In The Company Of Black Men

The African Influence on African American Culture in New York City

Craig Steven Wilder

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 2002
• Print ISBN:
  9780814793695
• eBook ISBN:
  9780814795347
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Traces the development of African-American community traditions over three centuries

From the subaltern assemblies of the enslaved in colonial New York City to the benevolent New York African Society of the early national era to the formation of the African Blood Brotherhood in twentieth century Harlem, voluntary associations have been a fixture of African-American communities.

In the Company of Black Men examines New York City over three centuries to show that enslaved Africans provided the institutional foundation upon which African-American religious, political, and social culture could flourish. Arguing that the universality of the voluntary tradition in African-American communities has its basis in collectivism—a behavioral and rhetorical tendency to privilege the group over the individual—it explores the institutions that arose as enslaved Africans exploited the potential for group action and mass resistance.

Craig Steven Wilder's research is particularly exciting in its assertion that Africans entered the Americas equipped with intellectual traditions and sociological models that facilitated a communitarian response to oppression. Presenting a dramatic shift from previous work which has viewed African-American male associations as derivative and imitative of white male counterparts, In the Company of Black Men provides a ground-breaking template for investigating antebellum black institutions.

Index

Abolitionists, 56, 88, 91, 93, 94, 96, 106, 107, 126, 136, 143, 145, 146, 148, 150, 153, 164, 166, 167–71, 173, 201, 263–65n

Civil War-era activities of, 182–83, 271n

Abyssinian Baptist Church (Manhattan), 48–49, 132, 166, 194, 209, 211, 275n

woman dominance in, 48–49

women’s Highway and Hedges Society, 217

Abyssinian Benevolent Daughters of Esther Association, 75, 87

Africa, 3, 9, 30, 57, 60–61, 63, 76, 80, 132, 182, 265n

in African American ideology, 73, 76–78, 89–92, 96, 156, 157–59, 160–64, 168, 173, 177, 186, 187–89, 240–41n

Central, 13, 226n

compared to Greece and Rome, 90

Gold Coast, 19

religions of, 25, 26, 30–31, 65, 226n

West, 12, 16, 20–21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 30–31, 33, 62, 65, 70, 76, 86, 116, 123, 199, 200–201, 217, 221n

in white thought, 144

African Americans, 36, 54, 62

attacks upon, 181, 183–85

celebrations and parades among, 89, 105, 111, 120–23, 126, 132, 164, 182–83, 254n

charity among, 80, 87–88, 103–4, 108, 111, 124–29, 201, 205

community, 2, 4, 24, 29–30, 40, 52–53, 63–64, 81, 86, 87, 97, 101–5, 112, 116, 118, 121, 124, 125, 129, 133, 149, 151–52, 158, 194, 207, 209

descriptions of, 145

high society among, 187

ideologies of, 24–25, 41, 54–55, 64, 65, 68, 73, 76–80, 81–83, 86–87, 89–97, 109–10, 121–24, 129, 131, 133, 147, 155–66, 167–71, 176–78, 187, 197, 200, 263n

immigrant communities among, 76, 87, 187, 205

institutions among, 4, 36, 53, 73, 76, 87, 88–89, 93, 95, 103, 118–19, 123, 125, 128–29, 131, 136, 138–40, 154–55, 183–86, 186, 192, 199, 209, 215

protests by, 77, 110, 119, 157–61, 165–67, 172, 186, 206

in South, 177

women’s social work among, 212–1...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Book Title
• “Some Little Tribute”: An Introduction
• I African Voluntary Associations and the Rise of Black Spiritual Culture
• II African Voluntary Associations and the Making of the Public Sphere
• III The Transformation of African American Voluntarism
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author