From Slavery to Poverty

The Racial Origins of Welfare in New York, 1840-1918

Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, 19th Century
Cover of the book From Slavery to Poverty by Gunja SenGupta, NYU Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Gunja SenGupta ISBN: 9780814740866
Publisher: NYU Press Publication: March 1, 2009
Imprint: NYU Press Language: English
Author: Gunja SenGupta
ISBN: 9780814740866
Publisher: NYU Press
Publication: March 1, 2009
Imprint: NYU Press
Language: English

The racially charged stereotype of "welfare queen"—an allegedly promiscuous waster who uses her children as meal tickets funded by tax-payers—is a familiar icon in modern America, but as Gunja SenGupta reveals in From Slavery to Poverty, her historical roots run deep. For, SenGupta argues, the language and institutions of poor relief and reform have historically served as forums for inventing and negotiating identity.
Mining a broad array of sources on nineteenth-century New York City’s interlocking network of private benevolence and municipal relief, SenGupta shows that these institutions promoted a racialized definition of poverty and citizenship. But they also offered a framework within which working poor New Yorkers—recently freed slaves and disfranchised free blacks, Afro-Caribbean sojourners and Irish immigrants, sex workers and unemployed laborers, and mothers and children—could challenge stereotypes and offer alternative visions of community. Thus, SenGupta argues, long before the advent of the twentieth-century welfare state, the discourse of welfare in its nineteenth-century incarnation created a space to talk about community, race, and nation; about what it meant to be “American,” who belonged, and who did not. Her work provides historical context for understanding why today the notion of "welfare"—with all its derogatory “un-American” connotations—is associated not with middle-class entitlements like Social Security and Medicare, but rather with programs targeted at the poor, which are wrongly assumed to benefit primarily urban African Americans.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The racially charged stereotype of "welfare queen"—an allegedly promiscuous waster who uses her children as meal tickets funded by tax-payers—is a familiar icon in modern America, but as Gunja SenGupta reveals in From Slavery to Poverty, her historical roots run deep. For, SenGupta argues, the language and institutions of poor relief and reform have historically served as forums for inventing and negotiating identity.
Mining a broad array of sources on nineteenth-century New York City’s interlocking network of private benevolence and municipal relief, SenGupta shows that these institutions promoted a racialized definition of poverty and citizenship. But they also offered a framework within which working poor New Yorkers—recently freed slaves and disfranchised free blacks, Afro-Caribbean sojourners and Irish immigrants, sex workers and unemployed laborers, and mothers and children—could challenge stereotypes and offer alternative visions of community. Thus, SenGupta argues, long before the advent of the twentieth-century welfare state, the discourse of welfare in its nineteenth-century incarnation created a space to talk about community, race, and nation; about what it meant to be “American,” who belonged, and who did not. Her work provides historical context for understanding why today the notion of "welfare"—with all its derogatory “un-American” connotations—is associated not with middle-class entitlements like Social Security and Medicare, but rather with programs targeted at the poor, which are wrongly assumed to benefit primarily urban African Americans.

More books from NYU Press

Cover of the book Preventive Force by Gunja SenGupta
Cover of the book America's Colony by Gunja SenGupta
Cover of the book Biopolitics by Gunja SenGupta
Cover of the book Camouflage Isn't Only for Combat by Gunja SenGupta
Cover of the book The Rabbi’s Wife by Gunja SenGupta
Cover of the book Caribbean Religious History by Gunja SenGupta
Cover of the book Netflix Nations by Gunja SenGupta
Cover of the book Human Nature by Gunja SenGupta
Cover of the book Media Reception Studies by Gunja SenGupta
Cover of the book How East New York Became a Ghetto by Gunja SenGupta
Cover of the book On the Make by Gunja SenGupta
Cover of the book Deviant and Criminal Behavior in the Workplace by Gunja SenGupta
Cover of the book On the Side of My People by Gunja SenGupta
Cover of the book Aztlán and Arcadia by Gunja SenGupta
Cover of the book China, The United States, and the Future of Southeast Asia by Gunja SenGupta
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy