In the ‘Amalgamated City,’ Black English Was Mostly White — and Weird

It’s easy to think that there was nothing vibrant about Black New York until the Harlem Renaissance came around.

A captivating new book sets us straight on that: “A Moment in the Sun: Black Manhattan Before the Civil War,” by the historian Shane White (who is Australian, as it happens). He captures Black life in Manhattan from the 1820s through the 1850s, and pays particular attention to the copious court records of the period.

It was a brief, shining moment. After the 1850s, significant immigration from Europe reduced the Black population to only 1.5 in 100 New Yorkers, and the real estate crunch segregated Black people into poor, isolated neighborhoods. To be Black........

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