a brief moment in the sun" (W. E. B. Du Bois), ushering in a roughly half-century period when New York City bulged and thrummed with Black creativity and achievement nearly a hundred years before the storied Harlem Renaissance.



Culling a narrative from thousands of fragmentary sources gathered over three decades of research, White conjures the distant world of these Black New Yorkers, from the streets where dandies flaunted their signature style to a rollicking dance cellar on a Friday night in the Five Points neighborhood. "In a city still rife with racism and violence," White writes, "ordinary African New Yorkers--among them oystermen, petty entrepreneurs, fortune-tellers, and 'confidence men'--brought into being a free urban Black culture." Along the way, White introduces us to a notable parade of characters who helped transform Gotham into a booming urban metropolis, among them Thomas Downing, the "Oyster King of New York"; Mary Thompson, who ran a cookshop out of her cellar; and Cato Alexander, whose tavern provided cocktails and carriage races to a diverse clientele.



As these people, languages, and cultures mixed in the so-called amalgamated city, racial tensions heightened and often exploded, but this friction helped facilitate a cultural melding that was extensive. To a startling degree, White reveals the myriad ways this first attempt at integration in New York City actually worked.



A triumph of historical reclamation, A Moment in the Sun paints a pointillist portrait of this time in New York history, one that presents an entirely different story that was waiting to emerge from the archive. And in bringing to vivid life these Black New Yorkers and their eponymous moment in the sun, this shimmering history preserves their memory and, in the words of Caleb Gayle, "takes us into the experiment in freedom whose possibilities could have and should have lasted generations."

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Historian White (Prince of Darkness: The Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street's First Black Millionaire) offers a deeply researched and lively account of Black life in antebellum New York. Blending gritty archival details with vivid human stories and firsthand accounts, White drops readers into the bustle of pre-Civil War Manhattan's streets and shadowy cellars. This is a fascinating history of a brief moment when, as the number of enslaved people decreased, a flurry of Black artistic and intellectual activity swept through New York--100 years before the Harlem Renaissance. The author argues that the city was not a place of poverty and misery but was alive with creativity, music, dance, culture, and commerce. It was an "amalgamated" city, where languages and customs mixed, and Black and white people comingled with familiarity, if not outright acceptance. Illustrations spotlight snazzily dressed Black dandies, fortune-tellers, and thinkers defying post-enslavement poverty myths, with rare period visuals that feel strikingly fresh. VERDICT The subject matter will grip its ideal audience of American history buffs and scholars, unpacking Black Manhattan's vibrant pre-Harlem Renaissance legacy with real, resonant value.--Lawrence Mello

Booklist Review

How to understand the soul of a city, particularly one undergoing monumental social, cultural, and economic transformations? Filled with well-researched narratives, A Moment in the Sun reflects White's decades of study of the first free generation of Black New Yorkers, a story that parallels the development of their city. White's work is not only broad in scope, from examining courtrooms to newspapers to real estate ventures; it is detailed in its documentary retellings that provide insight into how New Yorkers "negotiated freedom's meaning." His mix of reportage and analysis enlivens this history, allowing readers to encounter a New York that is at once foreign with the passing of time but also intensely familiar in its tracing of racism's roots. Another thought-provoking layer is the author's self-awareness: White gives careful attention to his status as an Australian scholar, positioning himself as an outsider to America. Thorough and revealing, A Moment in the Sun is suitable for readers interested in historical deep dives into the everyday, or what White calls the "drama of the sidewalk."

Kirkus Book Review

Uncovering "something new and surprising about New York City." Australian historian White draws on archival sources, primarily 19th-century newspapers and District Attorney's Indictment papers, to create a richly detailed picture of Black people in antebellum New York. The book is a "a sequel of sorts," he writes, toSomewhat More Independent: The End of Slavery in New York City, 1770-1810 (1991). Beginning in the 1810s and continuing into the 1840s, the city, he discovered, attracted "both free African Americans and fleeing enslaved men and women." Dispelling the idea that the end of slavery meant poverty and destitution for Blacks, White contends that in New York, they created a vibrant culture, transforming city streets into places of "style, performance, and drama." For example, "the Black stroll," which took place on Broadway on Sunday afternoons, featured "dandies and dandizettes" who flaunted their freedom by donning fashionable outfits. Cellars and basements became sites for dancing, gambling, "cook shops," "oyster cellars," and residences. Although dance cellars were "boisterous dives," Blacks also staged formal balls, which appealed to a more elite social stratum. White vividly portrays a host of individual New Yorkers, some who became successful entrepreneurs, many who eked out a living as oysterers, street-food sellers, or proprietors of underground eateries. Others took to gambling or confidence schemes, fortune telling, or sex work. Music and theater featured strongly in Black culture: A key figure was the fiddler, White asserts, and New York saw the creation of a Black drama company and the first theater built by and for Blacks. In 1827, the first Black newspaper appeared. As the century wore on, though, the "edgy, vital exuberance" of Black culture fomented "increasingly virulent racism," leading to calls for segregation. Transformation of the city's residential patterns, an influx of European immigrants, and willingness on the part of authorities to return fugitive slaves all combined to quash a once-flourishing community. A fresh perspective on African American history. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.