Van Gosse is Professor of History at Franklin and Marshall College. David Waldstreicher is Distinguished Professor of History at the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Gosse and Waldstreicher have assembled a well-organized and carefully edited collection. The editors and the authors have thoughtfully merged the unique historical research and analysis of each author with the volume's larger arguments about nineteenth-century Black people's political engagement. Their collection is only a preview of a developing body of work that will surely transform scholarly understandings of the evolution of US politics. (Early American Literature) [This] rich collection of essays brings together scholars of the Early Republic, the Civil War era, and African American life to reconceptualize Black political activism in the period between the Revolutionary and Reconstruction eras. Arguing that revolution, emancipation, and Reconstruction were interrelated processes, the editors open up a new vista through which historians will analyze these historical periods and Black political resistance. (The Journal of the Civil War Era) Revolutions and Reconstructions brilliantly reimagines the black political landscape before 1900. Each chapter is based on cutting edge work and the whole volume convincingly shows how African American political actors, whether at the local or national level, played pivotal roles on a number of civic and institutional fronts. It's an essential volume. (Richard Newman, Rochester Institute of Technology) This timely volume highlights the agency of African Americans by demonstrating that their efforts were ongoing, multifaceted, and driving American politics. The image of a nation going through a postwar reconstruction that was similar across regions has long been in need of correction, and this book is a significant contribution to that effort. (Beverly Tomek, University of Houston-Victoria)

• Introduction. Black Politics and U.S. Politics in the Age of Revolutions, Reconstructions, and EmancipationsVan Gosse and David WaldstreicherChapter 1. Women's Politics, Antislavery Politics, and Phillis Wheatley's American RevolutionDavid WaldstreicherChapter 2. Rethinking White Supremacy: Black Resistance and the Problem of Slaveholder AuthorityPadraig RileyChapter 3. In the Woodpile: Negro Electors in the First ReconstructionVan GosseChapter 4. Freedom and the Politics of Migration After the American RevolutionSamantha SeeleyChapter 5. Black Migration, Black Villages, and Black Emancipation in Antebellum IllinoisM. Scott HeermanChapter 6. Practicing Formal Politics Without the Vote: Black New Yorkers in the Aftermath of 1821Sarah L. H. GronningsaterChapter 7. "Agitation, Tumult, Violence Will Not Cease": Black Politics and the Compromise of 1850Andrew DiemerChapter 8. Black Politics and the "Foul and Infamous Lie" of Dred ScottChristopher James BonnerChapter 9. The "Free Cuba" Campaign, Republican Politics, and Post-Civil War Black InternationalismJames M. Shinn Jr.Chapter 10. The Southern Division: Freedpeople, Pensions, and Federal State Building in the Post-Confederate SouthDale KretzEpilogue. Telling and Retelling: The Diversity of Black Political PracticesKellie Carter JacksonAfterwordLaura F. Edwards

Van Gosse is Professor of History at Franklin and Marshall College. David Waldstreicher is Distinguished Professor of History at the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Gosse and Waldstreicher have assembled a well-organized and carefully edited collection. The editors and the authors have thoughtfully merged the unique historical research and analysis of each author with the volume's larger arguments about nineteenth-century Black people's political engagement. Their collection is only a preview of a developing body of work that will surely transform scholarly understandings of the evolution of US politics. (Early American Literature) [This] rich collection of essays brings together scholars of the Early Republic, the Civil War era, and African American life to reconceptualize Black political activism in the period between the Revolutionary and Reconstruction eras. Arguing that revolution, emancipation, and Reconstruction were interrelated processes, the editors open up a new vista through which historians will analyze these historical periods and Black political resistance. (The Journal of the Civil War Era) Revolutions and Reconstructions brilliantly reimagines the black political landscape before 1900. Each chapter is based on cutting edge work and the whole volume convincingly shows how African American political actors, whether at the local or national level, played pivotal roles on a number of civic and institutional fronts. It's an essential volume. (Richard Newman, Rochester Institute of Technology) This timely volume highlights the agency of African Americans by demonstrating that their efforts were ongoing, multifaceted, and driving American politics. The image of a nation going through a postwar reconstruction that was similar across regions has long been in need of correction, and this book is a significant contribution to that effort. (Beverly Tomek, University of Houston-Victoria)

