HST296a: Community in Early America, Prof. J. Carr
Essay 2: April 4, 2005
Hope Greenberg
Idea of Community, Communities of Ideas
When the British tightened their control on the city of Boston in 1774,
they did so in a city that was already in decline. While the other port
cities of Philadelphia and New York had seen increased population
growth throughout the 18th century, Boston's population actually
declined after 1740. The spring of 1775, under occupation by the
British, saw the trickle turn into a flood as over 10,000
Bostonians--some two thirds of the population--fled.
- start with British occupation in both cities, how does that
highlight community/how does it not (black become Brits soldiers) then
work backward and forward from there
Whatever the earlier relationship between colonists and the Bristish,
during an occupation the British army was certainly a them not us
In negotiating the dividing line between occupier and occupied,
colonists also redefined community. where do slaves fit in?
Phial. symbolizes freedom so even before blacks get there they are
building a virtual community in their anticipation
One of the things whites have been able to do in America is move on if
they are not succeeding in a particular place. For blacks, with the
constant threat of kidnapping/reselling into slavery, this option is
more daunting. Thus it behopves them to make a go of building community
where they are.
Did Boston see itself as a whole or as communities of wards? There was
lots of migration around the city, so that would perhaps lead to them
seeing it as a whole. (see Carr demographic article
End; both the Philadelphia black community and the Boston community
were trying to define community for themsleves in early 19th cent. They
had a sense of themselves as communties and tried to define that sense
in more concrete terms (church, theatre)
For blacks in Boston (after law about non-citizens have to leave) as
for black Philadelphians, their own idea of community was often
circumscribed, overturned by dominant white cultures ideas.