February 09, 2006
Downtown's connection to African-American history
The African Burial Ground at Duane and Elk streets, (map) rediscovered by construction workers in 1991, may currently be the most well-known African-American historic landmark downtown. Now awaiting confirmation as a national monument, the long-forgotten site was holding the remains of more than four hundred 17th and 18th century Africans.
Although the burial site may be the most well known, downtown holds an abundance of the black history sites. The South Street Seaport Museum leads an occasional tour of the African-American History in Lower Manhattan; the next one's scheduled Saturday, March 25. Several of the sites are listed in the winter/spring 2004 issue of Seaport, the museum's history magazine, which addressed slavery in New York City from 1626 to 1827.
From Seaport's list:
32-34 South William Street, map - site of Dutch West India Company barracks used to house African slaves around 1643 to 1662.
Fraunces Tavern at Pearl and Broad Street - owned by "Black Sam Fraunces," a wealthy West Indian believed of African and French descent.
36 Lispenard, map - home of free black abolitionist David Ruggels, who founded the Committee on Vigilance in 1835 and helped more than 1,000 people escape slavery.
Pearl and Chatham streets, map - In 1854 schoolteacher Elizabeth Jennings refused to give up space in a whites-only streetcar. Her lawsuit led to the desegregation of most of Manhattan's "street railroads."
Related: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture tours
Big Onion walking tours of Historic Harlem
Black History Month events at NY Public Library and NYC & Co.
New-York Historical Society "Slavery in NY" programs
New York state's Underground Railroad map
Earlier: 2-for-1 entry at Louis Armstrong Museum for Feb.
Obit: Joan Maynard, champion of historic Weeksville
NYHS extends 'Slavery' exhibit, reports record draw
'Slavery in New York' explores city's forgotten past
Underground Railroad in more Brooklyn basements?
February 9, 2006 05:09 PM in Downtown, History, Sightsology, Tours
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