marginalia no. 9+
Before the nadir
Derecka Purnell, you’re so good at this. Thank you for this book.
Also….I know, I know friends. Not much marginalia today. The last week has been full of time with last week of classes and events, the SkyBabies, chosen family, and, a few other projects….
I’m also getting ready to teach the Black freedom struggle to 1896—known at different institutions as the course that focuses on the first half of African American history. Except I don’t end it with the Civil War or emancipation or even the bloody compromise that led to the election of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877. I end it with Plessy v Ferguson decision in 1896. The Supreme Court closing down legal (and liberal) opportunities for integration is the last hurrah for Black Reconstruction, civil rights, and liberal inclusion of the formerly enslaved into the nation for another sixty years. The nadir follows….a history that should feel painfully familiar to us at this point.
Since I last taught this course, more than a few books about Black histories of slavery and African diaspora have come out. In lieu of marginalia, sharing a list of some of the juicier readings. Looking forward to sharing their marginalia in the weeks ahead.
If you’re looking for something to read and you pick one of these up, let me know. Or check out something else on the shelves of the Kitchen Table.
Black History before the “Nadir”
Alexander, Leslie M. Fear of a Black Republic: Haiti and the Birth of Black Internationalism in the United States. University of Illinois Press, 2022.
Ashaolu, Gloria J. “‘Rich Cargoes of Contributions’: Jane Dabney Shackelford and the Early Black History Movement.” The Journal of African American History 109, no. 4 (2024): 619–46. https://doi.org/10.1086/732141.
Bland, Robert D. Requiem for Reconstruction: Black Countermemory and the Legacy of the Lowcountry’s Lost Political Generation. University of North Carolina Press, 2026.
Cooper, Melissa L. Making Gullah: A History of Sapelo Islanders, Race, and the American Imagination. University of North Carolina Press, 2017.
Dixon, Bradley J. Republic of Indians: Empires of Indigenous Law in the Early American South. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2025.
Foreman, P. Gabrielle, Jim Casey, and Sarah Lynn Patterson. The Colored Conventions Movement: Black Organizing in the Nineteenth Century. UNC Press Books, 2021.
Gonzalez, Aston. Visualizing Equality: African American Rights and Visual Culture in the Nineteenth Century. UNC Press Books, 2020.
Gosse, Van. The First Reconstruction: Black Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War. University of North Carolina Press, 2022.
Hatfield, April Lee. Boundaries of Belonging: English Jamaica and the Spanish Caribbean, 1655-1715. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023.
Jackson, Kellie Carter. We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance. Basic Books, 2024.
Naylor, Celia E. African Cherokees in Indian Territory: From Chattel to Citizens. Univ of North Carolina Press, 2009.
Nunley, Tamika Y. At the Threshold of Liberty: Women, Slavery, and Shifting Identities in Washington, D.C. UNC Press Books, 2021.
Pryor, Elizabeth Stordeur. Colored Travelers: Mobility and the Fight for Citizenship Before the Civil War. University of North Carolina Press, 2021.
Ribianszky, Nik. Generations of Freedom: Gender, Movement, and Violence in Natchez, 1779-1865. University of Georgia Press, 2021.
Taylor, Nikki M. Brooding over Bloody Revenge: Enslaved Women’s Lethal Resistance. Cambridge University Press, 2023.
Webster, Crystal Lynn. Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood: African American Children in the Antebellum North. University of North Carolina Press, 2021.
Welch, Kimberly M. Black Litigants in the Antebellum American South. UNC Press Books, 2018.
Wilkinson, A. B. Blurring the Lines of Race and Freedom: Mulattoes and Mixed Bloods in English Colonial America. UNC Press Books, 2020.
Williams, Heather Andrea. Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery. Univ of North Carolina Press, 2012.
Williams, Kidada E. I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War against Reconstruction. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023.
Winfree, Brooks. “Black Labor in Native Texas: Slavery, Family, and Mobility, 1821–1861.” The Journal of African American History 110, no. 1 (2025): 89–111. https://doi.org/10.1086/733982.
