that they had with blacks and other cities like philadelphia, boston, so for. and last week to one of my audiences audiences there is a man from philly and we cannot do both go to get the difference in black philadelphia boston went very different than new york and we can talk about the q&a if you want to. finally not the least important as a sense of being a citizen of the world, that they are cosmopolitan, that they belong to the entire world and were part of the entire world. so let me start by talking a little bit about the elite in this idea of the wide circle of the leading citizens of new york and vicinity. so the first thing i want to point out is the way in which education was really absolutely foundational to disbelieved. if nothing else i could say, this is a book about education.

education, education, education. what you hear now is not new at all. turn on new york wanting you hear about the school system, et cetera, et cetera. same issues that then. this is the most famous school of the african preschooler named albertson preschool where my great, great grandfather, peter guignon went to school with a bunch of young men who turn out to be real leaders of the black community, both the new york and beyond. i'll just than the ones that want to come and talk about later. there was george downing, charles woodson from his brother and genes mccuen smith. so the valleys there were very much the values of a liberal arts education, the solid foundation of a liberal or education. in addition to that commentary

development through education and other areas. character was one, respectability and other. the acquisition of wealth. this is new york. physically work hard, become very skilled in your tree during your profession and make money in the process. but then give money back to the community. and finally, this idea cosmopolitanism can read shakespeare, read wordsworth and have a sense of the entire world. so what i think is really important to think here is the way in which we say black american or african american, and image immediately comes to mind. what i want to point out is they are very dynamic process of making identity in this period. people have been kidnapped and brought inflated to the new world to the united states to new york and they didn't become

black americans are african-americans overnight, but it's a process of struggle and of trying to forge identity and that's what the schooling was all about. good to pass on circle number one come to pass on circle number two is the black community itself with all the institutions literary society, political societies and so forth. and i'm not going to spend much time talking about these. we can come back during the q&a. they were mainly male organizations. women are not members. they are definitely not officers. they are invited as companions to a talk like now. but they would never be a member of the greenwich village society for historic preservation, but they could accompany their spouse to it. and that was an incredible research problem for me, which i can talk about later. the other thing -- so that

basically is the black community and i'm going to pass on. so education schools were one in churches the other and my family's church of saint philip's episcopal church is down here in lower manhattan now and heart-lung. and this is i'm going to than the rest of my time talking. and i have a section of a book titled distance and proximity because what i want to point out is some matter how distant lack new yorkers were from their white counterparts from either poor natives born irish immigrants or even wealthier ways, they were another -- there is still proximity because they lived downtown in racially mixed neighborhood. in words five, word six, wordy. they were always close to others, people who are not like them.

not necessarily in the same house with the same tenement, but maybe 10 tenement on the street or at lease talked about. what this led to were some really surprising -- to be surprising into them also, i predict it will contacts with waves. and i'm just going to mention a couple of things that i talk about and i think make this point. the first is all new yorkers experienced the same indignity of living in new york, the same filth, the same pigs who are running around, eating garbage and knocking people over inviting you in the leg. the same disease like smallpox, like cholera, yellow fever unless you are wealthy escape town. but the other thing may be more important is this idea of what i call wednesday, that there's no real set protocol for race

relations. he would think that in the 1840s, 50s, 60s but the city in which racial discrimination, hostility is so intense that every boundary would be tightly drawn and you would really know what to do. and yet they encountered what i called wednesday night at the are rich a pair but see if i can switch back my new toy. in her memoir, says rating for colored folks depended upon the whims of respect in state drivers. and she goes on to talk about going to school, how at times she was free to get on the railroad car, no problem. at other times she was like now, you have to wait for the colored car. that would be one example. another would be going to crystal palace, which was agreed that they put on in the 1850s model after london's crystal palace at this great exhibit of

and newspapers of black new yorkers have been casting the horoscope as to whether colored people would be admitted. so one day you could be admitted, and other not. then there were high cultural events. and anyway, the, the black coleco that class would trump race. but if they had education understood kind of high culture that they would be free to go. and that was true a lot of times they went to the opera, the plays, valier's bookstore, the appeals are gallery, but in one instance, they were forbidden to enter. and this is when one of their round, an opera singer named elizabeth taylor greenfield came up from philadelphia, black singer, to sing in the hall in which she was to sing did not have a segregated section. so the black elite were turned

