Return to the North

As chapter 7 tells us, Afong Moy’s return to New York City in 1835 began her transition from a promoter of goods to that of spectacle herself. Her new manager, Henry Hannington, may have been responsible for that change. Such a transition exposed her to both the actions of moral reformers in New York and, later, the jibes of newspaper reporters in Boston. To publicize Afong Moy, her new manager joined her presentation with that of other performers in Salem, Massachusetts, New Haven, Connecticut, and Albany, New York. The public’s exposure to Afong Moy and China affected and influenced American material culture.