Lost Black Towns

[TDowl]

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15 OF HISTORY'S LOST BLACK TOWNS

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Fort Mose, Fla.: The First 'Emancipation Proclamation'
Courtesy of Black Past
Founded in 1738, Fort Mose, located just north of St. Augustine, is the United States' first free black settlement. Amid the fight for control of the New World, Great Britain, Spain and other European nations relied on African slave labor. The king of Spain issued an edict: Any male slave of the British colonies who escaped to the Spanish colony of Florida would be set free -- as long as he declared his allegiance to Spain and the Catholic Church. The settlement was abandoned when the British took possession of Florida in 1763.
Captions by Monée Fields-White
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Rosewood, Fla.: A Massacre That Won't Be Forgotten
Courtesy of The Real Rosewood Foundation
Rosewood, established in 1870, was the site of what could be considered one of the worst race riots in U.S. history. By 1915 it was a small, predominantly black town -- with a population of just slightly more than 300. On New Year's Day in 1923, a young white woman claimed that a black man sexually assaulted her; Rosewood was destroyed by a band of white men searching for the alleged suspect. The number of those killed is still unknown.
#3
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Seneca Village, N.Y.: Taking a Stroll Through History
Courtesy of The New-York Historical Society
Located between 82nd and 89th streets and Seventh and Eighth avenues is Manhattan's first community of prominent black property owners. The New York State census estimated that about 264 residents lived in Seneca Village between 1825 and 1857. The area consisted of three churches, a school and several cemeteries. All was razed -- and the history erased -- with the development of Central Park.
#4
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Five Points District, N.Y.: High Stakes in Lower Manhattan
Courtesy of The New-York Historical Society
Today we know it as Wall Street, but from the 1830s to the 1860s, this area was the site of Manhattan's first free black settlement. Located on the five-cornered intersection of what were then Anthony, Cross, Orange and Little Water streets, it also became known as a notorious slum, with its dance halls, bars, gambling and prostitution. Many blacks fled the area to escape the draft riots of 1863.
#5
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Weeksville, N.Y.: A Refuge for Southerners and Northerners
Courtesy of The Weeksville Heritage Center
What is now Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, N.Y., Weeksville was the second-largest community for free blacks prior to the Civil War. James Weeks, a freed slave, purchased a significant amount of land from Henry C. Thompson, another freed slave. Weeks sold property to new residents, who eventually named the community after him. It thrived over the years, becoming home to both Southern blacks fleeing slavery and Northern blacks escaping the racial violence and draft riots in New York and other cities.
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Greenwood, Okla.: The Black Wall Street
Courtesy of the Department of Special Collections, University of Tulsa
In the early 1900s, African Americans settled in Oklahoma, seeking employment and other opportunities in the rich oil fields. Greenwood, part of Tulsa, became home to thriving black businesses -- decades later earning it the moniker "Black Wall Street." But in May 1921, Greenwood faced escalating racial unrest after a young white woman accused a black man of rape. The man wasn't charged, but that didn't stop a white mob from burning down Greenwood, the site of the worst race riot in U.S. history.
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Freedman's Village, Va.: The Nation's Safe Haven
Getty Images
In 1863 the federal government built Freedman's Village on the grounds of the Custis and Lee estates. There were about 50 one-and-a-half-story houses, each of which was divided to accommodate two families. The settlement was home to some notable residents, including Sojourner Truth -- who in 1864 worked as a teacher and helped villagers find jobs. The government closed down the village in 1900. It is now the site of the southern end of Arlington National Cemetery, the Pentagon and the Navy Annex building.
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Allensworth, Calif.: A California Dream
Courtesy of Friends of Allensworth
