A Comparative Study of African American Identity Creation in Antebellum New Jersey

Summary

Nineteenth century Fair Haven, New Jersey was home to an African American community that persevered through religious and structural racism. Racism that escalated to the burning of their Free-African American School house.The African American history of Fair Haven is one of gradual emancipation accompanied by gradual gentrification. This research provides an important avenue to rediscovering a long forgotten and dynamic enclave of African Americans that once existed in Fair Haven. Examination of the struggles experienced by this community, its development, and its modification over time may provide important insights into African American lives in 19th-century New Jersey and provide clues to the ways in which African Americans relied on these enclaves and their associated institutions to survive within and adapt to broader socio-cultural changes in New Jersey.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeologies Of Violence And Privilege   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 242