New York's Grand Emancipation Jubilee

Alan J. Singer

Description

In this book Alan J. Singer discusses the history of race and racism in the United States, emphasizing the continuing significance of slavery's past in shaping our present. Each chapter addresses a different theme in the history of slavery and the abolitionist struggle in the United States, with a focus on events and debates in New York State. Chapters examine the founders of the new nation and their views on slavery and equality; African American resistance; how abolitionists moved from the margins to the center of political debate; key players in the anti-slavery struggle such as David Ruggles, Solomon Northup, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, William Seward, and Abraham Lincoln; celebrations of freedom; as well as ongoing racism. Interspersed throughout the text are teaching notes that explore primary source documents and resources. The book draws on the latest scholarship to address and correct historical myths about both New York State before, during, and after the American Civil War, especially the pro-slavery, anti-civil rights stance of New York Copperhead Democrats in Congress, and the crucial role of Black and White abolitionists in ending slavery in the United States and challenging racial injustice. New York's Grand Emancipation Jubilee is not only an effort to include more African Americans as historical actors and celebrate their activism and achievements, but to provide an opportunity to analyze historical moments for change, explore their dynamic, and discover the conditions that make some of them successful.
Preface: “The Work of the Future,” Frederick Douglass

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Centralizing the History of Slavery, Racism, and Resistance: Why Race Still Matters

1. Most of the “Founders” Were Not Abolitionists, but Some from New York Were

2. Resistance! Resistance! Resistance!: New York State’s Radical Black Abolitionists and the Coming of the Civil War

3. Abolition on the Margins

4. Narratives of Slavery and Escape: The Importance of Solomon Northup

5. We May Never Know the Real Harriet Tubman

6. New York’s Grand Emancipation Jubilee Celebrations

7. Lincoln at Gettysburg: Were All Men Created Equal?

8. The New York Press, Racism, and the Presidential Election of 1864

9. Abolition: From Marginalization to Emancipation

10. “The Execration of History”: New York’s Opposition to Congressional Reconstruction

11. Politics of Historical Memory

References
Index

Sujets

• États-Unis
• Regional
• History of the Americas
• 20th century
• Region
• Local history
• United States of America
• USA

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 25 avril 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438469720
• Langue: English

Extrait

GRAND EMANCIPATION JUBILEE

GRAND EMANCIPATION JUBILEE

Essays on Slavery, Resistance, Abolition, Teaching, and Historical Memory
ALAN J. SINGER
Cover engraving: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. “Reading the Emancipation Proclamation,” New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2018 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Singer, Alan J., author
Title: New York’s Grand Emancipation Jubilee : Essays on Slavery, Resistance, Abolition, Teaching, and Historical Memory / Alan J. Singer, author.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: ISBN 9781438469713 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438469720 (e-book) | ISBN 9781438469706 (paperback : alk. paper)
Further information is available at the Library of Congress.
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DEDICATION
At a time when candidates for public office garner support with not-so-veiled racist rhetoric and activists are compelled to conduct a campaign based on the radical idea that black lives matter, the words and warning of Frederick Douglass of Rochester, New York, in his 1862 essay on “ The Work of the Future ” continue to ring true.
This book is dedicated to Douglass and his belief that “if there is no struggle, there is no progress” and that “the work does not end with the abolition of slavery but only begins.” Ironically Douglass received recent attention when, at a 2017 Black History Month event, President Donald Trump seemed to imply that the abolitionist and human rights activist was still alive and active. According to the President, “Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more,” credit that Douglass, although definitely deceased, definitely deserves (Wootson 2017).
Douglass, his work, and his words play a central role in many of the chapters in this book, particularly the concluding chapter on “ Politics of Historical Memory .”
CONTENTS
PREFACE “The Work of the Future,” Frederick Douglass
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION Centralizing the History of Slavery, Racism, and Resistance: Why Race Still Matters
1 Most of the “Founders” Were Not Abolitionists, but Some from New York Were
2 Resistance! Resistance! Resistance!: New York State’s Radical Black Abolitionists and the Coming of the Civil War
3 Abolition on the Margins
4 Narratives of Slavery and Escape: The Importance of Solomon Northup
5 We May Never Know the Real Harriet Tubman
6 New York’s Grand Emancipation Jubilee Celebrations
7 Lincoln at Gettysburg: Were All Men Created Equal?
8 The New York Press, Racism, and the Presidential Election of 1864
9 Abolition: From Marginalization to Emancipation
10 “The Execration of History”: New York’s Opposition to Congressional Reconstruction
11 Politics of Historical Memory
REFERENCES
INDEX
PREFACE
THE WORK OF THE FUTURE
— Frederick Douglass
ALREADY IT SEEMS WELL TO LOOK FORWARD TO THE FUTURE TO WHICH WE ARE HAS tening. No nation was ever called to the contemplation of a destiny more important and solemn than ours. Great duties and responsibilities are devolved upon us. Liberty, order, and civilization are staked against a slaveholding despotism, and social anarchy. To-day we have to put down a stupendous rebellion. To-morrow we shall have to reconstruct the whole fabric of Southern society, and bring order out of anarchy. It is a tremendous undertaking. … It would be absurd and ridiculous to expect that the conquered traitors will at once cordially cooperate with the Federal Government. They must be set aside for a new class of men, men who have hitherto exercised but little influence in the State. For this, we shall have to educate the people. The arduous task of the future will be to make the Southern people see and appreciate Republican Government, as a blessing of inestimable value, and to be maintained at any and every cost. They have got to be taught that slavery which they have valued as a blessing has ever been their direct calamity and curse.—The work before us is nothing less than a radical revolution in all the modes of thought which have flourished under the blighting slave system. The idea that labor is an evil, that work is degrading and that idleness is respectable, must be dispelled and the idea that work is honorable made to take its place.—Above all they must be taught that the liberty of a part is never to be secured by the enslavement or oppression of any. Neither the slave or the slaveholder can instantly throw off the sentiments inspired and ground into them by long years of tyranny on the one hand and of abject and cringing submission on the other. The master will carry into the new relation of liberty much of the insolence, caprice and pretention exercised by him while the admitted lord of the lash. The slave in his turn will be bound in the invisible chains of slavery long after his iron chains are broken and forever buried out of sight. There is no such thing as immediate Emancipation either for the master or for the slave. Time, experience and culture must gradually bring society back to the normal condition from which long years of slavery have carried all under its iron sway. … It is not likely however, that at the outset, the Southern people will consent to an absolutely just and humane policy towards the newly emancipated black people so long enslaved and degraded. … Men full of faith in the race, and of the sacred fire of love, must walk among these slavery-smitten columns of humanity and lift their forms towards Heaven. Verily, the work does not end with the abolition of slavery but only begins.

