Carla L. Peterson (University of Maryland): "Black Gotham: A Family History of African Americans in Nineteenth-Century New York City"

Yale University Press describes the book as "Part detective tale, part social and cultural narrative, Black Gotham is Carla Peterson's riveting account of her quest to reconstruct the lives of her nineteenth-century ancestors. As she shares their stories and those of their friends, neighbors, and business associates, she illuminates the greater history of African-American elites in New York City. Black Gotham challenges many of the accepted 'truths' about African-American history, including the assumption that the phrase 'nineteenth-century black Americans' means enslaved people, that 'New York state before the Civil War' refers to a place of freedom, and that a black elite did not exist until the twentieth century."

Montag, 20.10.2014, 12-14 Uhr, Zentr. HS- und Seminargebäude, Raum 1.013