Land of the Blacks (Manhattan) facts for kids
The Land of the Blacks was a special village in New Amsterdam (which is now New York City). It was settled by people of African descent. This village was located just north of the city's wall, near what is now Wall Street. It existed from about 1643 to 1716.
The name "Land of the Blacks" came from old land records in the 1640s. These records described white-owned properties as being next to the land "of the Blacks." This area is sometimes seen as the first free African settlement in North America. However, the people who owned land there had a "half-free" status. This meant they weren't fully enslaved, but they weren't completely free either.
There were about 30 farms owned by Africans, covering about 130 acres. This area is now part of the Greenwich Village and SoHo neighborhoods, and it includes Washington Square Park.
Contents
What Was the Land of the Blacks?
The Land of the Blacks was an agreement between the Dutch West India Company and people of African descent. This agreement helped create a safe area after a conflict called Kieft's War with the native Lenape people. It acted like a "buffer zone," which is a protective area between two groups.
How Did It Start?
Before it became the Land of the Blacks, this area was called Noortwyck. A former Dutch governor, Wouter van Twiller, had a large tobacco farm there. This farm was built on an even older settlement of the Lenape people called Sapokanikan.
Africans in New Amsterdam were under the control of the Dutch West India Company, not private slave owners. In 1644, a group of eleven African men, who had been with the company for many years, asked for their rights in court. They were likely soldiers. These men became part of a new "half-free" group in the colony. They were given land around the same time.
The African Eleven
These "African Eleven" men probably arrived in New Amsterdam around 1625 or 1626. They might have been the very first enslaved men brought to the colony. They came before another group that arrived in 1628, which included the first African women.
Africans had done a lot of work building the defenses of New Netherland. This included Fort Amsterdam and the northern wall. Because of their military service, some of these veterans might have been given special treatment when land was given out.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The next governor, Willem Kieft, created the settlement as a buffer area. This happened when Dutch people left the region because of Kieft's War against the native Lenape people. Even though their freedom was only partial, some historians consider this the first free African settlement in North America. A more commonly known one is Fort Mose, founded a century later in Spanish Florida, also for military reasons.
Historians believe that many of these African people came from communities in Africa that already had connections with Europeans. For example, some came from the Kingdom of Kongo. This background might have helped them negotiate for better living conditions.
Life in the Settlement
The families who owned land built a shared cattle pen for their community. They also helped build the famous wall of Wall Street, which replaced an earlier wooden fence.
Under Dutch rule, the "half-free" status was not supposed to pass on to the children of the landowners. However, in reality, this rule was often ignored. Land plots were passed down to the next generation.
Later, Governor Peter Stuyvesant reduced the size of some African properties. He took some land for himself, bought some, and simply ordered others to be taken. Still, most of the land stayed with the African families.
Losing Their Freedom
In 1664, the English took control of New Netherland and renamed it the Province of New York. After this, the rights of the "half-free" African community slowly began to disappear. Governor Stuyvesant did try to confirm some of the land properties in a letter to the English in 1665.
Shortly after the English took over, a man named Jasper Danckaerts wrote about the community in his travel diary:
We went from the city, following the Broadway, over the valley or the fresh water. Upon both sides of this way there were many habitations of negroes, mulattoes and whites. The negroes were formerly the slaves of the West India Company. But, in consequence of the frequent changes and conquests of the country, they have obtained their freedom, and settled themselves down where they thought proper, and thus on this road, where they have grown enough to live on with their families.
New Laws and the End of Land Ownership
In 1702, the first of the New York slave codes were passed. These were laws that further limited the freedom of the African community in New York. African land ownership in the area effectively ended after new anti-Black laws were passed following the New York Slave Revolt of 1712. These new laws included a ban on inheriting property.
The village did not have its own city government. Instead, it was made up of a series of land grants. A group called Village Preservation has found records of 28 land grants. Most of these were connected in one main area. Three other land grants were a bit to the south and not connected to the main part.
Legacy Today
After people lost their properties, a later neighborhood in Greenwich Village was called Little Africa. The history of this community is remembered at the African Burial Ground National Monument.
In 2020, a local community board supported remembering the African landholding community. This community is not publicly marked. They suggested that a monument could be placed in Washington Square Park. In 2021, a temporary digital art show about this history was put on by artists from Black Gotham Experience.
