Andrew Williams was paid almost as much as his land was worth, while Epiphany Davis lost over a hundred dollars as she was forced to give up her home. Owning land meant voting rights, as well as refuge from the slums of lower Manhattan. “Seneca Village and Little Africa: Two African Communities in Antebellum New York City.” 97.10. The fear of poverty, crime, and diseases created quite the controversy, and many news outlets used that to further their agenda to gain support. The tip of the island of Manhattan was overflowing with people. History. Collection of the New-York Historical Society. Williams and Davis were prominent members of the New York African Society for Mutual Relief, as well as the AME Zion Church, and soon they had recruited other members to purchase land near theirs as well. However, as the people of Seneca Village were thriving, the people of lower Manhattan were looking for other, more aesthetically pleasing things to do with the area it occupied. "Seneca Village had approximately 50 homes, three churches, and one school. However, after just 20 years, the thriving black community that had made its home there was pushed out, to make room for the affluent white residents of Upper Manhattan to build a park. The population was 2,371 at the 2010 census. Andrew Williams was paid almost as much as his land was worth, while Epiphany Davis lost over a hundred dollars as she was forced to give up her home. What became of their stories? For instance, in 1856, As removal began to occur in the late 1850s and early 1860s, the people who occupied the village tried to fight but failed. By visiting the exhibit, located at the site of Seneca Village, people can learn about the features of the Village and gain insight into the lives of residents. Real estate developers quickly jumped on the idea of an exclusive community bordering lush parklands and began looking into securing the area in the center of Manhattan — including the prime real estate that Seneca Village stood upon. “Seneca Village and Little Africa: Two African Communities in Antebellum New York City.” 99.16.

Though the village was all but forgotten by the 1870s, recently researchers have begun excavating the site on which it once stood, hoping to shed … “Seneca Village and Little Africa: Two African Communities in Antebellum New York City.” 100.6. Leslie M. Harris, “Slavery, Emancipation, and Class Formation in Colonial and Early National New York City.” (Journal of Urban History. Though the village was all but forgotten by the 1870s, recently researchers have begun excavating the site on which it once stood, hoping to shed light on the lost village and give due credit to those who lived there. When Powerful White New Yorkers Demolished Seneca Village To Build Central ParkKatie Serena is a New York City-based writer and a staff writer at All That's Interesting.The Story Of Serial Killer Edmund Kemper, Whose Story Is Almost Too Gross To Be RealWhat Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The MostA sketch of what the layout of Seneca Village would have looked like.Albro and Mary Joseph Lyons, prominent residents of Seneca Village.The sign, acknowledging the area where Seneca Village once stood. The upper, eastern part of the island is where they started looking, directly across from Seneca Village. There is still much more research to be done about Seneca Village — but here is some of what we know to date about the community’s residents and landscape, as well as the artifacts that have been discovered. Razed to make way for Central Park, Seneca Village was a vibrant neighborhood in 19th century Manhattan. Before the emancipation of New York City slaves in 1827, “no part of the colonial North relied more heavily on slavery than Manhattan.”Figure 3: Illustration, sketched by D.E. Slowly, the community started to take shape. Diana DiZerega Wall, Nan A. Rothschild and Cynthia Copeland, “Seneca Village and Little Africa: Two African American Communities in Antebellum New York City,” (5. However, as of now, the only official artifact acknowledging the village’s existence is a small sign, dedicated to the people who once called it home. Not much is known of the first-hand accounts about the people who occupied the community, except for a few news stories that were written throughout the mid-1850s and early 1900s. These people were left voiceless in making a choice (of whether they wanted to sell their land for the creation of Central Park or keep their legacy), and hence, they became the forgotten ones.1. 1 -“Shanty” at Fifth Avenue and 94th Street, 1888. Lower Manhattan was overflowing with immigrants at the time, and the wealthy, affluent families were beginning to look for other places to make their homes. “Slavery, Emancipation, and Class Formation in Colonial and Early National New York City.” 349.9. Seneca Village was first started by Andrew Williams and Epiphany Davis, two prominent black abolitionists, who managed to find a white man to sell his land to black people. During its heyday, many of the village’s basements served as hiding places for people looking to escape slavery. Amidst the innumerable societal disadvantages that black Americans faced emerged an enclave of relative success in New York City — Seneca Village. But that doesn’t erase the pain and loss experienced by real people. As Seneca Village was building up, however, support for Central Park grew, driven by some of the same pressures that created the African American enclave. N-YHS Education Department, “A Teacher’s Guide to Using Primary Sources in the Classroom: Seneca Village,” (New York: New York History Society, 2010) 4.4. Most of Seneca Village’s residents could be defined as “middle class” because “the people of Seneca Village…had deeper roots in the state of New York.”The African American struggle for equal opportunities and political representation spans over the entirety of American history.


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