• Introduction. Black Politics and U.S. Politics in the Age of Revolutions, Reconstructions, and EmancipationsVan Gosse and David WaldstreicherChapter 1. Women's Politics, Antislavery Politics, and Phillis Wheatley's American RevolutionDavid WaldstreicherChapter 2. Rethinking White Supremacy: Black Resistance and the Problem of Slaveholder AuthorityPadraig RileyChapter 3. In the Woodpile: Negro Electors in the First ReconstructionVan GosseChapter 4. Freedom and the Politics of Migration After the American RevolutionSamantha SeeleyChapter 5. Black Migration, Black Villages, and Black Emancipation in Antebellum IllinoisM. Scott HeermanChapter 6. Practicing Formal Politics Without the Vote: Black New Yorkers in the Aftermath of 1821Sarah L. H. GronningsaterChapter 7. "Agitation, Tumult, Violence Will Not Cease": Black Politics and the Compromise of 1850Andrew DiemerChapter 8. Black Politics and the "Foul and Infamous Lie" of Dred ScottChristopher James BonnerChapter 9. The "Free Cuba" Campaign, Republican Politics, and Post-Civil War Black InternationalismJames M. Shinn Jr.Chapter 10. The Southern Division: Freedpeople, Pensions, and Federal State Building in the Post-Confederate SouthDale KretzEpilogue. Telling and Retelling: The Diversity of Black Political PracticesKellie Carter JacksonAfterwordLaura F. Edwards

Van Gosse is Professor of History at Franklin and Marshall College. David Waldstreicher is Distinguished Professor of History at the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Gosse and Waldstreicher have assembled a well-organized and carefully edited collection. The editors and the authors have thoughtfully merged the unique historical research and analysis of each author with the volume's larger arguments about nineteenth-century Black people's political engagement. Their collection is only a preview of a developing body of work that will surely transform scholarly understandings of the evolution of US politics. (Early American Literature) [This] rich collection of essays brings together scholars of the Early Republic, the Civil War era, and African American life to reconceptualize Black political activism in the period between the Revolutionary and Reconstruction eras. Arguing that revolution, emancipation, and Reconstruction were interrelated processes, the editors open up a new vista through which historians will analyze these historical periods and Black political resistance. (The Journal of the Civil War Era) Revolutions and Reconstructions brilliantly reimagines the black political landscape before 1900. Each chapter is based on cutting edge work and the whole volume convincingly shows how African American political actors, whether at the local or national level, played pivotal roles on a number of civic and institutional fronts. It's an essential volume. (Richard Newman, Rochester Institute of Technology) This timely volume highlights the agency of African Americans by demonstrating that their efforts were ongoing, multifaceted, and driving American politics. The image of a nation going through a postwar reconstruction that was similar across regions has long been in need of correction, and this book is a significant contribution to that effort. (Beverly Tomek, University of Houston-Victoria)

• Introduction. Black Politics and U.S. Politics in the Age of Revolutions, Reconstructions, and EmancipationsVan Gosse and David WaldstreicherChapter 1. Women's Politics, Antislavery Politics, and Phillis Wheatley's American RevolutionDavid WaldstreicherChapter 2. Rethinking White Supremacy: Black Resistance and the Problem of Slaveholder AuthorityPadraig RileyChapter 3. In the Woodpile: Negro Electors in the First ReconstructionVan GosseChapter 4. Freedom and the Politics of Migration After the American RevolutionSamantha SeeleyChapter 5. Black Migration, Black Villages, and Black Emancipation in Antebellum IllinoisM. Scott HeermanChapter 6. Practicing Formal Politics Without the Vote: Black New Yorkers in the Aftermath of 1821Sarah L. H. GronningsaterChapter 7. "Agitation, Tumult, Violence Will Not Cease": Black Politics and the Compromise of 1850Andrew DiemerChapter 8. Black Politics and the "Foul and Infamous Lie" of Dred ScottChristopher James BonnerChapter 9. The "Free Cuba" Campaign, Republican Politics, and Post-Civil War Black InternationalismJames M. Shinn Jr.Chapter 10. The Southern Division: Freedpeople, Pensions, and Federal State Building in the Post-Confederate SouthDale KretzEpilogue. Telling and Retelling: The Diversity of Black Political PracticesKellie Carter JacksonAfterwordLaura F. Edwards