Source: Douglass ’ Monthly , November 1862. http://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/4405 (accessed online January 4, 2016).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
WHEN HE READ A DRAFT OF THIS MANUSCRIPT , EUSTACE THOMPSON , A COLLEAGUE AT Hofstra University and a former school and district administrator, argued that race and racism were so deeply embedded in the fabric of American society that they were always present, even when unseen. As an educator, but also as an African American man, he could not imagine American society where race was not a factor. I thank him for his insights.
This book should be viewed as a sequel to New York and Slavery: Time to Teach the Truth , published by SUNY Press in 2008. As with that book, it is a hybrid. It primarily comments on history and historical debates rather than presenting new research. Its audience is general readers, teachers, and, hopefully, also secondary and college students rather than just historians.
I received important advice and assistance from professional historians, teachers, and also ordinary people with an interest in history. Ideas presented in this book evolved as part of panels and presentations at conferences sponsored by the Capital District Underground Railroad History Project (UGRRHP) and Hofstra University. Participants in these conferences included Andor Skotnes of Russell Sage College, Jonathan Lightfoot, Michael D’Innocenzo, and Athlene Collins of Hofstra University, Gloria Browne-Marshall of John Jay College-CUNY, and Paul and Mary Liz Stewart of the UGRRHP. Colleagues, teachers, and friends Felicia Hirata, Maureen Murphy, William Katz, Michael Pezone, John Staudt, Cecelia Goodman, Andrea Libresco, Pearlita King, Adeola Tella-Williams, Justin Williams, April Francis, Bill Hendricks, and Pablo Muriel were part of ongoing discussions about the issues presented in this book. They also read and commented on sections. Without them as partners, my work would never have reached this point. Errors of fact and interpretation, of course, are my own.
A number of social studies teachers affiliated with the Hofstra University New Teachers Network helped research material discussed in this book. Their work was published in theme issues of Social Science Docket , a joint publication of the New York and New Jersey Councils for the Social Studies. Support staff in the Hofstra University library and in the office of the Department of Teaching, Learning and Technology were of invaluable assistance.
As with all historians writing about African American history, I am indebted to researchers who pioneered this field of study, especially Herbert Aptheker and John Hope Franklin. I was first introduced to their work in an undergraduate “American Negro History” course at the City College of New York taught by Milton Borome in 1970. I am also indebted to the staff at SUNY Press and anonymous readers for their support.
Two of my intellectual partners died during the development of this book, Martin Eisenberg and Mary Kennedy Carter, and they deserve special recognition. Martin and I worked together as community organizers for decades and our ongoing discussions, as well as actions and shared experiences, contributed greatly to my understanding of social movements. Mary was a social studies teacher and Hofstra University student teaching field supervisor, as well as an activist and an organi