Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood

“Webster resoundingly succeeds in proving the significance of Black childhood to the larger social history of the antebellum North. . . . By reviving narratives of Black families and children who acted to modify, dictate, and determine the boundaries of their social condition, Webster offers an innovative and compelling approach to recovering historical agency that scholars would do well to both commend and adopt.”—New York History

“A major contribution to African American history, children’s history in the US, and children’s labor history. Webster’s Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood is a pioneer work that has opened the door widely for greater exploration on this topic.”—New England Quarterly

“Webster offers glimpses of children who are rarely featured in histories of the Civil War era. . . . It is certain that this book will inspire many scholars in African American and Childhood Studies to continue down the path that Webster illuminates so creatively.”—Civil War Book Review

“A powerful reexamination of the decades leading up to the Civil War that effectively uncovers the oft-overlooked lived reality of Black children and the impact of the institutions, biases, and pressures that surrounded them. . . . [A] new and intriguing historical analysis that is a welcome addition to the subfields of childhood studies, Black studies, the early republic, and the antebellum period.”—Journal of African American History

“An engaging study. . . . a welcomed addition to the literature calling attention to advancements in Black childhood studies and the need to explore the lives of Black children . . . in the antebellum North.”—Historical Studies in Education

“This concise, gracefully written book, with its tight temporal and geographic focus, is an essential historical contribution and an invitation to future research about northern Black children and the states of unfreedom that shaped their reality.”—Early American Literature

“In this engaging and innovative work, Dr. Crystal Lynn Webster begins the crucial work of filling the gaps in knowledge about Black children in the antebellum era.”—Ms. Magazine

“With a novel and important focus on the construction of Black childhood in the antebellum North, Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood prompts us to rethink the construction of childhood and the experiences of Black children and their parents in northern cities.” — Erica Armstrong Dunbar, Rutgers University

“A remarkable book that speaks to some of the most enduring questions in African American history and politics: what is the meaning of freedom? Is ‘free’ really free? How have Black families navigated institutionalized racism that seeks to undermine their intimate ties? By placing Black children and mothers at the center of her work, Crystal Webster unearths histories that too often have remained invisible.” — LaKisha Michelle Simmons, University of Michigan

"Webster’s innovative and beautifully written book demonstrates how Black children in the antebellum North claimed freedom and redefined childhood as they played, worked, and moved through the built environment of schools, orphanages, and city streets. With nuanced attention to material realities and imaginative worlds, Webster brilliantly reveals Black children’s contributions to the political struggle for equality and human liberation.” — Corinne Field, University of Virginia