Slavery in New York
From its Inception to its Abolition
Introduction
While slavery is most often associated with the southern United States, until the American Revolution, slavery existed everywhere. New York slavery is important because it was the most important center of slavery in the North. Before 1800, slavery was New York City’s most important source of labor, the enslaved population of the city was second only to Charleston and New Orleans. The Dutch were the first to introduce slavery to New York. Later, in the 1750s under the English, New York City became a key center for the slave trade. Enslaved labor built much of New York City's infrastructure during the colonial and early national periods. Slaves in New York also kept the city running as caretakers, craftsmen, manufacturers, and skilled artisans. The study of slavery in New York helps us understand both the nature of slavery and provides details about how African Americans influenced the development of New York.
Slavery in New Amsterdam & New York
Click the arrow to the right to view the slide show of New York Slave Laws below.
How Widespread was Slavery in the North?
Census Data and Slave Population Distribution
Move the arrow slide to reveal the two maps below.
Runaway Slaves in NY
New York After Slavery
Project Description & Methodology
This project was conceived as an applied history course to introduce students to digital history methods and techniques by focusing on New York runaway ads. We began by reading about digital history and its methods and uses, and then extensively about the history of runaways and slavery generally. Finally, we focused on slavery in New York and New York City specifically. To facilitate our own digital history research and answer questions we had about slavery and runaways in New York, we compiled a database of New York runaway ads using transcribed ads culled primarily from the Freedom on the Move database at Cornell University. We input data on 641 runaways between 1730 and 1811. We also compiled census data on slaveholding in New York State using the Northeast Slave Records Index at Lloyd Sealy Library and John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Once our data was compiled we began analyzing and compiling it for analysis and presentation in arcGIS Story Maps. Each student had about 60 ads and their own separate database with which to work. They each constructed their own Word Clouds and Story Maps, which can be viewed from links in the Gallery below. Then we combined all of our data and information and discussed how we wanted to present our findings, including key concepts and themes, important data and images, and how to arrange them effectively. Each student wrote part of the narrative copy, made design suggestions, and supplied images and ads to include. Dillon Ferris served as our primary creator/designer, but we met regularly as a class to discuss progress and make suggestions. I served as copy editor and resource person.
What you see here is our finished product. Truly a group effort. We hope that you have enjoyed learning a bit about slavery and runaways in New York state.
Project Credits
This arcGIS Story Map was created by SUNY Fredonia's Applied History and Museum Studies Special Topics class in Digital History during the Spring 2022 semester under Prof. Nancy L. Hagedorn. Special assistance was also supplied by Scott Richmond (database assistance) and Dr. Michael Jabot (database assistance, arcGIS help, and StoryMap instruction), for which we are very grateful. Class participants and contributors included:
Mackenzie Bestine
Dillon Ferris
Shannon Gregory
Aaron Klock
Maggie Knoll
Autumn Maedl
Christian Martin
William Moore
Angelina Smith
Maria Suri
Elijah Taylor
Thomas Varney
Kristin White
Individual Student Word Clouds and Story Maps
Mackenzie Bestine- Story Map
Dillon Ferris- Word Cloud | Story Map
Shannon Gregory- Story Map
Aaron Klock- Word Cloud | Story Map
Maggie Knoll- Story Map
Autumn Maedl- Word Cloud | Story Map
Christian Martin- Word Cloud | Story Map
William Moore- Word Cloud | Story Map
Angelina Smith- Word Cloud | Story Map
Maria Suri- Word Cloud | Story Map
Thomas Varney- Word Cloud | Story Map
Kristin White- Word Cloud | Story Map
Sources
Databases:
Freedom on the Move (Cornell University) https://freedomonthemove.org/.
Northeast Slave Records Index (NESRI) (CUNY) https://nesri.commons.gc.cuny.edu/
New-York Historical Society Manuscript Collections Relating to Slavery (New York Heritage Digital Collections) https://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15052coll5/search
Printed Sources:
Benton, Ned, Judy Lynne Peters, and Nyeisha Dortch. “Northeast Slavery Records Index” (NESRI) CUNY. New York City, 2017.
Berlin, Ira, and Leslie M. Harris. Slavery in New York. New York, New York: New Press, 2005.
Diouf, Sylviane A. “New York City's Slave Market.” The New York Public Library, June 29, 2015. https://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/06/29/slave-market .
Franklin, John Hope & Loren Schweninger, Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Greenspan, Jesse. “The Dutch Surrender New Netherland.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, September 8, 2014. https://www.history.com/news/the-dutch-surrender-new-netherland-350-years-ago .
Kieft, William. “Laws and Ordinances of New Netherland, 1638-1674/1644.” In WikiSource, 1–1. San Francisco, California: Wikisource, 2022.
Linder, Douglas O. “New York Slave Laws.” New York slave laws of the colonial period, 2009. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/negroplot/slavelaws.html.
Mcpherson, James M., and Hogue, James K. Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction. Columbus, Ohio: McGraw-Hill Education, 2010.
Mirrer, Lousie. “History of Slavery in New York.” Slavery in New York. New York Historical Society, 2006. http://www.slaveryinnewyork.org/history.htm#:~:text=They%20were%20vital%20to%20the,its%20successors%20along%20the%20Battery .
Mosterman, Andrea C. “The Forgotten History of Slavery in New York.” Cornell University Press, 2016. https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/the-forgotten-history-of-slavery-in-new-york/ .
“New Amsterdam - Origins: African Immigrants Genealogy Project.” Geni Family Tree. Accessed May 11, 2022. https://www.geni.com/projects/New-Amsterdam-Origins-African-Immigrants/6794 .
