Publications > New York and Slavery

New York and Slavery: Complicity and Resistance

A document-based curriculum guide prepared for the “Gateway to the City” Teaching American History Grant Project

Cover

Credits

Chapter A

New York and Slavery: Complicity and Resistance Curriculum Guide

Lessons

Documents

• John Newton and “Amazing Grace”
• A Bill Introduced by Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, H.R. 29 First Session Fortieth Congress March 11, 1867: A Plan for Confiscation
• Major General William T. Sherman
• 1851. Dr. Cartwright Describes “Negro Diseases”
• Slave Trade Images
• Song Of Myself, Walt Whitman

Narratives

• A. Olaudah Equiano Remembers Life in Africa Before He is Enslaved
• B. Alexander Falconbridge's Account of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
• Captain Richard Drake, Revelations Of A Slave Smuggler (1807 to 1857)

Chapter B

Section 2: Dutch New Amsterdam, 1600-1664

Documents

• 1629-1655. New Amsterdam and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
• 1642/1643. Images of Africans in Colonial New Amsterdam
• 1643-1664. Black Landowners in Manhattan’s “Land of the Blacks”
• 1655. First Slave Auction in New Amsterdam
• 1657-1664. Documenting Slavery and Freedom in Colonial New Amsterdam (Donnan)
  
• 1658. Petition for the Return of Slaves
• 1659. Charter of the Ship Eyckenboom
• 1663. Voyage of the Gideon

Chapter C

Section 3: British Colony, 1664-1783

Documents

• 1664. Terms of Sale of Negroes
• 1664-1686. Slavery in British America
  
• 1671-1827. Average Cost Of Enslaved Africans, Long Island
• 1638-1775. British Profits on the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
  
• 1679-1680. Will of Nathaniel Sylvester (March 19, 1679/80. SIHS)
  
• 1680-1759. Disposition of Slaves on the East End of Long Island
  
• 1687. Petition Of The Royal African Company To The Court Of Admiralty
  
• 1687-1787. Slave Life at Lloyd Manor
  
• 1688-1764. Enslaved Africans Disembarking from the Port of New York
  
• 1698. New York Enslaved African Population
  
• 1698-1700. Earl Of Bellomont and Frederick Philipes
  
• 1698. New York Census
  
• 1698 – 1771 New York Census By County Source: E.B. O’Callaghan, ed. (1851).
  
• 1698-1790 . Population of Enslaved Africans in Kings County (Table 2.1)
  
• 1698-1820. African Americans As A Percent Of Population Of Long Island
  
• 1700-1732. Enslaved Africans Imported Into Port Of New York
  
• 1701-1764. Enslaved Africans Imported Into the Port of New York
  
• 1702-1825. Reported Escapes By Enslaved Africans On Long Island
  
• 1702-1825. Reported Escapes By Enslaved Africans On Long Island
  
• 1703-1773. White and African American Population of New York and East Jersey (Table 1)
  
• 1706-1708. Fear of Slave Unrest
• 1706-1732. New York Custom House Entries,
  
• 1711. Governor Hunter Orders Religious Instruction for Enslaved Africans
  
• 1711. The Old Slave or Meal Market (Sometimes Called Wall Street Market)
  
• 1712-1719. The New York Slave Revolt
  
• 1712/1713. Documentary Evidence of the New York City African American Burial Ground
  
• 1713-1744. Misc. Slavery Documents
  
• 1713. Assiento and the Treaty of Utrecht
  
• 1715-1763. Number of Enslaved Africans Per Vessel Entering the Port of New York by Port of Embarkation and Month.
  
• 1720-1791. Resistance to Slavery on Long Island
• 1726-1772 . Trade in Tons between the Port of New York and the Caribbean (including Bermuda and the Bahamas)
• 1731. New York Census, Total Population 50,289
  
• 1732-1734. Slave Advertisements
  
• 1734-1750. Slave Sales and Inventories, Westchester, New York
  
• 1737. New York Census, Total Population 60,437
  
• 1738-1822. Runaway Slave Advertisements from New York
  
• 1741. Execution
  
• 1741. The New York City Slave Conspiracy and Trial
  
• 1741. The Testimony of Mary Burton
  
• 1741. Slave Conspiracy Trial (Africans taken into custody)
  
