19世紀紐約黑人聚居區

While many Americans are familiar with black slavery in the South during the 19th Century and its role in igniting the nation’s great Civil War, less attention has been paid to the black experience in northern cities such as New York, where so-called "freedmen" lived.

很多美國人都熟知19世紀美國南方的黑奴制，以及奴隸制在引發美國內戰方面所起的作用。相對而言，注意黑人在北方城市如紐約市的生活情況的人就比較少一些。很多逃跑的黑奴以及所謂的“自由人”住在紐約市。

Now, a new book, "Black Gotham," by University of Maryland Professor Carla Peterson, shines a light on their remarkable stories.

有一本題爲《紐約黑人聚居區》的新書介紹了黑人在那裏的精彩歷史。

Much of the history of black 19th-Century New York has been lost, in part because it was eclipsed in the popular imagination by the saga of southern slavery. Additionally, mostly-white academic historians minimized the contributions of African-Americans. And no comprehensive archive of black life existed until the 20th Century, when the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture was established.

19世紀黑人在紐約的歷史大部分都散失了。好幾種原因造成了這種情況。南方的奴隸制引人注目，紐約的黑人被忽略了。另外，專業研究歷史的人大都是白人，對非洲裔美國人的貢獻輕描淡寫。黑人歷史的全面完整的檔案直到20世紀纔出現。

Peterson's ancestors were distinguished members of the city’s black elite and she felt theirs was a powerful story that needed to be told. She spent 11 years researching and writing her book.

馬里蘭大學教授卡拉·彼德森是《紐約黑人聚居區》一書的作者。她的祖先就是紐約市黑人上層社會的成員。她認爲紐約黑人的歷史十分精彩，應當讓人們瞭解。她爲寫這本書花了11年的時間蒐集材料。

"Writing this book was very important to me," says Peterson. "It was a journey of hard work, but also of love and passion."

她說：“寫這本書對我十分重要。寫這本書是艱苦勞動的旅程，但也是愛和激情的旅程。”

Led by free blacks such as clergyman Alexander Crummell, newspaper editor Charles Ray and businessman George Downing, members of New York’s black elite tried to establish themselves as full Americans, not merely as "Africans" or "coloreds" as black slaves had once been called and called themselves.

在自由的黑人如牧師亞歷山大·克倫梅爾、報紙編輯查爾斯·雷和商界人士喬治·唐寧的領導下，紐約黑人精英階層試圖爲自己贏得全面的美國人身份，而不僅僅是“非洲人”或者是“有色人種”。

Like members of outsider groups before and since, this African-American elite considered education to be the key to full citizenship. They also embraced values of character and responsibility.

跟先前的和以後的團體一樣，這個黑人精英階層認爲，教育是獲得全面公民身份的關鍵。

"A good, upright moral citizen, valuing temperance, a Protestant ethic of hard work, sobriety and all those kinds of inner values. Respectability then is the outward manifestation of character," says Peterson. "It’s in your appearance, how you dress, how you comport yourself, especially when you’re out on the streets of New York, and especially with whites. No loud, boisterous behavior but being utterly respectable and respectful."

彼德森教授說：“除此之外，還有我所說的人品和尊嚴等價值。人品是不問種族的，是一個人內在的東西，跟膚色和民族沒有關係，是一個人的本質：你必須是一個正直的、講道德的好公民，珍視節制，擁有刻苦工作的新教倫理，不酗酒，需要這些內在的品質。尊嚴則是人品的外在表現，比如你的穿着，你的風度，你走在紐約的大街上、跟白人在一起時風度如何。不大聲喧譁，行爲得體，令人尊敬，也尊敬別人。”

That didn’t mean the status quo went unchallenged. Peterson's book describes salon-style meetings in the back of James McCune Smith’s pharmacy. Smith, who was one of antebellum New York’s most important black leaders, hosted lively debates about voting rights for blacks and the abolition of slavery.

但這一切並不意味着當時紐約的黑人精英階層沒有對當時的狀況提出挑戰。彼德森的書描述了詹姆斯·麥克庫恩·史密斯藥房裏屋的沙龍聚會。史密斯是南北戰爭之前紐約最重要的黑人領袖之一。他主持了有關黑人投票權和廢除奴隸制問題的生動活潑的辯論。Alliances with whites were often forged. And like white New Yorkers, many in "Black Gotham" also wanted to be rich - but success could be fleeting.

