A Question of Manhood is the first anthology of historical studies focused on themes and issues central to the construction of Black masculinities. The editors identified these essays from among several hundred articles published in recent years in leading American history journals and academic periodicals. Each piece illuminates an important dimension of the complex array of Black male experiences as workers, artists, warriors, and leaders in both slave and free communities in the centuries and decades prior to the end of slavery in the United States.
The introduction offers a gendered perspective on, and a race and class framework for the future study of, Black men’s history. The introduction weaves the salient points made in each of the historical essays into a fresh narrative of Black male efforts to construct their individual life and community-sustaining identities. Black manhood was shaped not only in relation to Black womanhood, but was variously nurtured and challenged, honed and transformed against a backdrop of white male power and domination, and the relentless expectations and demands on them to struggle, resist, and to facilitate the survival of African-American culture and community.