New York City’s slavery & underground railroad secrets

In Manhattan, a New York City slavery and underground railroad walking tour opens visitors’ eyes to a dark past.

Key sites in New York City’s slavery history

• Alexander Hamilton US Custom House.
• The Well.
• 23 Wall Street (the JP Morgan Building).
• The African Burial Ground.

To book an excellent three hour walking tour of sites related to New York City’s slavery past, head this way.

For more detail, read on.

Africa on Custom House in Lower Manhattan

Outside Alexander Hamilton US Custom House in Lower Manhattan, there are four statues representing Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa. Europe has its arm on a pile of books and a globe. America has a woman poised for action, holding a torch of liberty and corn, the symbol of plenty. Yet Africa is slumped, naked and vulnerable, atop a crumbling sphinx.

This should be enough to show you how the power balance has played out since Europeans arrived in North America. Northern states such as New York like to downplay their slavery history, preferring to let people think it was just a southern thing. But Ludie from Inside Out Tours is determined to show that’s not the case.

The NYC slavery and underground railroad tour

Her slavery and underground railroad tour through the oldest parts of Manhattan is more like a three hour lecture conducted in various locations. She’s passionate, occasionally furious, and eager for people to learn that the horrors of the past still have a knock-on effect today.

What starts as an explanation of the transatlantic slave trade soon starts to narrow its focus to New York.

When New York finally gave up slavery

The first shock is when New York finally became slavery-free – 1827, which is more than two centuries after being settled by the Dutch.

It was the biggest slave state in the north, with as many as 40% of households having slaves – as many as South Carolina. It’d be a different experience too, as most lived alone, cut off from other enslaved people working in other households.

The historical importance of the Well

It’s why, Ludie explains, the Well was so important. It’s still in place and covered with see-through glass, but this would be the place where every morning, slaves would go to collect water for their households. It was one of the few times they’d be given permission to congregate and be out on their own. And it’s where discussions happened. “This was the birthplace of the African American community in the city,” says Ludie.

Nearby is a sign marking where the slave market – which was used until 1762 – used to be. It’s not in the right place, as a skyscraper now occupies the spot on Wall Street between Pearl and Water Streets. It’s better than nothing, though – until 2014 there was nothing nearby to commemorate what it once was.

Thomas Downing’s Oyster House

The JP Morgan Building, opposite Federal Hall at 23 Wall Street, once belonged to Thomas Downing’s Oyster House – the hottest New York restaurant of the 1820s. But the people dining there didn’t realise that Downing’s son George hid fugitive slaves, escaped from the south, in the basement. It was a key station on the underground railroad, the system whereby enslaved people in the south would be helped to safety by people risking their lives and livelihoods to get them to slavery-free northern states or Canada.

The organisation of the underground railroad

The network of ‘stations’ and ‘conductors’ had no central organisation – but ended up as a network of extraordinarily brave cells trying to right a wrong one person at a time. There are some remarkable stories – including one of Ellen Craft who passed as white and posed as a mute gentleman to allow her husband William to act as her manservant and interpreter.

There’s also the story of Henry Brown, who was posted to Canada in an excruciatingly tiny box.

Manhattan’s African Burial Ground

But then, sadly, there are thousands of stories that will probably never be known. And many of them belong to the bodies found, in 1991, in what is now known as the African Burial Ground. Uncovered during the construction of a federal building, later studies found that around 40% of the bodies belonged to children aged under 12, and some had muscle detached from the bones. That was an indicator that they were worked until they were broken.

And Ludie is determined that everyone, black, white or other, realises this is part of New York – and America’s – past. “This is OUR story,” she states with fierce intent. “You’re connected to it.”

More New York City travel

Other New York City travel stories on Planet Whitley include:

• Why Ellis Island deserves more time than the Statue of Liberty.
• Going beyond the musical on an Alexander Hamilton walking tour.
• Stories of Nolita on the Catacombs by Candlelight tour.