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In The Shadow Of Slavery Summary

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In the Shadow of Slavery: Book Review
Harris, Leslie M. In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.

Although it took almost fifty years after the American Revolutionary War was over, on July 4th and 5th, 1827, African American New Yorkers celebrated the passage of legislation that would finally free them from the bondage of slavery (11). In her book, In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863, Leslie M. Harris’s thesis is that class status was essential in the development of the black community in New York City from the moment they landed on Manhattan Island in 1626 (14). Harris also argued that the issue of slavery and emancipation of blacks in New York was an item that was brought up constantly, but elite white New Yorkers always hesitated on implementing legislation due to their constituent’s reliance on slave labor, their elite racist views of blacks (in general) as inferior (96), and the …show more content…

The author would jump from subject to subject in a confusing manner. For instance in chapter four, she was discussing jobs in one paragraph and in the next paragraph she started talking about crime pamphlets. She oftentimes repeated information from chapter to chapter which made one wonder if she was just trying to fill up space or did she think she need to remind us about the event? Also, the book spanned over three centuries (17th-19th), yet she only spent two chapters on the first one hundred and seventy-three years and concentrated seven chapters on the last sixty-four. Also, there were several typographical errors that I found while reading the book such as: on page 140, the word blacks was spelled “blaks;” on page 202, the word among was spelled “amog;” on page 261, the word poverty was spelled “proverty;” and on page 287, the word association was spelled

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