In 1711, New York City had 6,000 to 8,000 residents, with about 1,000 enslaved individuals. Their separate ownership allowed the enslaved frequent contact with each other. Enslaved workers would roam the city looking for work, allowing them to fraternize. More African compatriots arrived by the transatlantic slave route daily. This made whites nervous.

The English takeover of New Amsterdam occurred in 1664, when an English fleet arrived and demanded surrender. With the Treaty of Westminster in 1674, the British ruled New Amsterdam and renamed it New York City. Their rule made slavery stricter, with harsher laws and fewer freedoms than under Dutch rule. The Dutch West India Company (WIC), which owned the enslaved, used them in large municipal labor gangs. English individuals owned enslaved people and used them for domestic s

The Lower East Side was home to Eastern European Jewish, Italian, and Greek immigrants, and served as a critical transition point for Black families during the First Wave of the Great Migration.

Victoria Earle Matthews and Maritcha Remond Lyons founded The White Rose Mission in New York City on February 11, 1897. The Mission was called The White Rose Home for Colored Working Girls and The White Rose Industrial Association. Its mission was to provide “refuge, shelter, and food” to Black women entering New York City from the Jim Crow states.

What do a Philadelphia tavern, a flying horse carousel, the Pennsylvania Hospital, and Black dock workers have in common? The Flying Horse Riot of 1834.