Why read Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood?

Book cover of Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood: African American Children in the Antebellum North

Book 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 But hidden in institutional records, school primers and penmanship books, biographical sketches, and unpublished documents is a rich…

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American history

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Why read it?

1 author picked Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Frances Clarke and Rebecca Jo Plant

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Historians have charted the long, slow process of emancipation in Northern states. But no one has looked before at how children fared during this process. Webster’s ground-breaking work shows that it was virtually impossible for Black children in ostensibly free states to escape politics: as individuals living in a racist society, and as symbols of African Americans’ future, whatever they did or said was invariably surveilled, dissected, and judged. Racist thinking and racialised structures also severely curtailed freedom for the young.

Many Black Northern children were indentured or bound out, often in exploitative labor arrangements that restricted future possibilities. Others…

From Frances' list on The best books on childhood in Civil War Era America.