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VOICE ONE:
Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember. Slavery was not just in the South. Some early
Americans in the North also owned African slaves. In fact, historians say
the capital of American slavery for more than two hundred years was New
York. In colonial times, one of out five people in the city was a slave.
VOICE ONE:
Now, many people are interested in learning more about this part of the
history of America's largest city.
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VOICE TWO:
A discovery in New York City in nineteen ninety-one brought people
face-to-face with the past. Workers found human remains as they broke
ground for a new federal office building.
More than four hundred remains from the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries were unearthed. In nineteen ninety-three, officials declared the
African Burial Ground a National Historic Landmark.
Now an exhibition at the New-York Historical Society explores the
history of slavery in the city. Visitors see hundreds of objects,
including slave ship documents, bills of sale and wanted posters for
runaway slaves. Events are recreated with sound and pictures. Visitors
learn how slavery was important to the northern economy.
VOICE ONE:
New York City used to be called New Amsterdam. It was a Dutch colony on
the southern end of Manhattan Island, at the mouth of the Hudson River. It
was the main settlement in the territory of New Netherland.
The Dutch West India Company settled New Amsterdam in sixteen
twenty-four. The first slaves from Africa arrived a few years later.
VOICE TWO:
In the words of the New-York Historical Society: "Enslaved Africans
were at work in New Amsterdam from its beginning." The slaves wore Dutch
clothing. They learned the Dutch language. They lived much like the Dutch,
except they were the property of other people. Slave owners included Peter
Styvesant, the director-general of the colony.
The slaves cleared land, grew crops and built roads, buildings and
defenses. Wall Street, where the New York Stock Exchange is located, runs
along what was once the wall of a fort built by slaves. Slaves built Fort
Amsterdam, where Battery Park is now located. And they cut the road famous
today for its theaters: Broadway.
First the Dutch and then the British built the local economy on ships,
slaves, crops and manufactured goods. Many people profited from slavery.
Historians say that without slave labor, New Amsterdam might not have
survived.
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VOICE ONE:
In the sixteen forties, the Dutch West India Company began to give
slaves "half-freedom." They could settle nearby in what the Dutch called
"the land of the blacks.?nbsp";
But the people who lived there had to pay a yearly tax. They had to
work for the colony whenever needed. And their children became slaves. But
the people were free to farm their own lands and sell what they grew.
New Amsterdam did not have enough colonists to do the work needed to
create a major port city. As the New-York Historical Society explains,
efforts to get more Dutch people to move there largely failed. So did
efforts to put Native Americans from nearby villages to work, and keep
them from fleeing.
The Dutch often seized European ships in the Atlantic and captured
their African crew members. In the words of the historical society:
"Bringing the captured African seamen to New Amsterdam seemed to solve
these problems. The Africans could be forced to work, and they could not
escape and go home."
VOICE TWO:
In sixteen sixty-four, the British captured New Amsterdam. They renamed
it New York. The British expanded slavery and strengthened slave laws.
Blacks could not own property. They could not gather at night or in groups
of more than three. And there were restrictions on where they could go.
Historians note that the British rewrote many of these laws often, which
suggests that the measures did not work well.
Records show that the British were much rougher in their treatment of
slaves than the Dutch had been. Slaves faced death or other severe
punishment for crimes like robbery, setting fires or plotting to revolt.
Punishments were often carried out in public.
Yet even under repressive laws many slaves married and had families.
They attended religious services and produced poetry, art, music and
literature. Denied a vote, they organized political pressure groups and
created a "lively press," the New-York Historical Society says.
VOICE ONE:
During the seventeen hundreds, historians say, forty percent of all
households in New York owned slaves. At the time of the American
Revolution, New York had more slaves than any American city except
Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston is a major port in the South.
"Almost anything that people bought in New York --?cheese, tobacco,
cloth, rum, sugar, butter --?was grown or made by enslaved labor," the
historical society says. Often the goods arrived on ships owned by slave
traders.
The local economy was built on a large, unpaid labor force that kept
stores well-supplied and prices reasonable.
VOICE TWO:
Unlike the South, New York City did not have large plantation farms.
Slaves did not live in rooms with large numbers of other slaves. They
lived in the kitchens or back rooms of their owners' houses.
Southern slaves most often worked either in the fields or as house
servants. In New York, enslaved men often learned a skill. Early builders
and manufacturers depended on them. A few were taught to read and write.
Most females slaves worked as servants and could not read or write.
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VOICE ONE:
Some slaves rebelled. A reported plot in seventeen forty-one led to the
execution of thirty blacks and four whites. It became known as the "Great
Negro Plot?nbsp"; to destroy New York.
In the end, the American Revolution crushed the system of slavery in
New York City. The thirteen British colonies in America declared their
independence on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six.
The British lost the war in seventeen eighty-three. But they kept their
promise of freedom and passage to Canada for more than three thousand
slaves who fought on their side.
VOICE TWO:
The issue of slavery had always divided people in the city. But after
the war, more and more white New Yorkers started to think that slavery
should end. They saw that it conflicted with the goals of freedom and
equality that led to the revolution and the creation of the United States.
Poor European immigrants increasingly did the work that slaves had
done. Slave labor, though, was still important to the New York City
economy.
Slavery would end, but it would end slowly.
VOICE ONE:
The legislation was a compromise. Laws delayed the end of slavery in
New York State until July fourth, eighteen twenty-seven. Some other states
in the North also passed similar laws of gradual emancipation.
New York City became actively involved in the Underground Railroad
which helped blacks escape from slavery.
In the Confederate states of the South, the plantation economy still
depended on slaves. It took President Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War in
the eighteen sixties to end slavery in America.
VOICE TWO:
Listen now to some of the reactions that visitors have recorded at the
slavery exhibit in New York:
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VOICE ONE:
"Slavery in New York: A Landmark Exhibition" has been extended through
March twenty-sixth at the New-York Historical Society. The Web site is
slaveryinnewyork, all one word, dot o-r-g (slaveryinnewyork.org). There is
also a related book called "Slavery in New York," edited by two history
professors, Ira Berlin and Leslie Harris.
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VOICE TWO:
THIS IS AMERICA was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio
engineer was Bill Barber. Internet users can read and hear our programs at
voaspecialenglish. I'm Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And I'm Faith Lapidus. We hope you listen again next week for THIS IS
AMERICA in VOA Special English. | 
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