Having donned the white gloves and left my belongings in a locker outside the research room myself, I know the patience it takes to sift through records, day after day, without finding what I was looking for or anything else of great interest. I also know the exhilaration of finding a “jackpot” of historical record so amazing and world-shaking (to me), that I wanted to not only scream out loud in joy, I wanted to climb up on the table to do it. I have found that some research libraries are amazingly helpful sources of information (In particular, The Library of Virginia in Richmond, The State Archives of North Carolina in Raleigh, and Warren County, NY). I have also discovered the frustration of running into petty bureaucrats more interested in blocking access from us mere mortals than in providing the public (me) with public records. I, too, have taken on the challenge of looking for “invisible” people, those who left behind few, if any, records, especially Native Americans, women and Black Americans. Because of my experience, I have the greatest admiration and respect for Carla Peterson and her accomplishment, Black Gotham.

We have forgotten many of the earliest contributors to our nation, including not only those of the Huguenots, Palatines, Walloons, Dutch, and Native Americans but also our Black ancestors. Later on, the people from Ireland, Italy and Spanish-speaking countries arrived in large numbers, facing their own hostilities from more established “Americans”. All of these people brought their experiences and customs that have shaped our constitution, financial system, calendar and everyday lives. Our forebears brought their hopes and ideals with them, along with the food, music and individual talents that make our country the smorgasbord of experience that it is today. An untold fact is that there were always some individuals who gave up in defeat and moved back to where they emigrated from or moved on to places that were perceived to be less hostile, while others defiantly stayed and pushed forward, no matter how great the difficulty. Some of our ancestors even managed to thrive, no matter how humble their beginnings or how large the obstacles.

This book could be ignored by people who are not Black, not interested in New York City and not interested in history. My major criticism of how history is taught in our schools and in our culture, other than rote memorization of names and dates that are meaningless unless the significance of the event is transmitted along with the facts, is that nationally we have only one narrative. That story is that our (white) ancestors came on the Mayflower from England, then we had the American Revolution, then all the black people came as slaves and then we fought some wars, but we never intermarried. We have forgotten some very important historical facts: We had 165 years of European settlement here (also known as “American” history) before the American Revolution and centuries before that there were dozens, if not hundreds, of Native American cultures that flourished on these lands. As early as the 1600s there were free Black people (as well as people from Ireland, Spain, Italy and other countries) living on the land that would later become America.

Many of us have heard family stories of black sheep in our family, (“White sheep” in Peterson’s case) and Indian grandmothers. In looking through the records, especially in the earliest days of the 1600s, I have often been struck by the divisions that were considered most important, especially in terms of marriage partners. Often it was not race, but whether a person was free, slave, indentured, servant, farmer, business owner, government official or clergy that was the determining factor. These divisions have also included religion and national origin as well as education level. Before the 1800s, there was more intermarriage of the races, and there were more slave owners in the north than our historical narrative would indicate. There were also enslaved white people. Peterson details the accomplishments, joys, horrors and tribulations shared by the Black community of a certain time and place in our history. There have always been the brethren of an indeterminate number who welcomed and occasionally protected the “others”, people who were fellow human beings and shared their American ideals and aspirations. Peterson includes them in her narrative. There have also always been those intent on the destruction of “the others” along with their contributions and accomplishments. While Peterson had started her journey, as many of us had, intrigued by family hints, she has opened the doorway into a world that most of us did not know existed. She has also left us with a story that leaves us wondering where our nation would be today if history had been different, if the institutions (like the Black Orphanage) created by all the visionaries, Black and otherwise, had been supported and built up to our mutual benefit, instead of torn down. In human history, and America is no exception, there have always been both builders and destroyers. Carla Peterson’s narrative of some of the Black builders of our republic is worth a look and leaves us wondering if we will, as a nation, want to change anything about the trajectory of our future. ( )