away and told they couldn't enter commiserated basie brouhaha and were finally allowed to get in. so that is to show the confusion, there will wednesday that operated in new york for the black elite and for all black new yorkers. so for the remainder -- for my next half of the talk, i'm going to focus on this area, something that dana asked me to do and i'm going to focus specifically on three sites. one is broadway, another is lawrence street, which was parallel to thompson street north of houston and the third is a lawrence street school. the third is the african growth theaters located on mercer street. and what to show two things. one is the way in which distant and proximity philip teemed in this area and the other is the u.k. see a way to also point out

one talking about what happened in certain places to point out some of the moral values underlying the happenings. some going to talk a little bit about the weight lead. the white elite started downtown like everybody did and gradually start to move up, try to flee the very thing they were creating, commercialization, brouhaha in the city. so they came up to the village to st. johns park end up broadway and at a certain point of course we moved north of bleecker street. and there is that phase above bleecker st. and that is where the upper 10 minutes they called lived and they were also in the bunk st. lafayette place area. the a.i. to read now a little passage from my book in which i

talk about george foster and the way in which he captures broadway and not. so going on the way out broadway, sturdy maybe a little at below houston and going out. i talk about the way in which the bond street lafayette area is very nice and quiet. but was not quiet was broadway, an avenue march by contrast, writer george foster well captured its flavor in his most recent book in the new york incisive. there is the contrast of morning and afternoon. at daybreak, broadway was touched in solitary. if you were about could amuse themselves watching the flying gallop furiously to have the first cut at the new garbage. later in the day however enough for people would search through the street. a human river in a fresh air and filming toward the sea. then there were the contrast of building.

among some of the truly fine structures, others have sprung up haphazardly, a brick schoolhouse or copper burn here, penitentiary or pounding. send the copyright depended on where you lived, down a rotten cellar door, straight ahead a plate glass window stuffed with gaudy cashmere's mlb must. held together by wire clothes lines. but foster failed to mention was the contrast between day and night because come nightfall the area around houston street would be overrun with people. customers in search of good food, good drink, good entertainment and yes, good sex. the area had become a center of the sex trade or everywhere in hotels in the private sufferings of restaurants and absurd streaky rooms in the that line

the streets and streets were they handed out cards. walt whitman was certain that in no other place codifies show itself so it can be terribly. so, that is broadway. then i want to move on to my second place, which is the lawrence street school for colored children located a few blocks north of houston. and i do not -- unfortunately i don't have an image of it. and this is where my great-grandfather -- migrate to my great grandfather goes to the mulberry street school in my great, great grandfather goes to the lawrence street school. and i know a lot about my great-grandfather because of the very linked to you that she that this man, george downing wrote and published in the brooklyn to the senate the time of my great-grandfather's death. so my great-grandfather was named thomas wait, that he was a

white man from northern england. he says absolutely nothing about philip's mother, but from looking at philips death certificate, says that she comes from jamaica. her name was elizabeth steele. she was undoubtedly black. she's the one who because of her, make great grandfather is labeled as colored or mulatto. i don't know what they matter whether she was flavor for you. i don't know whether they married. i don't know how they ended up in the united states, the thomas dies in 1835 in an attempt to elizabeth steele white to get her children and education and she gets -- philip goes to the lawrence street school. and in one of these serendipitous moments of research, i was at the new york historical society than looking through the public school records. some 90 volumes that handwriting

and i come across this note that says that the public school society twice paid my great-grandfather in january 25 and then on 281840, $3 for making fires and african public school number two for a period of months. so the building was cold and he was paid to keep the building war by making fires. i also found on on june 111841 public schools with adp does it this way $15 for cleaning them whitewashing primary school number seven. so you see in what hard times they were and how they really had to scramble. so philip went to this school and the boys principal was charles reason and he was the one who it gone to school with my great-grandfather at the

mulberry school -- street school in the 1820s. so what i think is so significant tears at the mulberry street school, weight teachers have taught these young black men, peter guignon, charles reason, better another lawrence street school, black teachers are teaching black youth. so this active mentorship was so incredibly important for the elite. many different kinds of courses. he studied latin and history, both ancient many different kinds of courses. he studied latin in history, both ancient and modern. and then 25 years later as charles reason is a teacher, the same teacher. and this is what she says about 10. cultured, refined, claimed to be a little supercilious was quite intolerant of mediocrity.