In 1908 Lt. Col. Allen Allensworth and four others set up the California Colony and Home Promoting Association with the mind-set of establishing the state's first all-black township. Located on the Santa Fe rail line, by 1914 the town housed the first black school district, a judicial system and a hotel. The town struggled to stay afloat in the face of setbacks, from water-supply issues to the railroad closing its stop there. The township is now preserved as Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park.
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Freedmen's Town, Texas: Houston's 'Little Harlem'
Courtesy of Texas Historical Commission
At the end of the Civil War, thousands of freed slaves purchased land and built their homes along the Buffalo Bayou, dubbing it "Freedmen's Town." And over six decades the town thrived, with churches, schools, stores, theaters and jazz spots lining the cobblestone roadways. By the 1920s it was known as "Little Harlem," but the Great Depression caused many to lose their homes. Some longtime residents moved to other Houston neighborhoods; others stayed and watched the community deteriorate. In 1984 Freedmen's was designated a historic district.
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Davis Bend, Miss.: A Progressive Slave Town
Courtesy of The Mississippi Historical Society
Davis Bend was a former plantation owned by Joseph Davis, who created a more self-governing community among his 350 slaves. Benjamin Montgomery, one of those slaves, served as the overseer. After the war, Davis sold the land on which his plantation was situated to Montgomery for $300,000 in gold; Montgomery maintained the free cooperative community until the 1880s. But the community fell victim to a poor economy and racial hostility. Montgomery's son, Isaiah, established a new town, Mound Bayou, which exists today.
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Muchakinock, Iowa: The Strike Breakers
Courtesy of The African American Museum of Iowa
From 1875 to 1900, Muchakinock was home to one of the nation's largest coal-mining firms, Consolidated Coal Co. In 1880 J.E. Buxton, superintendent at Consolidated, sent officials to recruit black laborers from Virginia and West Virginia. Black families settled into the town, but by 1900 the coal mines were exhausted and Consolidated started opening up new camps in Buxton, Iowa.
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Buxton, Iowa: 'A Black Man's Town'
Courtesy of The African American Museum of Iowa
While it was a multiethnic community, Buxton was considered "a black man's town" because the number of African-American families significantly outweighed that of other ethnic groups. As in Muchakinock, Iowa, blacks held many key roles in town, including two justices of the peace and two deputy sheriffs. With a black population that reached about 5,000, the town was dubbed by Booker T. Washington "a success." But soon, demand for coal, the town's principal industry, began to lessen. By 1927 Buxton had lost all of its residents.
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New Philadelphia, Ill.: A Pioneer Town in the Frontier
Courtesy of Illinois Historic Preservation Agency
Founded in 1836, New Philadelphia was among the first towns registered by an African American prior to the Civil War. Frank McWhorter, a former Kentucky slave, pulled together money from work and his own enterprises to purchase freedom for himself and his family and buy 42 acres in southwest Illinois. Before the Civil War, his town was a safe haven for the Underground Railroad. But the Hannibal and Naples railroad bypassed the town, and by the late 1880s, residents started leaving. Today New Philadelphia is an open field. It was named a national landmark in 2009.
#14
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Pin Oak Colony, Ill.: Byproduct of the Northwest
Courtesy of The Forest History Society
Established in 1818, this small township spread across just 480 acres. It was organized under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, an act that led to Western expansion and excluded slavery. After the Civil War, many residents relocated to other towns.
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Blackdom, N.M.: The Black Ghost Town
Courtesy of the NAACP of Otero County New Mexico
Located southwest of Roswell, Blackdom, established by Frank and Ella Louise Boyer, was the first all-black settlement in New Mexico. The heyday for the town was around 1908, when there were about 300 residents. They had set up a post office, a blacksmith, stores, a hotel and the Blackdom Baptist Church, which also served as the schoolhouse. By the 1920s a severe drought led settlers to abandon the town

