In African Footsteps

 To walk in the footsteps of the city’s first African-Americans is to take a journey through Lower Manhattan that is both painful and inspiring. It is to be reminded that New Yorkers once haggled over the price of men, women and children at the slave market at Wall and Pearl streets. And it is to discover that the island’s expansion and the very streets we walk on today were first built by these slaves.

But Lower Manhattan’s early African-American history is also a story of courageous abolitionists, talented writers and performers, and educators and entrepreneurs who, against all odds, built a vibrant black community.

Although the structures from those early days have vanished, you still can step back into African-American history with the South Street Seaport Museum’s new weekly walking tour, “African-American Life in Lower Manhattan.” The tour, held on most Sundays, from 2 to 4 p.m., starts at the museum at 12 Fulton St. and ends at the African Burial Ground. Here are some of the stops along the way:


New York’s First Slave Market - Wall and Pearl

The Slave Market at the foot of Wall Street and the East River, which is now Pearl Street.

Known as the Meal Market, this slave market was established in 1709 at what was then the bank of the East River. Several blocks away, a slave barracks was located at 32-34 S. William St., at Coenties Alley.


Oyster House and Tavern - Broad and Wall

In the early 1800s, two black businessmen, Boston Crummell and Thomas Downing, owned, respectively, an oyster house and a tavern on this corner. Many free blacks worked in and around the harbor, where there were opportunities for them. Both men helped start Freedom’s Journal, the city’s first black newspaper, with offices at Church and Leonard streets.


African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church - Church and Leonard

The story of this church began with Peter Williams a parishioner of the Methodist Church at 44 John St., which had African Americans among its membership. Most of them, like Williams, were enslaved. When his “owner” fled to England in 1778, Williams faced the auction block. The church’s trustees purchased him for 40 pounds, and he repaid them in installments, thereby gaining his freedom. In 1801, Williams and other members, angry about segregation in the church, founded the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, later known as the “freedom church.” (Not on the tour, but nearby at Church and Lispenard streets, is the site of the home of David Ruggles, the black abolitionist, who helped hundreds of fugitive slaves, including Frederick Douglass.)


The Colored Sailors Home - John and Gold

This boardinghouse for black seamen was established in the 1830s by abolitionist William Powell. Many of slaves were fugitives and some assisted other runaways to freedom. The Sailors Home aided more than 17,000 seamen in its 33-year existence.


African Free School - 245 William

The African Free School was located at 245 William St.

Created in 1787 by black and white abolitionists, this was the first school for blacks in the United States. Students were taught reading, writing and arithmetic. In 1820, the subjects expanded to geography, composition, sewing and knitting, and navigation skills for boys.

City Hall Park - Broadway and Park Row

A slave being auctioned in Lower Manhattan.

Accused of plotting to take over the city, 31 slaves were executed at this site in 1741 in a case called the “Negro Plot.” Thirteen men were burned at the stake and 17 were hanged. Four whites, including two women, also were hanged. Some of the bodies were left on public display for more than two weeks.

African Burial Ground - Duane and Elk

In 1991, during construction of a federal office building at 290 Broadway, the remains of more than 400 African-Americans were discovered—remnants of an 18th-century cemetery that is believed to have spanned five acres, where as many as 20,000 free and enslaved blacks were buried. Land next to the new building was left undeveloped and declared a city landmark. Last October, the remains were reinterred and a memorial is being planned.

The “African-American Life in Lower Manhattan” tour is part of “Captive Passage: The Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Making of the Americas,” an exhibit at South Street Seaport Museum. $10. Call 212-748-8786 for reservations.