Jim Crow North: The Struggle for Equal Rights in Antebellum New England by Richard Archer (review)

Persons of African descent in New England endured segregation, discrimination, and the loss of civil liberties in the decades after the American Revolution. By 1861, however, they and their white supporters eradicated some forms of Jim Crowism. Richard Archer, the author of Jim Crown North, concludes that, "New Englanders were no more inherently virtuous than any other people," they just encountered African Americans less often (p. 131). Consequently, "equal rights for people of color often were more an abstraction than an intimate part of life" (p. 131).

Jim Crow North distinguishes itself from Leonard Litwack's North of Slavery (1961) and James and Lois Horton's In Hope of Liberty (1997). Narrower in scope, Archer's work focuses on the struggle to attain civil liberties in one part of the antebellum North. The book's most innovative contribution is a "database" of over four hundred interracial marriages in the region. Using federal censuses, Archer presents information about them collectively and includes vignettes on several individual couples. The author doubts that they "entered such [interracial] unions as a political act" (p. 165). Instead, he suggests, "love like racism comes in many forms" (p. 166).

While the Jim Crow North concentrates on the antebellum period, Archer also provides a brief survey of racial attitudes in New England during the colonial period. After 1700, as the number of slaves increased, racism emerged and discriminatory legislation restricted the rights of both slaves and free blacks. The author contends that, "the emergence of overt racism in eighteenth-century New England primarily was the consequence of what people experienced and constructed at the time" (p. 30).

After the American Revolution, slavery in the region ended. As the number of slaves decreased, the size of the free-black population increased and "an even more virulent racism and a Jim Crow environment materialized" (p. 33). Schools, transportation, and churches were segregated by race. Connecticut and Rhode Island no longer allowed African American males to vote. New Haven residents blocked the establishment of a manual labor college for African Americans and Prudence Crandall's attempt to open a school for African American girls in Canterbury, Connecticut, similarly failed due to local opposition. African Americans in Hartford and Providence also endured racial violence.

Archer then examines efforts to counteract Jim Crow. In the case of segregated transportation, "direct action," such as "sit-ins, boycotts, petition drives, [and] political maneuvering," succeeded in forcing change (p. 91). Attempts to end segregated schools were also successful but progressed more slowly; in Boston, integration took fifteen years. By 1842, African American males could vote in all New England states except Connecticut and, in the 1850s, Bostonians resisted attempts to return runaway slaves after passage of a new Fugitive Slave Law. Most New Englanders also accepted interracial marriages.

Yet other forms of discrimination remained. Some militia units were still segregated as was seating in some churches. African Americans still could not attend public schools in large cities in Connecticut and Rhode Island. People of African descent continued to encounter racism among some of their white neighbors. Additionally, their race and poverty often prevented African Americans from achieving "social and economic mobility" (p. 215).

Jim Crow North is a welcome addition to the literature on African American residents of New England during the antebellum period. While the author considers subjects such as transportation and education in detail, other topics including the experiences of Afro-Indians, employment opportunities, housing, and churches receive less attention. The book is based on an impressive variety of sources including federal and state censuses, newspapers, state records, printed letters and diaries, and numerous secondary sources.