ISBN10: 0231119070, ISBN13: 9780231119078, [publisher: Columbia University Press, New York] Softcover Paperback. Spanning three centuries of Brooklyn history from the colonial period to the present, A Covenant with Color exposes the intricate relations of dominance and subordination that have long characterized the relative social positions of white and black Brooklynites. Craig Steven Wilder-examining both quantitative and qualitative evidence and utilizing cutting-edge literature on race theory-demonstrates how ideas of race were born, how they evolved, and how they were carried forth into contemporary society.In charting the social history of one of the nation's oldest urban locales, Wilder contends that power relations-in all their complexity-are the starting point for understanding Brooklyn's turbulent racial dynamics. He spells out the workings of power-its manipulation of resources, whether in the form of unfree labor, privileges of citizenship, better jobs, housing, government aid, or access to skilled trades. Wilder deploys an extraordinary spectrum of evidence to illustrate the mechanics of power that have kept African American Brooklynites in subordinate positions: from letters and diaries to family papers of Kings County's slaveholders, from tax records to the public archives of the Home Owners Loan Corporation. Wilder illustrates his points through a variety of cases, including banking interests, the rise of Kings County's colonial ...