[books 2007] Slavery in New York
Sep. 9th, 2007 09:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inulro49. Slavery in New York. Edited by Ira Berlin and Leslie M. Harris.
This is a superbly edited collection of essays, so that it reads as one continuous narrative. My interest lies mainly in the Dutch and British colonial periods, but the whole thing is fascinating and well written. Because it was published to accompany two museum exhibits, it's also a beautifully presented book. I love histories of things that have been erased from popular memory, so this was awesome. I also got ridiculously excited about the maps that superimpose Manhattan streets today over farm plots in colonial times, as well as discovering that a surprising number of New York (city and state) place names date from the Dutch period.
Although the book ends with the civil war, it explains a lot about race relations in the US throughout the 20th century, and is full of more fascinating factoids than I can choose to share with you.
You probably have to be my flavour of nerd to get really excited about this, but if you're at all interested in this area, this book is a really good place to start.
This is a superbly edited collection of essays, so that it reads as one continuous narrative. My interest lies mainly in the Dutch and British colonial periods, but the whole thing is fascinating and well written. Because it was published to accompany two museum exhibits, it's also a beautifully presented book. I love histories of things that have been erased from popular memory, so this was awesome. I also got ridiculously excited about the maps that superimpose Manhattan streets today over farm plots in colonial times, as well as discovering that a surprising number of New York (city and state) place names date from the Dutch period.
Although the book ends with the civil war, it explains a lot about race relations in the US throughout the 20th century, and is full of more fascinating factoids than I can choose to share with you.
You probably have to be my flavour of nerd to get really excited about this, but if you're at all interested in this area, this book is a really good place to start.
