The Apex Of Black Power In America

Van Gosse, Professor and Associate Chair of History at Franklin & Marshall University, joins to discuss his recent book “The First Reconstruction: Black Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War,” on the political role of Black folks before their constitutional emancipation, and how their pre-Civil War work has been erased over time.

Gosse and Emma look into the different forms of emancipation following the revolution, and how northern New England saw a judicial, rather than gradual, emancipation, with Black people holding party offices, working polls, and taking part in patronage, before they touch on how white folks in New England would look to Black voters for validation of the Wigs’ fight for manumission. Next, Van and Emma move onto the roles of Black constituencies in different states, with Philly serving as the center for free Black folk in the north and Black New Yorkers engaging in a massive multi-decade political project in the early 1800s to take on a drastically more political role. They conclude the interview with disenfranchisement as a tactic to rally white voters, the white-washing project in US history to obscure Black folks’ role in fighting for progress, and explore the problematic nature of a progressive view of history.

Watch the Majority Report live MondayFriday at 12 p.m. EST on YouTube OR listen via daily podcast at

#SamSeder #EmmaVigeland #MajorityReport #politics #news #progressive #leftist #democrats #liberal

SUPPORT the show by becoming a member

Download TMR's FREE app

CHECK OUT MORE from the MR crew:

Matt Binder DOOMED

Brandon Sutton DISCOURSE

Emma Vigeland ESVN

Matt Lech LEFT RECKONING

OTHER LINKS:

Image Credit, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Image has been cropped and color has been altered.