Stessin-Cohn, Susan, Albert James Williams-Myers, and Ashley Hurlburt-Biagini. In Defiance: Runaways from Slavery in New York's Hudson River Valley, 1735-1831. Delmar, NY: Black Dome Press, 2016.
White, Shane. "The Allure of the Advertisement: Slave Runaways in and around New York City." Journal of the Early Republic, 40: 4 (Winter 2020):611-633.
White, Shane. “Slavery in New York State in the Early Republic." Australasian Journal of American Studies 14, no. 2 (1995): 1–29.
Image Credits:
“An Early Method of Pounding Corn,” A print in the Suffolk County chapter in Historical Collections of the State of New York for 1842.
"A law for regulating Negroes and slaves in the night time." 1731. The New York Public Library, New York City. Accessed May 11, 2022. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-fc12-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
Banks, James (slaveholder), Advertisement for runaway named Will who had escaped slavery in North Castle, Westchester County, NY, Sept. 15, 1774. Wikimedia Commons.
Brooklyn Museum, New York. Francis Guy (American, 1760-1820). Winter Scene in Brooklyn, ca. 1819-1820. Oil on canvas, 58 3/8 x 74 9/16 in. (148.2 x 189.4 cm). Transferred from the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences to the Brooklyn Museum, 97.13 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 97.13_colorcorrected_SL1.jpg)
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio. Charles T. Webber, “The Underground Railroad,” 1893. Oil on Canvas. Subscription Fund Purchase. Acc. #1927.26. https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-underground-railroad/cwGRLw8raEDwOg?hl=en .
"Escaping Slavery, U.S. South, 1850s", Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora, accessed May 13, 2022, http://www.slaveryimages.org/s/slaveryimages/item/1295 .
Female Slave for Sale. 1789 Printed Advertisement for a Young Female Slave in New York City. New York Public Library.
“Fugitive Slaves, US South, 1861.” Le Monde Illustre (Paris) vol. 9, (Aug. 3, 1861):492.
Granger Historical Images Archive, New York. Engraving after George Cruikshank from the first English edition, 1883, of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. https://www.granger.com/results.asp?image=0037769&itemw=4&itemf=0001&itemstep=1&itemx=2 .
Granger Historical Images Archive, New York. Engraving after illustration by Howard Pyle, “The First Slave Auction at New Amsterdam in 1655,” 1895 (1917). https://www.granger.com/results.asp?image=0061674&itemw=4&itemf=0001&itemstep=1&itemx=1
Kelly, Thomas. The Fifteenth Amendment. Celebrated May 19, 1870. 1871. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Washington D.C. Accessed May 11, 2022. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.34808/
Klock, Aaron J. "Slave distribution in New York State by County, 1689-1840," (2022).
Mabel Brady Garvan Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. James Richard Barfoot (1794-1863), “Progress of Cotton: #1 - Cotton Plantation” (1840). Lithograph with color. Acc. no. 1946.9.614. Public Domain.
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. "The negroes sentenced" New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 12, 2022. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e1-0c9b-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. "New York slave market about 1730" New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 12, 2022. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e1-4097-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 .
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. "Squatter Settlement 1855 - Now Central Park [Seneca Village]." New York Public Library Digital Collections. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e1-2cb0-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. "Vue de la Nouvelle Yorck." New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 13, 2022. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e3-b9ac-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
Mullen, Lincoln. “Population of Enslaved 1790 to 1860.” Chart. Maps Reveal Slavery Expanded across United States. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Magazine, 2014.
"Negroes Leaving their Home", Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora, accessed May 12, 2022, http://slaveryimages.org/s/slaveryimages/item/814 .
New York State Museum, New York Department of Education, Albany, NY. Slave Collar, Brass, c. 1806. Available from https://exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov/civilwar/antebellum/slavery/index.html ; accessed 13 May 2022.
Rankin, Bill. Radicalcartography.net. "Free Non-White Population in the North in 1790" (2016). http://www.radicalcartography.net/index.html?slavery_north
Rankin, Bill. Radicalcartography.net. "Slavery in 1790" (2016). http://www.radicalcartography.net/index.html?slavery
Rankin, Bill. Radicalcartography.net. "Slavery in 1830" (2016). http://www.radicalcartography.net/index.html?slavery
Rankin, Bill. Radicalcartography.net "Slavery in the North in 1790" (2016). http://www.radicalcartography.net/index.html?slavery_north
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Willem Duyster, “Family Group with a Black Man,” c. 1631-1650. Oil painting. Public domain. http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.4797
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. "Fugitive slave as advertised for capture" New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 13, 2022. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/6e4acbd5-340b-e511-e040-e00a180664e9
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, Scipio, a runaway slave, is cornered in “an impenetrable thicket of cane.” (1852). Wood engraving. Accessed May 11, 2022. https://www.chronicle.com/article/harriet-beecher-stowes-powerful-mosaic-of-facts/
Tantillo, L. F. "East River Waterfront, 1660." Oil on canvas. Painting used with permission of L. F. Tantillo.
Tantillo, L. F. "Fort Amsterdam." n.d. Oil on Canvas. Painting used with permission of L. F. Tantillo.
Tantillo, L. F. "Manhattan, 1660." Oil on canvas. Painting used with permission of L. F. Tantillo.
White, Kristin. Bar Graph showing Distribution of New York Runaway Ads by Decade (2022).
White, Kristin. Bar Graph showing State Origins of New York Runaways. (2022).