Probing the colonial history of New York City, Thelma Foote examines the broadly shared belief that slavery and antiblack racism were marginal to the experience of northern colonies in British North America. In this study of Dutch and English New York, she demonstrates that racial domination was a key foundation of society and culture in the seaport community and examines the interrelationship of racial tensions and breakdowns in colonial governance.
In this sober, thoughtful, profoundly researched book, Thelma Foote shows that Black people were fundamental to early New York. Under Dutch founders, English conquerors, and American Revolutionaries, slavery, racial thinking, and slaves' resistance were part of the main New York story. Much of that story is ugly, but it is an American tale that needs telling and Foote has told it very well. Edward Countryman, Southern Methodist University