Hidden Histories: Black Stories of the Lower East Side NYC

Although rarely acknowledged in history, North America’s First Freed Black Settlement was once right in the heart of Manhattan. Historian, Christopher Moore, writes that the first legally emancipated community of people of African descent in North America, was found in Lower Manhattan, comprising much of present-day Greenwich Village and the South Village, and parts of the Lower East Side and East Village. In the hills and swamps that stretched across Manhattan Island, both free and enslaved blacks began to clear the tangle of trees, vines, and shrubs to build their own homes and plant their own gardens. The time was 1643, and the area would soon be called the “Land of the Blacks”. This land holds these deep contradictions, of erasure, Black freedom, land ownership, and enslavement, and calls us to acknowledge the depth of not only the history of New York, but the stories that shape our world today.

The settlement was a compilation of individual landholdings, many of which belonged to former “company slaves” of the Dutch West India Company. These former slaves, both men and women, had been manumitted as early as within twenty years of the founding of New Amsterdam and being brought to the colony as slaves. ‘Manumission’ and abolition are both terms that mean freeing enslaved people or "a release from slavery." More specifically, manumission is the act of a slave owner setting enslaved people free, while emancipation (and abolition) involve government action. In some cases, these freed black settlers were among the very first Africans brought to New Amsterdam as slaves in 1626, two years after the colony’s founding. The first land grants were given to members of the Black militia such as Domingo Anthony and “Captain of the Blacks” Manuel Trumpeter, or their widows, such as Catalina Anthony. The grants were sizable, from eight to twelve acres each, enough land for a garden, crops, and pasture for their cattle, goats, and sheep.

Several enslaved people in the now New York City region, petitioned successfully for their freedom and were granted parcels of land by the Council of New Amsterdam, under the condition that a portion of their farming proceeds goes to the company. Director General William Kieft granted land to newly freed, manumitted people under the pretense of a reward for years of loyal servitude. However, these particular parcels of land were granted by the Council for more intentional systematic reasons, as the colony of New Amsterdam faced the threat of Native American rebellions, raids, and attacks. Therefore, the Council granted manumitted African descendants landholdings in strategic areas as to create a defensive ‘buffer-zone’ between the Native Americans residing in indigenous northern Manhattan areas, and the European colonists residing at the southern tip of the island. Within this buffer-zone, the African descents living in the Land of the Free Blacks were made the ‘middlemen’ by the early New York colonizers, to drive a zone between Native American territories and the Dutch colonial settlement. This is a very early form of white institutional racism by utilizing zoning laws and territories.

Freed Black Folks Given Land Grants:

Looking closer at specific residents who received land grants and their culture, legacy, and impact, we have chosen to highlight 3 residents that occupied the Land of the Free Blacks, whose land was not in the Lower East Side. Each number on the map below corresponds to a freed African landholder.

Image from Tenement Museum.

African landholdings in New Amsterdam, now Manhattan, NY. Provided by https://maap.columbia.edu/place/30.html

[Section 4 on African Land Holdings Map]: Manuel de Gerrit de Rues: In December of 1643, Manuel de Gerrit de Rues was granted twelve acres of land. “Prior to his manumission, he was one of eight enslaved folks involved in the death of another enslaved person and was charged with murder in 164”. In what can only be described as a barbaric act, rather than choosing to execute all eight men, Dutch officials ordered them to draw straws. Drawing the shortest straw, Manuel de Gerrit de Rues was sentenced to death by hanging, but survived the fall from the execution ladder and it is said that witnesses pleaded with officials not to attempt the second execution. As stated in “Off the Grid” the Village Preservation blog: “Manuel de Gerrit de Rues was released and was granted farmland as a free man only two years later. His settlement was located west of the Bowery, stretching upwards from its southern boundary near Bond St toward East 8th St and Astor Place”.

[Section 8 on African Land Holdings Map]: Simon Congo: Spanning the area between Charlton Street and Downing Street and crossing over W. Houston Street, Simon Congo was granted an eight-acre parcel of farmland by the Council of New Amsterdam on the 15th of December in 1644. Simon Congo eventually came to own an additional parcel of land in an area further north by Union Square Park.

[Section 11 on African Land Holdings Map] Manuel Groot (Big Manuel): Manuel Groot, or Big Manuel, was among the first Angolan slaves ever owned by the Dutch West India Company who on the 21st of December 1644 was granted eight acres of land by the Council of New Amsterdam. According to the Village Preservation blog “Off the Grid” “his settlement stood adjacent to those of fellow manumitted Manuel Trumpeter and Anthony Portuguese, with the northernmost corner of the parcel located near West 4th and Washington Square East, stretching down towards West 3rd and LaGuardia Pl, and moving southwest towards Bleecker St and Broadway”.

