My work for the summer involves conducting extensive historical research on African migration to New York City, with an emphasis on movements to Harlem, from the colonial period until today. The history of African descended people in New York encompasses the more recent wave of migration, as well as the Great Migration of multigenerational black people from the South. However, prior to these two migration waves, the presence of the diaspora in New York was established through the forced migration of enslaved Africans–to which I dedicate this blog post.
During the early 17th century when the Dutch first established their presence in lower Manhattan, they brought alongside them the first eleven enslaved Africans to assist in building their new colony, New Amsterdam. These enslaved Africans were tasked with building the city’s infrastructure, through the construction of roads, buildings, and streets. Following many years of enslaved labor, in 1644, these pioneer African slaves petitioned the Dutch government, winning their freedom in the first group manumission in North America. Each was given land and freedom on the condition that he produce food for the Company. This black farm region was known as the “Land of the Blacks,” spanning modern-day Chinatown, Little Italy, Soho and Greenwich Village.
Through the establishment and settlement of New Amsterdam, the Dutch expanded the slave presence on the island. During the mid-1600s, the population of persons of African descent residing in New Amsterdam more than tripled, increasing from 120 to 375. Moreover, in 1655, a Dutch slave ship, the Wittespaert (White Horse), arrived carrying 300 enslaved Africans, becoming the first shipment of such directly from continental Africa. Another shipment of 300 enslaved peoples arrived in 1664, making the total number of African descended people on the island nearly 700 or 40% of the island’s residents at the time. This year also saw the transition of colonial power from the Dutch to the British, under whose colonial reign expanded the slave trade in New York.
Bill of Sale for a Slave Woman called “Bett” for Ninety-Five Pounds by John Ernest, New York Francis Moore (June 2, 1764).
Although explicit records of the origins of enslaved African New Yorkers aren’t well known, much of what exists indicates that more than half of those who arrived in Manhattan directly from Africa were from the Senegambia region of West Africa. Some number of slaves were also brought in from Madagascar, usually through illegal, low cost, means from pirates. Many enslaved Africans shipped to New York also came by way of the Caribbean from countries such as Jamaica, Antigua, Barbados, and Bermuda. New York Traders preferred “seasoned,” high quality, labor from African slaves in the West Indies in comparison to those from continental Africa given the nature of the work demanded on the island. Moreover, many of these West Indian enslaved Africans also originated from Senegambia, the Ivory Coast and Ghana, and the Bight of Benin areas, as well as other West Central African regions. Between 1700 and 1774, an estimated 6,000 Africans arrived in New York, of which 2,800 were imported directly from Africa.
Additionally, during this period, the colonial powers expanded their settlement northward beginning in 1636, when white residents began moving upward towards Harlem. In 1658 Governor Peter Stuyvesant offered residents of upper Manhattan official governmental status and privileges, subsequently forming the village of Nieuw Harlem. In doing so, Stuyvesant offered the Company’s enslaved Africans as laborers to build wagon roads from lower Manhattan to New Harlem, to assist in the expansion upward. Some of these Africans were among the first black residents of Harlem and were employed as domestic workers by the settlement’s new white inhabitants.
This colonial period in which the first wave of African descended peoples landed on the shores of New York established the foundation and legacy of the diasporic migration of African people. The regions in which the very first enslaved New York Africans were stolen from overlap with many of the countries of origin of the more recent wave of voluntary immigrants, a link that is often underappreciated in discourses between first/second generation African immigrants and multigenerational African Americans. I hope to continue to explore such links in the history of migration between different segments of the African diaspora–across place and time.
References
Dodson, Howard, et al. The Black New Yorkers. Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2000.
Gomez, Michael A. Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Halliburton, Warren J. Harlem; A History of Broken Dreams. Zenith Books, 1974.
Heilen, Michael, et al. The New York African Burial Ground: Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New York. Washington, D.C., Howard University Press, 2009.
McManus, Edgar. A History of Negro Slavery in NY. Syracuse, Syracuse University Press, 2001.
Medford, Edna G. Historical Perspectives of the African Burial Ground: New York Blacks and the Diaspora. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 2009.
Slavery and Abolition Collection, 1700-1890, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library.
Great research — and I’m glad to see you included a bibliography, which will be helpful to you for this project, but also for future reference. Can you dig a little more into the “Land of the Blacks”? From my understanding, some of those who held land there were of African descent, but, when enslaved, had been purchased by the Dutch through the Portuguese slave trade. It’s a minor point, but it helps to demonstrate just how much the slave trade was a matter of inter-European relations as it was a criminal movement of people from African to the Americas. Just as Europeans settled already-occupied land with impunity as a way of competing with one another, they transformed humans into chattel for the same reason. To further emphasize the connection to Africa, it might also be helpful to learn where in Africa the trade originated. Perhaps you could learn more by looking for information about Elmina and Cape Coast Castles in Ghana, where I know the Dutch, British, and the Portuguese were involved? Again, very minor points, but it’s helpful to (almost literally) connect the dots.