• 1741. Conspiracy Trial (White people taken into custody)
  
• 1742. Legal Responses to the Slave Rebellion Scare
  
• 1746. New York Census, Total Population 61,589
  
• 1746. New York City Municipal Laws
  
• 1749. New York Census, Total Population 73,448
  
• 1749-1754. Arrival of Slave Shipments
  
• 1751 (Summer). Enslaved Africans Brought to New York Colony (Table 2.3)
  
• 1751- 1805. News Items Relating to Slave Trade
  
• 1756. New York Census, Total Population 96,765
  
• 1761-1762. Import Duty
  
• 1761-1764. Notice of New Jersey Sales
  
• 1771. New York Census, Total Population 168,007
  
• 1774-1879. Dorcas (Obituary)
  
• Many Nassau Families Owned Slaves Late in 18th Century Record Compiled in 1775 Contains Names of Numerous Leading Residents Free People of Color in “Book of Negro” From New York (Table 3)
• 1775-1783. Fugitive Blacks by County, New York
• 1775. Price of Slaves
  
• 1779. Boston King Escapes to the British Lines
  
• 1783. Enslaved and Independent African Evacuees from Long Island with British Forces.
  
• 1783. African Long Islanders Evacuated with British Forces
  
• 1783. General George Washington Discusses the Status of Escaped Slaves

Narratives

• Captain William Kidd
• Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture Smith (1796)

Chapter D

Section 4: New Nation, 1783-1827

Documents

• 1777-1787. Gouverneur Morris denounces the “nefarious institution”
• 1777-1819. John Jay, African Americans and the Gradual Manumission of Slavery
  
• 1779. Alexander Hamilton Proposes Recruiting Enslaved Africans as Soldiers
  
• 1784. Joseph Hodge, the First “American” to Settle in the Buffalo Region
  
• 1785. Anti-Abolition, Source: New-York Packet, April 4, 1785.
  
• 1786. Jupiter Hammon Argues Against Rebellion
  
• 1786-1801. New York State Bans the Slave Trade
  
• 1790. New York State Slave Holding
  
• 1790-1815. Excerpts from the Journal of John Baxter, a Long Island Slave Owner
  
• 1790-1860. Population of New York (Table 4)
• 1790-1860. Population of Kings County (Table 4.1)
  
• 1796. Emancipation of Preter Williams
  
• 1797 – 1827. Complaints Investigated by the New York City Manumission Society Pertaining to Enslaved and Independent African Islanders.
  
• 1797. Immorality of Slavery
  
• 1798. Abolition debate
  
• 1799. Gradual Abolition Act
  
• 1800-1801. Excerpts from the Journal of Dr. Samuel Thompson, a Long Island Slave Owner
  
• 1800-1806. Long Island Manumission Papers
  
• 1800 – 1824. Index of Slave Owners in Huntington and Babylon
  
• 1803. Bringing Slaves to Geneva, New York
  
• 1804-1862. Population of Cuba
  
• 1805. An Irish Immigrant Denouces Slavery
  
• 1808-1841. Narrative Of Solomon Northup
  
• 1809-1814. Long Island Bills of Sale and Lease
  
• 1809. Address to the New-York African Society
  
• 1809. Abolition of the Slave Trade
  
• 1810-1861. United States Presidents on the Slave Trade
  
• 1811. Black Suffrage in New York
• 1811-1819. Brooklyn, New York Indentured Servant Papers
  
• 1813. George Lawrence, An Oration on the Abolition of the Slave Trade
  
• 1817. Gradual manumission
  
• Exploring the Early History of Brooklyn, NY
  
• 1820. Missouri Compromise
  
• 1820. New Lots Census Data
  
• 1820. Slavery in Brooklyn, Street Names
  
• 1821. Debating Black Voting Rights
  
• 1821. Africans
  
• 1824-1873. Slave Owning Families Among the Founders of Kings County Banks (Table 3.1)
  
