NEW from The Gilded Gentleman podcast — some overlooked history of the 19th century, the story of black life and social class in New York City.
Dr. Carla Peterson, author of Black Gotham: Family History of African Americans in Nineteenth-Century New York City, joins Carl to share her research and perspective on the growth and development of the prosperous black professional class throughout the nineteenth century up to the Gilded Age.
In her 2012 groundbreaking book, Peterson sheds light on how this particular corner of the black community grew as New York became enriched in the late 19th century. She provides insight into leading African-American figures of the day, many missing in contemporary accounts of the period.
And believe it or not, a few characters from the HBO series “The Gilded Age” were designed with Black Gotham in mind. In particular, the father of Peggy Scott (played by Denée Benton) was based on Peterson’s own ancestral family.
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