Harris, Leslie. In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626 – 1863. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003.

== Summary: ==
“Central
to the story of slavery and freedom in New York City is the development of
class relations and community among blacks.” (3) She thus argues that by using
New York City as a case study, she demonstrates “the ways northern slavery and
emancipation, southern slavery, and racial identities influenced the
construction of class and community for blacks and whites in the pre-Civil War
United States.” (4) The experiences with slavery and emancipation in early
colonial New York and how those experiences were interpreted shaped labor
relations and attitudes of black and whites to black labor. “The existence of
slavery in New York,” she writes, “had an indelible effect on the political and
economic institutions of the city.” Slaves came to symbolize, by the
revolutionary war, the subordinate position whites felt as workers and citizens
of the British Empire. “By the end of the period of emancipation in 1827,
whites had legally, economically, and social designated black people as a
separate, dependent and unequal group within the New York City community.” (5) She
also argues that the formation of class distinctions with the black community
was the result of different responses to racism. Looking at four distinct
periods, In the Shadow of Slavery “focuses
on the ways in which increasingly during the antebellum period class
distinctions among blacks affected arguments about black community,
particularly as expressed through political activism against racism and
slavery.” (9) 
Example: In
response to the economic downturn after the War of 1812, many whites (working
class and elites) saw black labor as a competition and limited their political
rights (also linked blacks with poor public behavior, etc). Also, ideology of Manumission Society shaping black politics after 1812. 
See also: WEB Dubois, Eugene Genovese, Barbara Jeanne Fields, Walter Johnson, David Roedegger,