• 1825-1857. Seneca Village in New York City
  
• 1827. Freedom's Journal Opening Editorial
  
• 1827. William Hamilton, Emancipation Address
  
• 1827. Nathaniel Paul Emancipation Address
  
• 1827. Manumission Day Parade

Narratives

• Austin Steward.doc
• John Jea.doc
• Stephen Vanderveer.doc

Chapter E

Section 5: Abolition and Complicity, 1827-1865

Documents

• 1829. Militant Pamphlet by Robert Alexander Young
  
• 1831. Denouncing Colonization
  
• 1831. The African Sentinel and Journal of Liberty
  
• 1832- 1860 William Cullen Bryant
  
• 1834. William Hamilton’s speech at the Fourth Annual National Negro Convention
  
• 1834. Garrison Literary and Benevolent Association
  
• 1834. David Ruggles Replies To An Anti-Abolitionist
  
• 1834. The New York City “Abolitionist” Riot
  
• 1834. Reverend Peter Williams, Rector of St. Philip’s Church, Resigns from the Anti-Slavery Society Under Pressure and Denounces the American Colonization Society
  
• 1835. Samuel J. May, New York Merchants vs. the Abolitionists
  
• 1835-1858. Senator William Seward Denounces the Compromise of 1850 and the Slave System
  
• 1837. Political And Civil Rights
  
• 1837. David Ruggles on Slavery in New York
  
• 1837. Weekly Advocate
  
• 1837d. Prejudice Within The Abolitionist Movement
  
• 1837e. Mass Meeting in New York City
  
• 1837f. President Martin Van Buren: Man of Contradiction or Political Chamelon?
  
• 1838. Thomas Van Renselaer Resists Jim Crow
  
• 1839. Lewis Tappan and the Amistad Case
  
• 1839. The Amistad Case as reported by New York Morning Herald
  
• 1840. New York State Convention Of Negroes
  
• 1840. Anti-Kidnapping Law
  
• 1840. Steward and Garnet Demand Citizenship Rights
  
• 1841. Call To Negro Teachers' Meeting
  
• 1841. Ruggles on Negro Disunity
  
• 1842-1844. Reparations – Clues from the Dust-Bin of History
  
• 1843. Garnet On Patronizing Friends
  
• 1843. Garnet's Call to Rebellion
  
• 1843. Solomon Northup’s Enslavement
  
• 1844. Fifth Annual Convention of New York Negroes
  
• 1844. Protest Against Racism
  
• 1845. A letter from Frederick Douglass to Thurlow Weed (The Liberator, January 16, 1845)
  
• 1846. Gerrit Smith - Plan to Secure the Vote Through Land Ownership
  
• 1846. The Relationship between Gerrit Smith and John Brown
  
• 1846. Gerrit Smith’s Plan to Secure the Vote Through Land Ownership
  
• 1846. Debating Suffrage
  
• 1847. Frederick Douglass' North Star, 1847
  
• 1848. Douglass On The Jim Crowing Of His Daughter
  
• 1849. Douglass-Garnet Debate
  
• 1850-1859. Brooklyn Minister Discusses Resistance to Slavery
  
• 1850. Frederick Douglass Discusses Slavery
  
• 1850. Resistance to Fugitive Slave Laws
  
• The Fugitive Slave Bill: Its history And Unconstitutionality; With An Account Of The Seizure And Enslavement Of James Hamlet, And His Subsequent Restoration To Liberty.
  
• 1850. Rev. Loguen Denounces the Fugitive Slave Law (Syracuse, NY)
  
• The Christianna Outrage, The New York Times, Sept., 1851
  
• 1851. The Jerry Rescue, Syracuse, NY
  
• 1852-1854. The Cuba Sugar Trade and Slavery
  
• 1852. Negroes Again Denounce Colonization
  
• 1852. Frederick Douglass Discusses The Fourth Of July
  
• 1852. Solomon Northup’s Wife Petitions For His Freedom
  
• 1852. “Cuban Affairs”, The New York Times, 11/15/52 , 1.
  
• 1852. Chester Arthur and the Lemmon Case
  
• 1852. Decision in Appeal of the Lemmon Case
  
• 1852. Trial of Henry W. Allen, U.S. Deputy Marshal, for Kidnapping in Syracuse, New York.
  
• 1852. Helping Fugitive Slaves Settle in New York (July 30, 1852).
  
