Walkabout: Brooklyn’s Freedom, Part 4

Read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this story.

The decade leading up to the Civil War was not easy for black New Yorkers. Although slavery had been officially outlawed and abolished in New York State, in 1827, that didn’t mean that New York was a welcoming place for freed slaves, or even those born free.

The institution of slavery still existed in the South, and the taint of slavery still lingered in the North. Here in Brooklyn, the town of Weeksville, and smaller village of Carrsville, just next door, had been established a decade or more before; communities settled by, and for people of color, looking to put down roots in their own space, and forge their own destinies.

Weeksville was a successful town of over 500 souls, with its own social, religious, educational and business life, apart and separate from nearby Bedford, Flatbush or Bushwick. But most black Brooklynites did not live in Weeksville or Carrsville. Then, as now, they lived all over.

Over by the docks, poor blacks and whites suffered in squalor in tenements and slums. They also lived in shanty towns on the outskirts of developed areas. Blacks and whites lived in working class neighborhoods, in better tenements, and small cottages, and those with money lived in some of the better neighborhoods, like Brooklyn Heights and Fort Greene.

Many people also still lived as servants in their employers’ houses, and in the farming communities of Flatbush, Gravesend and New Utrecht, farm workers and other staff found housing both on and off their employers’ property.

The African-American community in Brooklyn was employed in a number of jobs: from farm worker and domestic, to day laborers, dock workers, liverymen, freight drivers, seamstresses, washer-women and nannies. There were also highly prized and skilled craftsmen, like carpenters, ironworkers, furniture makers, wheelwrights and blacksmiths.

The elite were teachers, preachers, doctors, lawyers and even undertakers. But from the flower sellers to the professional orators, there was still the fear and loathing of the institution of slavery, still going strong only a handful of states away. How can you truly be free, if others are still in bondage?

The Abolitionist movement in Brooklyn was dominated by Plymouth Church’s most eloquent preacher, the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher. From his pulpit every Sunday, he railed against the institution of slavery, and those who participated in it. A more complete telling of his story is here, and here. But he was not alone in his efforts to end slavery.

The Fugitive Slave Act, a national law passed in 1850, mandated the capture and return of a runaway slave, no matter where that person could be found in the United States, and in the Territories. Under the law, anyone of color could be arrested and made to prove their status as a free person.

Any deemed a runaway would be returned to his or her master. Defiance of that law was serious business, but a dedicated group of people, both black and white, made great sacrifices to not only defy the law, but aid in the escape of as many former slaves as possible. We call this defiance and aid the Underground Railroad.

Today, there is great cachet in saying your home was part of the Underground Railroad, but back in the 1850’s, it was highly illegal and subversive, and not mentioned at all. This was civic disobedience and defiance of a federal law, but for many, conscience and humanity superseded mortal laws.

Brooklyn was in the thick of New York’s Abolitionist Movement. The anti-slavery movement had actually begun as a small gathering of Quakers and others, in Philadelphia in the early 1830’s, but by the 1850’s was picking up steam as the country began to divide over the issues of slavery and state’s rights.

Here, in New York, attitudes about slavery were mixed among the elite, as well as among the lower economic classes. A lot of wealthy merchants and businessmen conducted lucrative business with the South, dealing in cotton and other goods.

Cotton production depended totally on slave labor and most were loath to change a good thing. Immigrants were beginning to pour into New York, in the 1850’s, Europeans fleeing government revolutions, such as in Germany, or economic devastation, such as the Irish Potato Famine.

The Irish, especially, found New York to be a hard town, and they were crowded into stinking slums, such as the infamous Five Points, without jobs or money. As the low group on the economic totem pole, they were often as unwanted as black people, encountering frequent discrimination.

Signs saying “No blacks or Irish allowed” were commonplace. Competition for manual labor jobs was fierce, and many immigrants, as well as native born poor whites, resented competing for those jobs with black people.

Yet, in spite of that, the Abolitionist Movement was strong. Leaders such as William Lloyd Garrison, Henry Ward Beecher, Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, and Wendell Phillips were highly influential in changing the hearts and minds of people.

They were also effective organizers and supporters of the Underground Railroad, the clandestine pathway of safe houses, food and protection runaway slaves from the South used to escape to the North and Canada. Today, the bravery of people like Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and countless, nameless people is celebrated, but during this time, they, the runaways, and the people who helped them were in constant danger.

Downtown Brooklyn was a major hub in the Underground Railroad. Henry Beecher’s Plymouth Church was a way station, as were houses on Duffield Street, as well as Bridge Street African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Concord Baptist Church, two of Downtown Brooklyn’s earliest black churches. In Fort Greene, the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church was also a center of Abolitionist sentiment, and was also a way station on the Underground Railroad, as were homes in the area.

Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg in talking about the Abolitionist Movement. There was a strong “back to Africa” element in the cause, with many feeling the only way to truly “fix” the situation of black people in America was to “send ‘em all back to Africa.” The African nation of Liberia was the result of that idea, which was very popular with a lot of influential people, including Abraham Lincoln.

The Abolitionist Movement was also the catalyst for the women’s movement, and many of its leaders overlapped causes, and worked to grant women equal rights in 19th century society. The entire social structure of the United States was changing, and it soon became apparent to many that it would only end in a civil war between the North and South.

The Civil War began in 1861. Eleven states in the South seceded from the Union, forming the Confederate States of America. War began when the Confederacy attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina in April of 1861.

The war would last almost five long years. Slavery was but one of the issues that caused this split, the war was much more complicated than that, but for many then, as well as today, the Civil War was the “war to free the slaves.”

The Democratic Party in New York, at this time, was the party of the working man, and they had gained great power by appealing to the sentiments of the immigrant German and Irish populations. As early as 1860, they had told their constituents that Lincoln’s election would soon mean emancipation of the slaves, and that would mean hordes of black freedmen pouring into New York City, competing with them for jobs and housing.

In 1862, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which went into effect in 1863. That year the Union called for the draft, making all men between the ages of 25 and 35 eligible to be called into the military.

This did not include blacks, who were exempt, because they were not considered citizens. It did include thousands of Irish and other immigrants who had newly become American citizens, some hardly arrived on these shores.

To make matters worse, a policy had been instituted that enabled anyone to buy out of the draft for $300, so many New Yorkers who were better off, and did not want to fight, simply paid the buyout, leaving those who could not afford to do so, prime draft material.

The anti-draft movement, fueled behind the scenes by many in the Democratic inner circles, gave speeches, led protests and wrote literature encouraging lower income men to protest the “N*gg*r War.” Their rhetoric said that white workers were worth less than plantation slaves, as they “are sold for $300 [the price of exemption from war service] whilst they pay $1000 for Negroes.”

They also ramped up the specter of blacks moving into the city en masse, taking over the institutions and industries that were now the stronghold of white working men. It was ugly. On Saturday, July 11th, the first draft lottery was held in Manhattan. On Monday, July 13, five days of bloody rioting started, which would leave hundreds dead, and New York City changed forever.

Next time – the last installment: The New York City Draft Riots, and their Brooklyn connection.

Photo: Organ and interior of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, 1910. nycago.org.