| FA-51715-05 | Research Programs: Fellowships for University Teachers | Carla L. Peterson | Reconstructing African American Life in Nineteenth-Century New York City | 9/1/2005 - 6/30/2006 | $40,000.00 | Carla | L. | Peterson | | | | University of Maryland, College Park | College Park | MD | 20742-5141 | USA | 2004 | African American Studies | Fellowships for University Teachers | Research Programs | 40000 | 0 | 40000 | 0 |
My book reconstructs the social and cultural life of 19th-century black New Yorkers through the medium of family history. I focus on two figures--my paternal great-great-grandfather Peter Guignon (1813-85), and his son-in-law, my great-grandfather, Philip White (1824-91). Their careers as social activists, educators, and entrepreneurs exist to a surprising degree in the public record, and I recreate the larger social network within which they lived and worked. Family biography thus serves as a window onto a broader social panorama of black life that enhances our understanding not only of black New Yorkers but of African-American society in general. The project's methodologies and narrative style are designed to reach a broad audience. |