he instinctively shunned the ordinary and commonplace and kept himself aloof from all that was awkward and unseemly. he could and would teach, but only if alaska's right choice in the selection of his pupils. those willing and able to submit to prophecies found compensation far in excess of exaction. attack of the study, developed the study for steady-state to those mentally alert, aspiring intelligent he disclosed in shares. satisfaction in wonder, whoever could be trained to enjoy what he enjoyed in the way please tend have measureless content as complete as exception. so i don't know whether you'd like to have a master teacher, but that's what he was. so philip was according to george downing a very good student, worked very hard and did very well at the lawrence street school. so i'm graduation he needed to learn a trade.

so his mother, elizabeth, with the help of george downing placed him first with patrick reason. so patrick is charles older brother i think and he had become an engraver. he had worked. he did practice with the engraver from britain, stephen kimber i think have become quite a well-known engraver and he took philip into a shop as an apprentice. it didn't work out. so downing says that three months probation satisfied parent and mastered the apprentice had not the slightest aptitude for the work. so then philip came forward with his own idea and pronounced that he wanted to be a pharmacist. so that is when he was sent to a printed with james mcewan smith in his pharmacy on west broadway and because he had a two-year apprenticeship he was able to go to the college of pharmacy and

you know the rest of the story. so what i want to point out not only that these amendments are so up, but also they were businessmen in their own right. i want to emphasize the degree to which entrepreneurship was so important in the black community as the hardware show that you are working hard, the satisfaction of doing really well, becoming really skilled in your trade or your profession and finally as i said, making money in order to buy property, become a property owner, be able to vote because there is a two and $50 minimum to vote and in order to give back to the community. said george downing had a store on broadway north of bleecker -- right above leaker. he placed ads in the new york

daily tribune that posters of such specialties of pickled oysters in both turkey and was appealing into both white white and black customers. patrick reason engraving spot was on bond street and was patient dies by the families on bond street, the white elite with last names like word, schermerhorn, and in turn, low, et cetera. so these men were doing very well. wealth was not the only important thing for the black elite as they said e4. one was respect -- another was respect ability. you have to behave in a respectable way as well as kerry terry. so characters the formation -- the moral formation of the south and respectability is the outward manifestation. if you're not brave moral person, if you work hard, go to church, treat your family well

and so forth, then it would automatically show on the outside improper behavior, proper forms of dress and so forth. so it was as important -- probably more important than well in acquiring and becoming part of the black elite. to give you a sense of -- let me see, so that's my great grandfather, philip white. so think of him as the image of respectability, okay? so he has to start store, and makes quite a bit of money, promotes black education, he is the pillar of saint philip's episcopal church. he is mr. respectability himself. so i now want to go on to the disrespectful because the kids an idea about this

respectability -- of respectability by looking at this respectability. so here he gives. you can turn to my family tree. this is my great, great grandparent, joseph marshall and elizabeth t. let marshall. this is elizabeth's brother. he is my great great great grand uncle. and his name is james hewitt and the only way i could really give you a flavor of what he is like us to read the passage from a book, so i'm going to do a little reading now. the details of hewitt's career fascinating that incomplete. he was a member of the african growth theater formed by william brown in 1821. so this is a location on mercer street. they gave you broadway, lawrence street and now this is mercer street. so the african growth theater formed by william brown in 1821. initially the aspen grove was

simply a tea garden in brown's backyard, where black new yorkers congregated for musical events and social activities. once the theater company was formed, he played in different locations until brown opened his own space on mercer street in 1822. from then until the early 1830s, hewitt performed with rounds company and also in many other venues close to home, the military guardian in brooklyn, somewhat farther afield in philadelphia, saratoga in alexandria, virginia and even across the seas in london and south america. hulett aspire to be a pure shakespearian terror. he played the lead role in richard the third and also gave solo performance is a scenes from a fellow. much like other budding actors of the day, he honed his craft by imitating famous shakespearean performers like admin team. some of hewitt's other roles were more explicitly subversive

