"Wilder explores cultural expression with and through African
societies in New York City. . . . He follows them from their
origin, through their heyday, to their decline as capitalist
culture overwhelmed the voluntary tradition."
--"Book News"
"In the historiography on blacks in the colonial and antebellum
periods, Craig Steven Wilder's "In the Company of Black Men" stands
out as one of the finest works of scholarship in the last
decade."--"Journal of American Ethnic History
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 malecounterparts,
In the Company of Black Men provides a ground-breaking template for
investigating antebellum black institutions.
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