Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Hopes and Expectations: The Origins of the Black Middle Class in Hartford

Hopes and Expectations: The Origins of the Black Middle Class in Hartford

Beeching, Barbara J.

Hardcover

Black American History19th Century United States HistoryRegional: New England

ISBN10: 1438461658
ISBN13: 9781438461656
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: Jan 13 2017
Pages: 296
Weight: 1.35
Height: 1.00 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English

Describes in rich detail African American daily life among free blacks in the North in the 1860s.

Winner of the 2017 Homer D. Babbidge Jr. Award presented by the Association for the Study of Connecticut History

Based on a treasure trove of more than two hundred personal letters written in the 1860s, Hopes and Expectations tells the story of three young African Americans in the North. Living on Maryland's eastern shore, schoolteacher Rebecca Primus sent home weeklies to her parents in Hartford and also corresponded with friend Addie Brown, a domestic worker back home. Addie wrote voluminously to Rebecca, lamenting their separation and describing her struggle to achieve a semblance of security and stability. Around the same time, Rebecca's brother, Nelson, began writing home about his new life in Boston, as he set out to make a name and a career for himself as an artist. The letters describe their daily lives and touch on race, class, gender, religion, and politics, offering rare entry into individual black lives at that time.

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