however. , indirectly hinting at subordination resistance to black americans. .. or even his politics that his family found so offensive. they might well, because of that, there's a note in the papers saying he was a play actor in his day and was drummed out of the family. so it's not necessary his acting s or even his politics that hislyo family found so offensive. they might well have enjoyedd t watching him and rolls of richard iii 14 shot away.m made

but racism made theatergoing a dangerous activity. white new yorkers were hostile to brown enterprise. the complaint about malaise from that t. garden. they object to the theater staging of shakespeare's most popular play of the day and presented a brown's aggressive recruitment of white customers. in 1822, commodores burst out into the open. the police raided the theater during a january performance and arrested the actors. a group followed suit in august storming of the theater and causing a riot. hewitt assumed to have the skill to bodily harm although brown was severely beaten. it's also true that hulett could single-handedly stroke of bad publicity that must have made his family cringe. first, there were reports possibly true, possibly not come about his performance is that was on the stereotype of the child like black.

pamphleteer siren snipes insisted that when hewitt simbel let's he translated the lyrics into black dialect, reciting lines [inaudible] is a heart that never left for the disabled. british actor charles matthews who had presented him while touring the united states also satirized and in public. returning to london, mathews created a show based on his american trip in which he mocked his strange and ludicrous alterations to hamlet which included his singing of the real negro melody at the end of the performance. hewlett responded by publishing a rebuttal when a local newspaper. defending his own acting abilities as well as the right of blacks to perform shakespeare. although a laudable act of self-defense, the letter also opened a hewlett up to more bad publicity. then there were hewlett's

repeated problems with the law. in some cases, he was a victim or a mere bystander. when he decided to open a shop which was a dry cleaners in 1823 to make ends meet, a competitor beat him up. in 1825, hewlett took a position as stewart on board a ship but was obliged to testify in court after a passenger was accused of repeatedly assaulting the only other passenger on board. but in later years, hewlett turned perpetrator. in 1835, he signed up as the ships to word. while still on port he was arrested and convicted of stealing various articles from the ship including several bottles of wine and porter and served a six month sentence. in 1837, he was accused of seducing and abandoning a white woman and was sentenced to one months of hard labor. later the same year, he was caught stealing a watch from the

house of a man who just died and was returned to prison. despite his please, gentlemen, please don't put me in the newspapers. it will hurt my characters come his misdeeds were reported in the press. after this episode, hewlett disappears from public view. so i did my best to try to trace him down but with no luck. so that gives you an example of this respectability, the kind of things the black elite and my family sharm and wanted to have no part of. so i want to come back and say a little bit about women, and one can say i can talk more about what they did in the q&a, but here i just want to point out the way in which women as part of the black elite helped to police the norms of respectable behavior. so they were the ones who were very prominent in defining the

norms of respectability. the memoir offers a rare and fascinating glimpse into the social lives of the black elite and tells of the pleasures they enjoyed the sport the horace conditions under which they labored. among the friends of our family or to circle's founded on personal preference. these were led respectively by mrs. clarice, that is his wife, and elizabeth west bowers the former gathered about her the studious and the conservative and kept the open house for all visitors of note. the latter was surrounded by loving folks young and old. and this not to have a good time was impossible. dhaka honor of being able to hope the strain of french blood made her queen of entertainers and covered her with a taste in social functions that were irreproachable. many pages later she added a

third woman, her mother. so if i can go back, married joseph lyons. her mother to the list. mother was the life of a mine herger but young single and married folks who found in her asocial woman whose company was as agreeable as when she was a meeting. with her it was possible to have a good time without fathers. her guests were frequent and they played games were sold for charity. and all like found many an opportunity to pass many delightful hours with her in the home or courtesy, sociability and friendliness reamed supreme. it was permissible for the families to move one circle to another. no hard and fast lines were drawn however eclectic for the same could be now in one circle and the other so you can