A Fragile Freedom: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City

"A jewel of an emerging scholarship on free blacks in the antebellum period."- Christine Stansell, Princeton University

"Dunbar's pathbreaking book compellingly recreates the community of African American women and their families, friendships, and alliances in antebellum Philadelphia. A major contribution and a joy to read."- Kathryn Kish Sklar, author of Women's Rights Emerges within the Antislavery Movement

"A Fragile Freedom is one of the most important works in black women's history in the last twenty years. Erica Armstrong Dunbar demonstrates that it is possible to write a history of free black women in the antebellum period that addresses both political and personal issues. This is important social history of the first order."- Leslie M. Harris, Emory University