black gotham carla peterson recounts the lives of black elites in new york city in the 19th century. professor peterson examines a community of black new read more ? recounts the lives of african-american elites in new ork. this is about an hour, ten minutes. um, i want the start out my talk with two quotes. um, they re both from the prologue of my book, and i ll give a little explanation for them, um, but they introduce why i decided to write book. write the book. so the first quote is in my own prose from the prologue. we still hold certain truths about african-americans to be self-evident; that the phrase 19th century black americans refers to enslaved people. that the, that new york state before the civil war denotes a place of freedom, that blacks in this new york city esignates harlem, that the black community posits a classless and culturally unified society, that a black elite did not exist until well into the 20th century. the lives of my new york forebearers belie