New York City's Slave Market

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Image ID: 807837

On June 27, a plaque marking the site of New York City's main 18th-century slave market was unveiled in Lower Manhattan by Mayor Bill de Blasio. Reflecting on 300 years of local history, he drew a comparison between black life then and now: "It was true two, three centuries ago, even though it was never acknowledged. It was true then, it is true today. It will be true tomorrow. Black lives matter.” The recognition of black New Yorkers' vital role in the history of the city was long overdue.

This history had started with the arrival of a black man. In June 1613, Juan Rodrigues,  a free sailor from Hispaniola (in what is today the Dominican Republic) who worked for a Dutch fur trading company, was left on Manhattan Island to trade with Native Americans. He was the first non-indigenous permanent resident of Manhattan and remained the only one until 1621 when the Dutch West India Company (WIC) built a settlement and began introducing African labor.

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The Slave Market. Image ID: 810080

In 1626, 11 Africans from Congo, Angola, and the island of Sao Tome were transported to the small town. Eighteen years later, the men, who had petitioned the local Dutch authorities to get their freedom, were liberated. Each one received land. Their collective 300 acres stretched from the Bowery Road to 5th Avenue and 39th Street. Their freedom was conditional, though; they had to deliver one “fat hog” and 22.5 bushels of corn, wheat, peas, or beans to the WIC every year or be re-enslaved. Their wives were freed too, but not their children. 

Whereas during the Dutch period, 70 percent of the Africans came from the Caribbean under British rulewhich started in 1664most arrived directly from Africa. Of the close to 4,000 people whose origins are known, 1,271 came from Madagascar, 998 from Congo, 757 from Senegambia, 504 from the Gold Coast (Ghana), 239 from Sierra Leone, and 217 from non-identified areas of the continent.

With the aggressive increase in the slave trade and the expansion of the city, an official slave market opened in 1711 by the East River on Wall Street between Pearl and Water Streets. By 1730, 42 percent of the population owned slaves, a higher percentage than in any other city in the country except Charleston, South Carolina. The enslaved population—which ranged between 15 and 20 percent of the totalliterally built the city and was the engine that made its economy run. 

The slave market on  Wall Street  closed in 1762 but men, women, and children continued to be bought and sold throughout the city.

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Newspaper ad. Image ID: 497464

After the abolition of slavery, which became effective on July 4, 1827, New York’s shameful history of discrimination, racism, rigid segregation, and anti-black violence continued. By the 1850s, the city was dominating the illegal international slave trade to the American South, Brazil, and Cuba. New York benefited much from slavery and the slave trade: southern cotton and sugar sailed to Europe from its harbor. Banks, insurance companiesamong them Aetna, JP Morgan Chase, and New York Lifeand lawyers made a brisk business with slaveholders and slave ship owners. Traders and builders outfitted slave ships. 

The 1863 Draft Riots
The 1863 Draft Riots. Image ID: 809576

In this northern city, pro-Confederate sentiment ran high, and in July 1863, during the infamous Draft Riots 11 black men were lynched, tortured, mutilated, some hung from lampposts and burned. About 100 people (mostly blacks) were killed in Manhattan and Brooklyn, 100 buildings were destroyed, the property damage was high. The brutal episode changed the demographics of black New York. From 12,472 in 1860, the black population decreased to 9,943 in 1865. 

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Newspaper ad. Image ID: 485464

But through it all, from running away and launching revolts to establishing progressive churches, schools, abolition and mutual aid societies, black New Yorkers, enslaved and free, resisted and fought back.

We need many more markers to tell their heroic story.

 

The marker, the brainchild of writer and artist Christopher Cobb, took years and the advocacy of City Council member Jumaane Williams  to become reality.

The text was written by the Parks Department and the Landmarks Preservation Commission in collaboration with former Schomburg Center curator and   historian  Christopher Moore.

More about slavery in New York

Comments

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JP Morgan Chase

JP Morgan wasn't even born until 1837, how was JP Morgan Chase bank around before the founder was born? o.O

JP Morgan

Hi Brian - Although I didn't write this post, I believe the author's meaning was that JP Morgan was one of the banks / insurance companies taking advantage of the slave trade beyond the 1850s. According to JP Morgan Chase's history, the company's initial founding was in 1871. https://www.jpmorganchase.com/corporate/About-JPMC/document/shorthistory.pdf

JP Morgan

While you are correct that JPMorgan was not founded until 1871, many companies that merged into it over the years were, which is what the article is referring to, including The Manhattan Banking Company, which was founded by Aaron Burr in 1799. Many of our largest financial institutions (Wells, BofA, Citi, Lehman, etc.) have one way or another touched the slave trade, whether directly banking with slave owners and traders, financing the construction and operation of ships, taking slaves as collateral, financing the products derived by slaves, or the construction of various infrastructure projects by slaves. There are a lot of good resources on this, but the 1619 podcast and series of articles by the Times is one of the most accessible along with a dozen or so books.

Slavery and 'slavery'

Sylviane Diouf's studies are a bit strange to me because they don't really focus on actual slavery. They focus only on black slaves. The millions upon millions of Europeans enslaved by African and Arabian slave raiders hardly gets a mention and is brushed aside and trivialized. Even to this day we have millions of blacks enslaved in Africa and Arabia. In a small country like Poland alone over 3 million people were captured into slavery, which implies the extent of the brutal trade across European society, not mentions much today. In North America it was not only blacks who were enslaved but also Irish whites were enslaved. She doesn't seem to find this important at all to even mention. Blacks owned slaves, Native Americans owned slaves, whites owned slaves, Hispanics owned slaves, Asians owned slaves. Ms Sylviane Diouf has further almost tried to glorify Arab slavery, which was the most brutal, the largest and long-standing of all slave trades and responsible for the glorification and justification of slavery as 'rightful by god's law' amongst African rulers. While in India I came across a 400-year old Muslim slave manual translated into English. This manual described the characteristics of slaves captured from all over the world, including white European and Scandinavian slaves. In the manual there was not one redeeming characteristic given to the black slave - which completely contradicts Diouf's romanticized approach to Arab slavery and make the account of writers like Tidiane N'Diaye (Le génocide voilé "the veiled genocide") and John Allembillah ("The Legacy of Arab-Islam in Africa") more accurate.

Slavery in America

This article focuses on slavery in New York, not the history of slavery all over the world from the beginning of written history. Slavery continues to exist in many forms in every country. In regards to American history there is a focus on African enslavement, slave codes and practices based on race and skin color because it allows us to understand present racism and the dynamics of white supremacy that pervade American society.