10_192.008 10/4 Lect I. Administrative-
handout re: bookreviews
need to ask them to compare and contrast the development of Baltimore with the development of Chicago and to delineate how their stories are similar and how they are different. Note changes in the schedule. Makes more sense to have the reviews due the Monday after we finish discussion of the books in class. Assume no one minds the change in the syllabus.
Book review essays due:
Cronon: October 18
Fogelson: November 8
Nee: December 6
II. finish discussion of 10_192.034, Cronon Chapter IV
III. Lecture on the slavery and freedom in the city and the countryside.
A. Up to this point, we have looked at an aspect of the city that Cronon does not deal with. Cronon does not concern himself with the impact the city has upon the political and social world, yet with any American City, the impact that urban life has on social values and the political world of the country as a whole is profound. We have suggested that achivement of some measure of democracy emanates from the interaction of the city with the countryside, following Cronon's model of the constant merging of city and countryside as the central city draws its economic strength from the countryside and the countryside grows rapidly because of the presence of the city brought to it by ever improving transporation, management of time, mass marketing and distribution of goods. The mob of the city pushes the political world towards broader political participation by the masses. The mob of the city causes attention to be focused on the need for political, social, and economic reform.
B. African Americans and the City- 1790-1860
Three books are helpful, if quite different in their interests:
Richard C. Wade, Slavery in the Cities. The South, 1820-1860 (1964) [4-2246]
Leonard P. Curry, The Free Black in Urban America 1800-1850 (1981) [4-2508]
Barbara Jeanne Fields, Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground. Maryland During the 19th Century (1985) [4-650]
1) the demographic pattern of 1830
In 1830 the total population of the United States was 12,866,020. 10,537,378 were classified by the census bureau as 'white' (81.9%). Of the remaining population, 319,599 (2.5% of the total population) were classified by the census as 'Free Colored,' and 2,009,043 (15.6% of the total population) were classfied as slave. Of the total African American Population, 13.7% were free.
In 1830 the top 12 cities in the United States were:
1) New York (including Brooklyn)- 348,943
2) Philadelphia- 161,410
3) Baltimore- 80,625
4) Boston- 61,392
5) New Orleans- 46,310
6) Charleston- 30,289
7) Cincinnati- 24,831
8) Albany- 24,238
9) Washington,D.C.- 18,287
10)Providence- 16,832
11)Richmond- 16,060
12)Salem- 13,895
TOTAL- 843,112
In otherwords, in 1830 only 6.553% of the total population lived in the top 12 American Cities. By 1920, 16,369,301 people of a total population of 105,710,620 (15.485%) lived in the top twelve cities. By 1990 the top twelve American cities contained only 9% of the total population.
In 1830 the slave and free population of the top twelve cities was
S&F Slave Free
1) New York (including Brooklyn) - 14,950 17
2) Philadelphia- 9,806 11
3) Baltimore- 18,910 4,120
4) Boston- 1,875 0
5) New Orleans- 26,038 14,476
6) Charleston- 17,461 15,354
7) Cincinnati- 1,090 0
8) Albany- 1,050 0
9) Washington, D.C.- 5,459 2,330
10)Providence, R.I. 1,213 0
11)Richmond na na
12)Salem na na
TOTAL 97,852 36,308 61,544
Thus in 1830, 19.25663% of the free black population in the United States was to be found in the top 12 cities, although only 11.6% of the toal population in the top twelve cities was African American.
2) the demographic pattern of 1860
In 1860 the total population of the United States was 31,443,322 of which 3,953,760 were classified by the census bureau as slave (12.5774% of the total) and 487,970 were classified as free colored (1.55% of the total). Of the total African American population 10.986% were free, a decline of 2.7%.
In 1860 the top twelve cities were:
1) New York- 1,072,311
2) Philadelphia 562,529
3) Baltimore 212,418
4) Boston 177,812
5) New Orleans 168,675
6) Cincinnati 161,044
7) St. Louis 160,773
8) Chicago 109,260
9) Buffalo 81,129
10)Newark,N.J. 71,914
11)Louisville 68,033
12)Albany 62,237
TOTAL 2,908,135
In otherwords, by 1860 9.25% of the population of the United States lived in the top twelve cities (only slightly more than is the case today).
In 1860 the slave and free black population of the top twelve cities was
S&F Slave
1) New York- 17,573 0 New York & Kings
2) Philadelphia 22,185 0
3) Baltimore 27,898 2,218
4) Boston 2,398 0 Suffolk County
5) New Orleans 30,894 13,385
6) Cincinnati 4,608 0 Hamilton County
7) St. Louis 3,297 1,542
8) Chicago 1,007 0 Cook County
9) Buffalo 878 0
10)Newark,N.J. 1,757 0 Essex County
11)Louisville 6,820 4,903
12)Albany 938 0 Albany County
TOTAL 120,253 22,048
which means that 20.13% of the Free Black population in the United States lived in the cities, a percentage virtually unchanged since 1830. Perhaps the more significant figure however is that by 1860 81.6% of the total African American population in the top twelve cities was free, although by 1860 only 4.1% of the population of the top twelve American cities was African American, down from 11.6% in 1830.
Demographically what seems to be happening in the cities is that the African American population is managing to move from slavery to freedom (however difficult a life that freedom might be) and, I will try to argue, creating a subculture within the city, and in relationship to the country side that
1) facilitates the the escape from Southern Slavery (through such institions as the underground railroad),
2) helps finance freedom for a increasing number of African-Americans in the countryside, and most importantly of all,
3) provides a cultural center for the education and training of leaders who work with the white opponents of slavery to eradicate the institution of slavery altogether.
In geographic and economic terms, by 1860, Baltimore was fast becoming the commercial center of the South with strong ties by rail to St. Louis, Chicago, and William Cronon's frontier.
Within the State, the strongest trading links of the City were with the Eastern Shore and it is on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and in Baltimore City that the Free Black Population grows the fastest, bringing Maryland to the point in 1860 where of a total population of 687,049, 171,131 (24.9%) were African American of whom 49.05% were free.
Geographically the African American Population on Maryland's Eastern Shore was distributed as follows between 1790 and 1860:
1790 1850 1860
EASTERN SHORE F S F S F S
Caroline 421 2057 2788 808 2786 739
Cecil 163 3407 2623 844 2918 950
Dorchester 528 5337 3848 4282 4957 3243
Kent 655 5433 3143 2627 3411 2509
Queen Anne's 618 6674 3278 4270 3372 4174
Somerset 268 7070 3483 5588 4571 5089
Talbot 1076 4777 2593 4134 2964 3725
Worcester 178 3836 3014 3444 3571 3648
C) escape from Slavery: The opportunities afforded by the City, The case of Frederick Douglass of Talbot County and Baltimore City
D) Nat Turner of Southampton Co. Virginia
E) Thomas W. Henry, the link between city and Countryside.
F) the character of the subculture of the city- Baltimore as a case study