Dangerous Economies: Status and Commerce in Imperial New York

Early American Studies

by Serena R. Zabin

Before the American Revolution, the people who lived in British North America were not just colonists; they were also imperial subjects. To think of eighteenth-century New Yorkers as Britons rather than incipient Americans allows us fresh investigations into their world. How was the British Empire experienced by those who lived at its margins? How did the mundane affairs of ordinary New Yorkers affect the culture at the center of an enormous commercial empire? Dangerous Economies is a history of New York culture and commerce in the first two thirds of the eighteenth century, when Britain was just beginning to catch up with its imperial rivals, France and Spain. In that sparsely populated city on the fringe of an empire, enslaved Africans rubbed elbows with white indentured servants while the elite strove to maintain ties with European genteel culture. The transience of the city's people, goods, and fortunes created a notably fluid society in which establishing one's own status or verifying another's was a challenge. New York's shifting imperial identity created new avenues for success but also made success harder to define and demonstrate socially. Such a mobile urban milieu was the ideal breeding ground for crime and conspiracy, which became all too evident in 1741, when thirty slaves were executed and more than seventy other people were deported after being found guilty—on dubious evidence—of plotting a revolt. This sort of violent outburst was the unforeseen but unsurprising result of the seething culture that existed at the margins of the British Empire.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

216 pages, Hardcover

First published June 5, 2009

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good book. I wasn't sure until I hit the half-way point, but then it all came together and I found it interesting and informative. Like many others, my perception of pre-Revolutionary War America, or at least New York, was one of an incipient America. In reality it was an outpost of the British Empire, and the cross currents of commercial trade, finance, class, status, politics, and religion were complex and played out in sometimes predictable sometimes lamentable (to say the least) ways.

[John Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read a free copy through NYPL and Project muse. This is quality cultural history that aims to correct narratives and bring in new topics to further understand the civic society and how that affected imperial politics.

[Delia Willis · Rating 2 out of 5]

had to read for a class…so boring

[sharon · Rating 1 out of 5]

i hate this book. this is the worst book i’ve ever read. had to read for class else i would not have traversed past the first two lines. so fucking boring. so fucking pretentious. whoooooo tf caressss about 18th century colonial economics bro?? whoooooo?????? get a ducking life😭😭😭 but also yk what who am i to judge. if anything fuck my teacher for making me read this and then write a 4 page essay on it. bitch ass.

[Sophia Trigg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good concept and overall premise but the writing style was so hard to get through.

[Fresno Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disjointed, static, unsatisfying conclusion