Brooks, Lynn Matluck. "Race, Rank, and Reform in Antebellum Philadelphia Social Dance."

Brooks, Lynn Matluck. "Race, Rank, and Reform in Antebellum Philadelphia Social Dance." The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 144, no. 2 (April 2020): 147-178.


Abstract:
A “Coloured Fancy Ball” held in Philadelphia in February 1828 served as a site not only of social aspiration and political concern but also of violence and satire. This article explores the nature, reportage, ramifications, and outcomes of that dance gathering. Study of the ball's contexts - social, racial, political, economic, and aesthetic - reveals the varied meanings it held for different parties concerned with this event. This investigation further illuminates ways that sociality, behavior, and aspiration were subjects of national contest as the new United States, exemplified here by its leading revolutionary city, Philadelphia, struggled to determine who and what could be called “American.”