Atomic Americans: Citizens in A Nuclear State

sometimes exceeded that of enslavers themselves. Enslaved people’s knowledge allowed them to create and inhabit rival geographies that facilitated the development or preservation of family and community ties across distance. Enslavers of course separated families at will to serve financial and other needs. Runaway ads testify to one way in which enslaved people sought connection. The annual festival of Pinkster was another moment when enslaved people could gather, albeit under white surveillance, and commune with family and friends. Incorporating both Dutch Christian and African—possibly also Christian—practices, Pinkster also provided a space for the strengthening of New World African ties. Most revealing is Mosterman’s chapter on African involvement in the eighteenth and nineteenth-century Dutch Reformed Church. She begins with the startling and little-known account of a formerly enslaved black man who passed as white for over a decade to serve as minister to three Ulster County congregations. The remainder of the chapter charts the ways in which Dutch Reformed Church buildings and practices used physical space to mark hierarchy. She states that previous historical discussions “focus on theology, not on the social aspects of church power or space” (106). Her analysis demonstrates what can be gained from a closer attention to these aspects. Overall, Spaces of Enslavement makes a strong argument that our knowledge of northern slavery would gain greatly if scholars paid greater attention to architectural, landscape and archaeological materials. Historians of the plantation south, as Mosterman demonstrates, have provided useful methodologies that can be applied to interpret northern practices. Mosterman’s focus on the Dutch legacy also indicates the histories of individuals and communities that still await incorporation into our understanding of the tapestry of American history.