“Land of the Blacks” Culture:

All would have shared heritage in Africa, particularly West Africa and the Americas, but many free and enslaved Black New Amsterdamer's had already moved many times by the time they arrived in New Amsterdam. These enslaved African American not only recreated their cultures ( (traditions and beliefs) based on their African backgrounds , but also their shared experiences living a life in bondage in New Amsterdam. Orchards were planted and included trees of apples, peaches, plums, and cherries, and their homes and barns were mostly wooden with roofs of thatch or board. They spoke both European and African languages, had learned complex trades and cross-cultural negotiations; many had also converted to or had exposure to Christianity. Those who were given the new status of half-freedom remained connected to the enslaved population, retaining and deepening relationships across status. Many of those who gained land grants were elders who had won a status we know as half-freedom, but their children remained enslaved. Nevertheless, the farms were passed down through the generations, creating a strong black community that petitioned for their rights, married, baptized their children and, at least a century before the Underground Railroad, harbored runaways.

The land of the Black’s culture also surrounded and was deeply impacted by Minetta Lane, once central to the Land of the Blacks. Minetta Lane is a remnant of a road, later called the Negroes’ Causeway that ran alongside Minetta Creek and connected some of the African farms with New Amsterdam. The Algonquin Indians called “Mannette,” or “Spirit Water” or “Demon Water,” and, which the Dutch later called “Mintje Kill,” or “little stream.” Over time, the brook became known as “Minetta.” While Minetta Brook was later moved underground (its inconvenient location posed a barrier to expansion) in the 1820s --its traces can still be found today in the design of the two Minettas (and under its manhole covers).

The Curve on Minetta Street Today

State Destruction + Dismantling:

The land changed hands over the next century, and by 1664, when the British took control of the colony, the settlements of Black residents covered about 130 acres, or about 100 city blocks. While a set of the land grants had been issued in perpetuity, by the 1680s the British revoked and stripped the property rights of the African residents of the Land of the Blacks and by 1707 had prohibited people of African descent from owning property. When the English British captured the colony of New Amsterdam and renamed it “New York” in that same year, the newly established English government demoted free blacks from property owners to legal aliens, denying them landowning rights and privileges. Again, another example of the Institutionalized structural racism in the beginning foundation of New York.

The colony became a much more dangerous place for people like de Britto, and many Black residents of New Amsterdam chose to move if they could, rather than risk state violence from the British. The “Land of the Blacks” changed from a site that housed and shaped the culture of free Black African descendants to a site of enslavement when the land was taken by the British and became James DeLancey’s farm. And, a row house was built for the cotton trader George Sutton. Within twenty years, a vast majority of land owned by people of African descent was seized by wealthy white landowners who turned these former free black settlements into retreats, farms, and plantations. This land holds these deep contradictions; of erasure, Black freedom, land ownership, and enslavement and calls us to acknowledge the depth of not only the history of New York, but at the stories that shape our world today.

Plan of New York; courtesy of Curriculum Concepts International

Map of freedmen’s farmland via Slavery in New York (L); Harper’s Magazine illustration of the New York City slave market in 1643

Walking Tour Notes: Exploring the LES Bowery area, it is hard to imagine the vast expanse the Land of the Blacks would have occupied. I tried to picture this through the trees, busy streets, and plots of land that no longer exist. Exploring this area almost made me sad to see the lack of remnants, in addition to my lack of findings or lack of documentation of this land, which emphasized my sadness. It’s discouraging to know that such a large land mass full of life is just gone. But it's also empowering to know miles and miles of this land was once cared for by free Black Folks. It’s also interesting to note how the history of this land mostly focuses on other prominent historically Black villages and communities such Seneca Village, yet the Land of the Free Blacks has a very unique history, legacy, and ancestry that will always be here, right in the LES. - KT KENNEDY

References

Apmann, S. B. (2018, February 16). North America's first freed Black settlement right in your neighborhood. Off the Grid: Village Presevation Blog. https://www.villagepreservation.org/2018/02/16/north-americas-first-freed-black-settlement-right-in-our-neighborhoods

Mapping the African American Past. (n. d.). Land of the Blacks. Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning. https://maap.columbia.edu/place/30.html

Tenement Museum. (n.d). "Land of the Blacks" and the Sebastiaen de Britto. https://www.tenement.org/land-of-the-blacks/

Wikipedia. (n.d). Land of the Blacks (Manhattan). blacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_the_Blacks_(Manhattan)#:~:text=The%20Land%20of%20the%20Blacks,social%20class%20of%20the%20colony.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (n.d). Black New Yorkers: Slavery and Freedom 1613-1865. https://blacknewyorkers-nypl.org/slavery-under-the-british/

Webb, M. Z.(2020). Black history and the culture sites in NYC. New York City the Official Guide.

https://www.nycgo.com/articles/nyc-sites-black-history-and-culture