History of Slavery in New York City

James Horton Historian
" Now, New York was involved, in many ways, with the South, but, most importantly, economically. I mean, New York really provided much of the capital that made the plantation economy in the South possible."
  
"And the last 16 slaves in my home state of New Jersey were freed by the 13th Amendment in 1865, so that there were still some slaves scattered in various places in the North, but that the stronghold of slavery was obviously the American South. "

Although slavery was abolished in New York City in 1827, residents remained divided on the issue through the Civil War. NewsHour correspondent Gwen Ifill talks with historian James Horton about slavery's impact on the future of New York.

Free Black Society in New York
Tappan brothers, their firm was the forerunner of Dun and Bradstreet in New York.
  
"African-Americans, like James McCune Smith, which most schoolkids don't know about, who were very prominent in the movement as well."

"David Ruggles, who, when -- when Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery in Baltimore, he got to New York. And he was actually helped and sheltered by David Ruggles, who ran the -- what was called the Vigilance Committee, which was a kind of underground railroad organization, which protected fugitive slaves once they got to the New York area. "
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Slavery in New York


Black Panther activist Assata Shakur

SLAVERY EXHIBIT: NYC's Unsettling Past