當時的黑人也常常跟白人結盟。和紐約白人一樣，很多黑人聚居區裏的人也追求發財致富。彼德森指出，他們追求財富和社會地位平等，得到的結果捉摸不定。

"You see black New Yorkers make tremendous gains and then lose. Gains in terms of entrepreneurship, finding a trade, finding a profession, setting down roots, buying property, and feeling they were at last becoming a genuine part of city life. They would refer to ‘color-phobia’ as ‘fast disappearing in our city.’ But then there would be a loss."

她說：“你們看到紐約的黑人獲得了很大的成果，然後又損失掉他們的所獲。在創業、找到謀生行當、找到職業、落地生根、買房置地，感覺到他們終於真正地融入紐約生活方面，他們是取得了收穫。他們認爲仇視黑人的態度在紐約迅速消失。但後來又出現了倒退。”

Racial violence was also an issue. Peterson cites a riot in 1834, which began in a chapel where both black and white choirs were scheduled to rehearse at the same time.

"And the white choir went nuts. It was only a pretext, but a race riot broke out, and a lot of black property was damaged. Saint Philip’s Episcopal Church, which was the church of my family, was desecrated."

The Draft Riots of July 1863, during the height of the Civil War, were an especially low point in the history of black New York. When President Abraham Lincoln instituted a military draft, many immigrants, especially the Irish, thought they were being asked to fight and perhaps to die in a war being waged for the benefit of blacks. Angry mobs set out to destroy the dwellings and businesses of the city’s prosperous African-Americans.

1863年，在美國內戰最激烈的時候發生的徵兵騷亂是紐約黑人歷史上的低潮。林肯總統下令徵兵。而很多移民，尤其是愛爾蘭移民，認爲自己是被要求在一場爲黑人、而不是爲他們自己謀福利的戰爭中送死。一些暴民於是開始搗毀紐約市一些富裕黑人的住宅和商店。

But there was also some goodwill between the races. Peterson's great grandfather owned a pharmacy in a largely Irish neighborhood. He was known as a kind man who gave free medicine and clothes to the poor.

但彼德森教授說，紐約的黑人和白人之間也有善意。她的曾祖父在一個以愛爾蘭人爲主的地區開了一家藥店，免費送給窮人藥品和衣物，被公認爲是一個好人。

"So they came to see him as a pillar of the community. So at the time of the Draft Riots he was warned to leave. A group of white merchants in the area came to him and said ‘You’d better get out. Your pharmacy is going to be attacked.’ And he said, ‘As many men who are going to come and attack me, there will be as many who come to defend me.’ And that is exactly what happened. His Irish neighbors protected his pharmacy."

彼德森說：“人們就把他看作是社區的中堅。因此，在徵兵騷亂髮生的時候，有人給他通風報信，讓他離開。一些白人商人跟他說，你趕緊走吧，有人要來攻擊你的藥店。他說，有多少人攻擊我，就會有多少人來保護我。結果真的是這樣。他的愛爾蘭鄰居把他的藥店保護了下來。”

Then as now, New York was an ethnic melting pot, and Peterson says many black New Yorkers saw themselves as citizens of the world. Her own ancestors had roots in England, Haiti, Jamaica, Venezuela, American Indian territory as well as Africa.

當時的紐約市跟現在一樣是一個民族大熔爐。彼德森說，很多紐約黑人自認爲是世界公民。她自己的祖先就來自英國、海地、牙買加、委內瑞拉、美洲印第安人部落區，以及非洲。

She points out that more than a century later, many American blacks still lack the educational and economic opportunities that the mainstream enjoys. But Peterson adds that she has been gratified to learn that many black groups are inspired by the struggles and incremental successes of 19th-Century "Black Gotham."

彼德森指出，一個多世紀過去了，很多美國黑人依然沒有得到主流社會所得到的教育和經濟機會。但是，彼德森表示，她很高興地獲悉，很多黑人團體受到了《紐約黑人聚居區》的奮鬥和漸進式成功的鼓舞。