Law Passes to Create Trail of Historical Markers Related to Slavery
On September 12, the City Council unanimously voted to ratify the Road to Freedom Act, a bill sponsored by member Christopher Marte that will impanel a 13-member task force of government officials and academic experts to plan an urban historical trail in Lower Manhattan (and beyond) to raise awareness about the role New York City played in the Underground Railroad and the abolitionist movement.
From about 1790 to the 1860s, the Underground Railroad was a secret network of routes and safe houses by which enslaved persons were smuggled out of the pre-Civil War South.
At least 30 sites in Lower Manhattan (defined here as the area south of Canal and Pearl Streets, and the Brooklyn Bridge) are directly relevant to the history of opposition to slavery, according to Jacob Morris. The director of the Harlem Historical Society and executive director of the New York City Freedom Trail Foundation, Mr. Morris has been pushing for the idea of a Lower Manhattan trail of historical markers related to slavery for more than a decade.
Among the sites considered for such a trail are several that remain visible today, such as the African Burial Ground National Monument (290 Broadway) and Two White Street, at the corner of West Broadway. The latter is the landmarked Gideon Tucker House, which dates from 1809 but was by the 1840s the home of Rev. Theodore Sedgwick Wright, an African-American minister who served as pastor of the nearby First Colored Presbyterian Church and was not only a leading abolitionist, but also a secret “conductor” on the Underground Railroad.
Other Lower Manhattan sites considered for the Road to Freedom Trail are where auspicious events occurred, such as “Frederick Douglass Landing” near the north corner of Stuyvesant High School, which marks the spot where the legendary African-American abolitionist landed in Manhattan after escaping slavery in 1838.
Another such location, erased from both historical memory and the local streetscape is the intersection of Pearl Street with the now-vanished Chatham Street (approximately the intersection of modern-day Park Row and Pearl Street). This is where, in 1854, Lower Manhattan resident Elizabeth Jennings Graham was on her way to church, and boarded a horse-drawn streetcar, only to be ordered off because of the color of her skin. A century before Rosa Parks made better-remembered history, Graham filed a lawsuit that resulted in court-ordered desegregation of New York’s public transit.
Mr. Marte says, “the history of New York City’s role in the Underground Railroad remains underground. The Road to Freedom Act will lead New Yorkers to an understanding of our City’s role in liberating enslaved people and abolishing slavery. While we continue to be home to thousands of organizers and activists who are fighting against racist oppression, this legislation will build deeper connections to our past so that we can forge a better future.”
The next steps called for by the Road to Freedom Act, after the panel has been appointed, are for multiple public hearings, followed by the filing of a report to the Mayor and the Speaker of the City Council containing recommendations for implementing the planned trail.