African American Elite Analysis

However, unwilling to follow the call of those who would have preferred to colonize them, African Americans started to forge a society of their own. Many Whites proved to be a formidable obstacle to these efforts as Litwack, Nash, and the other authors demonstrate. In a time of growing social, economic, and political exclusion these emerging communities had to integrate an increasing number of newcomers, first former slaves from rural northern parts, later increasingly refuges from the South. Having lived in close proximity with Whites for a long time, knew very well how reluctant they were to share their power. As such, African Americans understood very well that self-reliance would be key if they wanted to establish a livelihood that secured …show more content…
In his study of the African American elite during the antebellum period, Rael Patrick illustrates how the Black upper class approached this task; adding another crucial layer to Dain’s discussion on how African American intellectuals shaped the public discourse in the early Republic. Drawing their values and beliefs from contemporary from a northern culture they had helped to shape, members of the Black elite were not so much inclined to challenge the prevailing discourse than they were to change the public mind. In addition, in contexualizing the debate within the African American community itself, Rael identifies the elite’s primary aim—forging a common Black identity across socio-economic boundaries. Thus, their efforts were decisively pro-active and not just a reaction to the growing racial hostility among Whites. The specific conditions in the North—gradual abolition, the small number of Blacks, the lack of uniform measures of oppression, and a clear common aim, the abolition of slavery in the South—contributed to foster a common identity among African Americans based on an extensive definition of …show more content…
In his studies he elaborate but also challenges some of the common perceptions regarding the character of these relations. By identifying power as the root cause of the violent history between Native Americans and British, Sweet refutes the still common explanation that these tensions evolved out of cultural misunderstandings, not the struggle for land. Following Berlin and others, he also emphasizes the personal character of slavery in the North. In critically assessing the strategies of early Abolitionists, he suggests that their efforts to turn emancipation into a public matter, while relying on a private language of sentimentalism, set them up for failure. Their sentimental approach failed to call for political participation and civil rights, with the consequence that whilst free, Whites still conceive of African Americans as unequal. In challenging the findings of Nash, who suggested that the color line slowly but steadily increased in places like Philadelphia during the post-revolutionary period, Sweet suggests that it were not the racial lines that changed, but rather the number of instances which Whites perceived as