Abolitionist Brooklyn (1828 – 1849)

…inst racism and slavery was firmly entrenched in the city of New York. But the city’s deep economic ties to the South made the situation volatile. In July 1834, the tension erupted. Mobs attacked black and white abolitionist homes and places of worship. They also targeted scores of ordinary black New Yorkers. In the immediate aftermath of these riots, white abolitionists sought to clarify they were radical activists but not anarchists. Two white…

Abolitionist Biographies

…y had moved. In 1839, he bought several lots of land in the village of Williamsburg, and built a brick house on South 8th Street and Bedford. William was an agent for the Colored American newspaper, founder and educator at Williamsburg’s African School, protested voting discrimination, and led the first recorded West India Emancipation Celebration in Williamsburg. After the Civil War, he returned to Virginia and became heavily involved in politic…

Civil War & Beyond (1861 – 1867)

…American men to enlist for the first time. Despite receiving lower wages, poor supplies, and lesser chances for promotion than their white colleagues, these men demonstrated tremendous bravery to end slavery and be recognized as equal citizens of the United States. Lieutenant Peter Vogelsang. Copy photograph of a carte de visite, originally taken by unknown photographer, circa 1863-1865. From the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment Pho…

Crisis Decade (1850 – 1860)

…Society. Church Debates on the Fugitive Slave Law “God’s law is certainly higher than man’s.” Samuel T. Spear’s South Presbyterian Church, on Clinton and Amity, included parishioners such as the prominent white abolitionist John Rankin. He was as an executive officer in the American Anti-Slavery Society, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and president of the Brooklyn Anti-Slavery Society. Reverend Ichabod S. Spencer, D. D., 1849, M1974.21…

Glossary

…ces colonization schemes. Antebellum The time period before the Civil War. Confederate States A group of united southern states that formed the Confederate States of America, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. These states voted to secede from the United States between 1860 and 1861. Draft A system for selecting individuals from a group for militar…

Timeline

…thousands of enslaved people who fueled the prosperity of Kings County’s agricultural economy. Jea was born in southern Nigeria in 1773. He was kidnapped at the age of 2½ and sold into slavery. Jea worked on a large farm in Flatbush. His slaveholders, Albert and Anetje Terhune treated him “in a manner almost too shocking to relate.”* The Terhunes forced their enslaved laborers to work eighteen hours a day, seven days a week, with a paucity of fo…

A Gradual Emancipation (1783 – 1827)

…thousands of enslaved people who fueled the prosperity of Kings County’s agricultural economy. Jea was born in southern Nigeria in 1773. He was kidnapped at the age of 2½ and sold into slavery. Jea worked on a large farm in Flatbush. His slaveholders, Albert and Anetje Terhune treated him “in a manner almost too shocking to relate.”* The Terhunes forced their enslaved laborers to work eighteen hours a day, seven days a week, with a paucity of fo…