Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood
African American Children in the Antebellum North
Crystal Lynn Webster
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 04/2021
Pages: 208
Subject: History, Social Science
Print ISBN: 9781469663234
eBook ISBN: 9781469663241
DESCRIPTION
For all that is known about the depth and breadth of African
American history, we still understand surprisingly little about the
lives of African American children, particularly those affected by
northern emancipation. But hidden in institutional records, school
primers and penmanship books, biographical sketches, and
unpublished documents is a rich archive that reveals the social and
affective worlds of northern Black children. Drawing evidence from
the urban centers of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, Crystal
Webster's innovative research yields a powerful new history of
African American childhood before the Civil War. Webster argues
that young African Americans were frequently left outside the
nineteenth century's emerging constructions of both race and
childhood. They were marginalized in the development of schooling,
ignored in debates over child labor, and presumed to lack the
inherent innocence ascribed to white children. But Webster shows
that Black children nevertheless carved out physical and social
space for play, for learning, and for their own aspirations.
Reading her sources against the grain, Webster reveals a complex reality for antebellum Black children. Lacking societal status, they nevertheless found meaningful agency as historical actors, making the most of the limited freedoms and possibilities they enjoyed.
Reading her sources against the grain, Webster reveals a complex reality for antebellum Black children. Lacking societal status, they nevertheless found meaningful agency as historical actors, making the most of the limited freedoms and possibilities they enjoyed.
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