In The Company Of Black Men: The African Influence on African American Culture in New York City

Craig Steven Wilder

Published by New York University Press 2002

In The Company Of Black Men

The African Influence on African American Culture in New York City

Craig Steven Wilder

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814784624.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

Traces the development of African-American community traditions over three centuries

From the subaltern assemblies of the enslaved in colonial New York City to the benevolent New York African Society of the early national era to the formation of the African Blood Brotherhood in twentieth century Harlem, voluntary associations have been a fixture of African-American communities.

In the Company of Black Men examines New York City over three centuries to show that enslaved Africans provided the institutional foundation upon which African-American religious, political, and social culture could flourish. Arguing that the universality of the voluntary tradition in African-American communities has its basis in collectivism—a behavioral and rhetorical tendency to privilege the group over the individual—it explores the institutions that arose as enslaved Africans exploited the potential for group action and mass resistance.

Craig Steven Wilder’s research is particularly exciting in its assertion that Africans entered the Americas equipped with intellectual traditions and sociological models that facilitated a communitarian response to oppression. Presenting a dramatic shift from previous work which has viewed African-American male associations as derivative and imitative of white male counterparts, In the Company of Black Men provides a ground-breaking template for investigating antebellum black institutions.

Author / Editor information

Wilder Craig Steven :

Craig Steven Wilder is Associate Professor of History and Chair of African-American Studies at Williams College. He is the author of A Covenant with Color: Race and Social Power in Brooklyn.

Reviews

Wilder explores cultural expression with and through African societies in New York City. . . . He follows them from their origin, through their heyday, to their decline as capitalist culture overwhelmed the voluntary tradition

In the historiography on blacks in the colonial and antebellum periods, Craig Steven Wilders In the Company of Black Men stands out as one of the finest works of scholarship in the last decade.

Though stony the road they trod, a small band of men developed and passed on an ethos of mutuality and collectivism brought from Africa. America owes a great debt to those men, and scholars owe a great debt to Craig Wilder, who has combined vast research and keen intelligence to tell their story. Wilders work will force a new look at a familiar landscape. Imaginean African city at the base of the Hudson!

In this groundbreaking and superbly written work Craig Wilder provides a gendered and richly textured discussion of the African origins of black political consciousness and moral traditions in the United States. Through a skillful comparative discussion of African associations in North America, the Caribbean, Brazil and Africa he demonstrates the connections between African systems of values and beliefs, masculinity and the black public sphere. This book is essential reading in African American history, Diaspora studies and American studies.

A beautifully researched, subtly argued exploration of the moral and intellectual life of New Yorks African American community in its first two hundred years. As Wilder shows how African societies provided a foundation for black religion, politics, and cultural institutions, he opens a new window on New York history. We hear the voice and aspirations of black New Yorkers as we have never heard them before. Written with verve, In the Company of Black Men repeatedly rewards its readers with fresh insights and provocative arguments that leaves one thinking long after it has been set aside.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
“Some Little Tribute” An Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I African Voluntary Associations and the Rise of Black Spiritual Culture
1 A Taunt from the Oppressed: The West African Institutional Legacy in New York City, 1644–1783 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
2 Raising Mother Zion: The Fusion of African and British Institutions in New York, 1784–1822 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	36
3 The Liberating Power of the Cross The NYAS and the African Encounter with the Protestant Ethic, 1774–1796 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	54
4 “The Aristocracy of Character” African Societies and the Moral Consequence of Nationalism, 1784–1845 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	73
Part II African Voluntary Associations and the Making of the Public Sphere
5 “The Inmates of My Sanctum Sanctorum” African Voluntary Associations and the Public Sphere, 1808–1845 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
6 In the Company of Black Men Manhood and Obligation in the African Confraternity, 1808–1857 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	120
7 “A Single Voice” African Societies, the Press, and the Public Sphere, 1827–1861 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	142
8 When Black Men Spoke of Freedom Voluntary Associations and Nationalist Culture, 1809–1865 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	154
Part III The Transformation of African American Voluntarism
9 “The Gaudy Carnival” The African Declension in the NYASMR, 1863–1945 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
10 “Shall It Be a Woman?” The Transformation of Black Men’s Voluntarism, 1865–1960 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	198
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	311
About the Author Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	333

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Keywords: African-American; Africans; centuries; City; could; culture; enslaved; Examines; flourish; foundation; institutional; over; political; provided; religious; show; social; that; three; upon; which; York

eBook

Published: February 1, 2002
ISBN: 9780814784624