Book Review – AT THE THRESHOLD OF LIBERTY by Tamika Y. Nunley

Tamika Y. Nunley, At the Threshold of Liberty: Women, Slavery, & Shifting Identities in Washington, D.C. The University of North Carolina Press, 2021. 272 pp. 978–1469662220.

Reviewed by Sharon M. Gallagher, Teaching Professor of English at Penn State Behrend

Tamika Y. Nunley’s At the Threshold of Liberty: Women, Slavery, & Shifting Identities in Washington, D.C. is an important, engaging, and meticulously researched text about 19th-century African American women in Washington, D.C. It centers on these women’s experiences of “self-making” by organizing their stories into six chapters: slavery, fugitivity, courts, schools, streets, and government. 

Evidence of this work’s significant contribution to existing scholarship is undeniable. Reviews by fellow scholars attest to its importance: “the first comprehensive history of Black women in the nation’s capital” (Snyder 300); “the first study of African American women living in Washington, D.C., from the city’s founding through the Civil War” (Wood 378); “paradigm-shifting. . . By not limiting their words and actions to resistance, the author contends that ‘self-definition’ and ‘navigation’ were ‘critical processes and strategies that black women employed in their quest for liberty’ (3)” (Green 508); and “. . . this study charts new ground in the study of slavery, freedom, and emancipation in the Atlantic world” (Brimmer 211). 

Additionally, Nunley’s “treatment breaks sharply from the recent work on the light-complexioned enslaved women prized as ‘fancy pieces’ and on the refugee women congregated in wartime contraband camps. Despite the inherent ‘vulnerability to violence, exploitation, criminalization, and venereal disease,’ Nunley does not find victims, but women making choices (158)” (Reidy 271). This work received the Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book Prize from the Association of Black Women Historians, the Pauli Murray Book Prize from the African American Intellectual Historical Society, and the Mary Kelley Prize for best book published in women, gender, or sexuality in the Early American Republic.

As someone who has only recently begun working within the realm of 19th-century American history, it is challenging for me to add further to the experts’ assessment of Nunley’s original contribution to this important area of scholarship. Instead, I will focus on the value of At the Threshold of Liberty from a non-expert’s perspective. Primary research requires patience, determination, and discipline. The extensive scope of Nunley’s documented research reflects this. She accumulated a great deal of knowledge; however, knowledge is most useful when a scholar shares it in an organized and engaging manner with a diverse range of audiences, and here, Nunley also excels.

Nunley’s focus on self-making, one-word chapter titles, and the chronological order within each chapter effectively organize the experiences of the women she researched, presenting their extensive range within their corresponding chapters. She includes their names at every opportunity. Nunley’s research uncovered that “In 1800, the District had 14,093 inhabitants, of which 4,027 were African Americans. Only 483 were listed as free people; the remaining 3,544 black inhabitants were enslaved” (17). Nunley follows these numbers with names and the stories connected to them, like Edith Fossett, who served as Thomas Jefferson’s cook in Washington, D.C., for eight years, separated from her husband at Monticello (18). A few pages later, Milly, Charity, Celia, Sarah Ann, Jemina, Fanny, Priscilla, Kate, Hannah, Ann, Mary, Louisa, Gracy, Esther, Molly, and Mary all appear (30). Later, the reader meets Sukey, the woman whom Dolley Madison relied upon for everything (35-37). This skillful weaving of women’s stories into the historical account appears throughout the book, giving the research the humanity essential for non-scholarly readers to make connections with the text while allowing them to learn about a previously unknown aspect of U.S. history. This learning widens their scope of understanding and prompts thoughtful reflection.

This sentiment in Nunley’s conclusion is particularly poignant:

The experiences of black women offer insights into the ways that our assumptions prevent us from fully understanding the scope of liberty’s reach and deficiencies. We risk forgetting that these women thought about this idea repeatedly even as they imagined, washed, cried, ironed, hummed, cooked, laughed, nursed, killed, and suffered (193-94). 

The reader, regardless of their familiarity with U.S. history, is compelled to notice the names of the women whom Nunley makes visible as she shares their stories after nearly 200 years. Their stories resonate even with the non-expert reader. The book engages this audience, which not only presents an opportunity to learn that history is about multiple perspectives but also to experience first-hand that “scholarly” does not mean that only scholars well-versed in the field may read and benefit from the book. When I finished it, I decided to incorporate it in my first-year writing class this fall because Nunley’s writing style is so accessible to students. Her scholarly research and the way she conveys it to an audience are excellent examples for college writers. The subject also provides both learning and research opportunities for students to develop their curiosity and passion for the field.   

 

References

Brimmer, Brandi C. Review of At the Threshold of Liberty: Women, Slavery, and Shifting Identities in Washington, D.C., by Tamika Y. Nunley. The William and Mary Quarterly 81, no. 1 (2024): 211–215. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/wmq.2024.a918170.

Green, Hilary. “Tamika Y. Nunley. At the Threshold of Liberty: Women, Slavery, and Shifting Identities in Washington, D.C.,” review of At the Threshold of Liberty: Women, Slavery, and Shifting Identities in Washington, D.C., by Tamika Y. Nunley. American Historical Review 128, no. 1 (2023): 508–09. https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhad083 

Reidy, Joseph P. Review of At the Threshold of Liberty: Women, Slavery, and Shifting Identities in Washington, D.C., by Tamika Y. Nunley. The Journal of the Civil War Era 12, no. 2 (2022): 269–272. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/cwe.2022.0022.

Snyder, Terri L. Review of At the Threshold of Liberty: Women, Slavery, and Shifting Identities in Washington, D.C., by Tamika Y. Nunley. Journal of the Early Republic 42, no. 2 (2022): 300–302. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jer.2022.0036.

Wood, Elizabeth. Review of At the Threshold of Liberty: Women, Slavery, and Shifting Identities in Washington, D.C., by Tamika Y. Nunley. Journal of Southern History 88, no. 2 (2022): 378-380. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/soh.2022.0070.