• 1853. Call for the Convention
  
• 1853. Harriet Jacobs, Letter From A Fugitive Slave
  
• 1853. The Kidnapping Case
  
• 1854. The Slave Trade
  
• 1854b. Trial and Conviction of the Master of an African Slaver
  
• 1854. Elizabeth Jennings: New York City’s Nineteenth Century Rosa Parks
  
• Anthony Burns Tells His Story, 1855
  
• Dr. James McCune Smith Calls on All African Americans to Join the Battle for Civil Rights
  
• Havana, August 11, 1856, Schuykill Co., N.Y.
  
• 1856. Dr. Pennington's Resistance To New York Streetcar Segregation
  
• The Albany Evening Journal Responds to the Dred Scott Decision (1857)
  
• 1857-1876 . Output of Brooklyn Sugar Refiners (Table 3.3)
  
• New York Negroes Appeal for Better Schools, 1857
  
• 1857. Captain James Smith Describes the Atlantic Slave Trade
  
• Supporting the New Republican Party, 1858
  
• Business & Slavery: The New York Merchants & the Irrepressible Conflict, Philip S. Foner, Ph. D., Professor of History, Lincoln University, New York/Russell & Russell, 154-155. New York Tribune, March 1, 1858.
  
• Frederick Douglass Describes the Life of a Negro Tailor, 1859
  
• Harriet Tubman's Troy, New York, Raid
  
• 1859. New York Banks and Slavery. Tribune, August 22, 1859.
  
• 1859. An editorial from the Anglo-African edited by Thomas Hamilton of New York
  
• 1859. Arrival of John Brown’s Remains at Troy
  
• 1859. John Brown: Martyr or Religious Fanatic? Freedom fighter or traitor and terrorist?
  
• 1859. John Brown Writes to the New York Tribune from Kansas
  
• Tammany Hall On the Cuban Question (1859)
  
• Robert Purvis on American "Democracy" and the Negro, 1860
  
• 1860. The Africans of the Slave Bark, Wildfire, June 2, 1860, pages 344 - 346
  
• 1860. Volunteer Democratic Association of New York
  
• 1860. Correspondence between a New York Merchant and a Southern Customer
  
• 1860. New York Merchants and the Election of Abraham Lincoln
  
• 1860. Hiram Ketchum on the Secession Crisis
  
• 1860-1865. Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Abolitionist and Advocate for Women’s Rights
  
• 1860. The Slave Rescue at Troy
  
• 1861. George Fitzhugh on the Republic of New York
  
• 1861. Correspondence, John Forsyth to Jefferson Davis
  
• 1861. New York City Merchants Demand Compromise with the South
  
• Message of the New York City Mayor
  
• 1862. William Wells Brown Demands the Right to Fight the South
  
• The Negro on Lincoln's Colonization Plans, 1862
  
• The Execution of Gordon, the Slave-Trader (Harpers Weekly, March 8, 1862)
  
• 1862. Horace Greeley and the Debate over Emancipation
  
• 1863 (May-November). Sugar Leaving the Port of New York (Table 3.2)
  
• 1863. William H. Carney, Sergeant Company C, 54th Massachusetts. Volunteers
  
• 1863. Samuel F. B. Morse Advocates for Slavery
  
• The Miscegenation Hoax (1863)
  
• 1864. The Syracuse National Negro Convention
  
• 1864. Appeal from Executive Board National Equal Rights League
  
• 1864. Debate Over the Anti-Slavery Constitutional Amendment
  
• Daily Tribune, Tuesday 12/1/1874 Obituary Mayor William F. Havemeyer

Narratives

• The Cuban Travel Diary of Joseph J. Dimock (1859)
  
• Life And Times Of Frederick Douglass, Written By Himself.
  
• Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)
  
• Narrative of the Life of James Banks, an Escaped Slave (1861)
  
• Jermain Loguen and the Underground Railroad in Syracuse, New York
  
• Events in the History of James W. C. Pennington (1807-1870)
  
• Isabella Van Wagener, also known as Sojourner Truth (1878)
  
• Solomon Northup’s Odyssey (1853)
  
• Life of Reverend Thomas James, By Himself (1887)
  
• Samuel Ringgold Ward, Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro (1855)
  
• William Cullen Bryant Describes the Execution of an Enslaved Cuban (1849)
  
• From the Narrative of William W. Brown, an American Slave (1849)