Another (Very Good) Reason to Celebrate July 4th in New York

Today, July 4^th, Independence Day, commemorates the U.S. adoption of the Declaration of Independence from British rule in 1776.

However, in New York, its population of slaves would not experience their own true freedom (from indentured servitude) for another 51years, in 1827, also on July 4th.

So while many African Americans mark – The June 19^th date slaves were freed in Texas, the last state to emancipate in the United States – July 4^th in New York was the emancipation day from slavery for its black population.

For this reason, according to Jennifer Scott, director of research at the Weeksville Heritage Center and Museum*, July 4^th is a very important day in New York State’s history, as before that time, slavery was a huge business in New York – particularly in Brooklyn.

Most New Yorkers today have almost no knowledge of the city's 200-year involvement with slavery, Scott pointed out. The truth is, there were more slaves in New York City than in any other city in the British colonies except Charleston, S.C. And only recently, after excavations in Lower Manhattan uncovered a massive slave burial ground, has the city's connection to slavery been brought to public attention.

“People don’t think of slavery as existing in the northern states during that time,” said Scott. “However, New York’s slave-based economy was central to New York's early economic development as a Dutch and British colony.”

In fact, during British rule, 40 percent of New York City households owned slaves, who accounted for 20 percent of the city's population.

“And according to the 1790 Census, 60 percent of families in Kings County (Brooklyn) enslaved at least 1 person in their household,” Scott said. “It’s pretty striking, because a lot of new Yorkers don’t know that Brooklyn was where there were dutch farms, so they depended upon slave labor.”

In Manhattan, landmarks built by slaves include the wall on Wall Street, which was originally built to separate “New Amsterdam” (early New York City), from “encroachment” by Native Americans; slaves also built the road that became Broadway, the first and second Trinity Church buildings; and they also built first city hall on Pearl Street.

However, as gripping a force was slavery in New York City, is with equal vigor grew a movement amongst New Yorkers -- both black and white – to eradicate slavery from the state. New York antislavery forces pressured newspapers not to run slave-sale advertisements and auction houses not to hold slave sales. They also provided free legal council to slaves seeking to sue their masters for freedom.

Eventually, the New York State Legislature enacted a gradual emancipation law that took effect on July 4, 1799, freeing all children born to slave women after July 4, 1799, but only after squeezing more than two decades of forced indenture from “freed slaves:” So male children would become free at age 28, and females at age 25.

Total freedom from servitude did not come to New York's slaves until a new emancipation law took effect 28 years later, on July 4, 1827. Slaves had learned well in advance that their day of freedom was approaching spent a lot of time deciding how they should celebrate that date, as the 4^th of July was also America’s emancipation date from British rule, and white revelers often attacked blacks on public holidays.

“The reason why they didn’t want to come out on the fourth, was because there was a long history of them being attacked on that day, because those days were known as 'days of patriotism,' which many times meant ‘pro-slavery,’” said Scott. “So for safety reasons, they stayed in.”

In the end, the day after, July 5^th, was chosen for the commemoration. On this day in New York’s history, July 5, 1827, 4,000 blacks marched along Broadway Avenue in Manhattan, preceded by an honor guard on horseback and a grand marshal carrying a drawn sword. The parade wound through the downtown streets to the African Zion Church, where the abolitionist leader William Hamilton declared, ''This day, we stand redeemed from a bitter thralldom.''

Thus, the celebration of slavery's end in New York on July 4, 1827, took place on the fifth of July.  

“Every year, they celebrated on July 5^th, and this practice of celebration for freed slaves lasted well into the 1860s,” said Scott.

There are no public celebrations of July 5th today. But as the history of New York's long involvement in slavery becomes better known, all New Yorkers can take pride in reveling July 4^th (and July 5^th) truly as a significant step forward to freedom for all who reside in this great city, state and country.

Enjoy the fireworks.

*In 1838, just eleven years after the abolition of slavery in New York, James Weeks, a free African American, purchased land on the edge of the settled areas of Brooklyn (between Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights). This purchase marked the establishment of Weeksville, a village of free African Americans who worked and thrived in New York throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.Today, Weeksville is a nationally significant historic site-- one of the only African-American historic sites in the Northeast still on its original property and among the ten most prominent African-American cultural organizations in New York City.

Other Sources for this article: Happy Fifth of July, New York, The New York Times