Seneca Village and Little Africa: Two African American Communities in Antebellum New York City

African Americans in antebellum New York City followed several different residence strategies in the face of ongoing discrimination. Most lived in enclaves, dispersed throughout poorer neighborhoods that were by no means primarily black. One such enclave was Little Africa. Some lived separately in p...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Historical archaeology 2008-01, Vol.42 (1), p.97-107
Main Authors: Wall, Diana diZerega, Rothschild, Nan A., Copeland, Cynthia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African American studies
African Americans
Archaeological excavation
Archaeology
Black communities
Censuses
Children
Cities
Communities
Historical archaeology
New York
School age children
Seneca Village
Social archaeology
Social Sciences
U.S.A
Urban archaeology
Urban areas
Villages
Workforce
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:African Americans in antebellum New York City followed several different residence strategies in the face of ongoing discrimination. Most lived in enclaves, dispersed throughout poorer neighborhoods that were by no means primarily black. One such enclave was Little Africa. Some lived separately in places like Seneca Village, an African American community just outside of town. This study compares the residents of these two neighborhoods and suggests that the members of these groups were quite different from each other in a number of ways. Aggregation of these differences suggests that the groups represent different socioeconomic classes. This finding runs counter to the views of many commentators and scholars (including archaeologists) who talk about the "African American community," implying that the African American population formed (and forms) a homogeneous whole.
ISSN:0440-9213
2328-1103
DOI:10.1007/BF03377066