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[Don1]

Excellent

[MdmeX]

Thanks for this TDowl. I knew about the atrocities of Rosewood, Greenwood and the Wall Street enclave.

If I sound offensive or politically incorrect on the statement below, then a suh, because I am not going to apologize.

Jews use their Holocaust to their advantage, and every nation on earth seem to pay for their suffering on a continuous basis. But who pays for the Holocaust to the black race

[Gamma]

who pays? why the back people themselves .... they continue to be amongst the least of the apostles in the diaspora .... USA, UK, Europe

[Hortical]

Seneca Village in Central Park

Unearthing Traces of African-American Village Displaced by Central Park


July 27, 2011
Unearthing Traces of African-American Village Displaced by Central Park
By LISA W. FODERARO
For more than a decade, anthropologists and historians pieced together the history of a short-lived African-American community that was snuffed out in the 1850s by the creation of Central Park. They combed vital records and tax documents, scanned parkland using radar and studied soil borings.

But because the vestiges of the community were buried beneath the park, the leaders of the Institute for the Exploration of Seneca Village History — a consortium of three professors from City College, Columbia University and New York University — were kept from doing the one thing that would open a window onto the daily existence of the some 260 residents: digging.

That all changed eight weeks ago, after they won permission from the city to excavate in an area of the park near 85th Street and Central Park West.

While the borings of the past produced just a few artifacts, the dig, which will end on Friday, generated 250 bags of material that should keep the scholars busy for months, if not years. The work on Wednesday alone yielded a toothbrush handle fashioned of bone and the lid of a stoneware jar.

About two-thirds of the residents of Seneca Village were African-American, while the rest were of European descent, mostly Irish. The community was settled in the 1820s, a few years before slavery was abolished in New York. Despite old news reports that the village was a squatter camp, it was, in fact, made up of working- and middle-class property owners.

Detailed historical maps indicate that the village stretched from 82nd to 89th Streets, between what were then Seventh and Eighth Avenues. Nan A. Rothschild, an anthropologist who is a professor at Columbia University and Barnard College, said that there were other settlements in the area, but that “this is the most formal, coherent community that we know of, because it was laid out in a grid pattern and had three churches and a school.”

With the help of 10 college interns, the institute focused on two primary sites: the yard of a resident named Nancy Moore, and the home of William G. Wilson, a sexton at All Angels’ Episcopal Church, both of whom were black. Records show that Mr. Wilson and his wife, Charlotte, had eight children and lived in a three-story wood-frame house.

The holes, which were up to six feet deep, revealed stone foundation walls and myriad artifacts, including what appeared to be an iron tea kettle and a roasting pan (now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for conservation), a stoneware beer bottle and fragments of Chinese export porcelain.

But perhaps the most powerful find, at least for the archaeology interns, was a small shoe with a leather sole and fabric upper. Possibly belonging to a child, the shoe was a reminder that the work uncovered real lives.

“It’s just such an intimate thing,” said Madeline Landry, a junior anthropology major at Barnard College, who found herself choked up by the discovery. “That shoe fit someone who walked around here.”

The former yard of Nancy Moore contained the original soil of Seneca Village, in contrast to Mr. Wilson’s property, which appeared to have been dug up and filled during the park’s construction. Thus, in Ms. Moore’s yard, the interns found a number of items that might have been discarded, including fragments of two clay pipes, as well as bones from animals that had been butchered.

The institute also plans to put the dirt under a microscope; such scrutiny could show seeds, pollen and other organic matter. Diana diZerega Wall, a professor of anthropology at City College, said, “You can tell what they were growing in their gardens and what the environment was like in general.”

For Cynthia R. Copeland, an adjunct professor at New York University’s school of education, the artifacts promise to shed new light on Seneca Village. In 1997, she helped curate an exhibition on the community at the New-York Historical Society.

“The vast array of materials that we uncovered really gives us a true sense of a strong, stable community,” she said. Digging in a park with 38 million visitors a year had its special challenges, however. The institute hired round-the-clock guards to ensure that the sites were not disturbed. The Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit group that manages the park, asked the archaeologists to fill the holes and haul away their equipment each day.

Douglas Blonsky, the conservancy’s president, does not seem too worried that the project will lead to more requests for exploration. He gave his blessing to the dig after being worn down by the group’s professionalism and patience. “The project team put in a decade of research and preparation before putting a shovel to soil,” he said.

The institute would like to eventually mount an exhibition based on the dig, but plans to hold an open house at the site on Aug. 24. For its part, the conservancy plans to work with the institute to create some kind of educational display there. As for an encore excavation, Dr. Wall said one was possible. “This site isn’t going anywhere,” she said. “It’s in the bank.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: August 1, 2011


An article on Thursday about the excavation of artifacts from Seneca Village, which was destroyed in the 1850s, misstated the date that an open house at the site will take place. It will be on Aug. 24, not on Oct. 25.

[Don1]

who pays? why the back people themselves .... they continue to be amongst the least of the apostles in the diaspora .... USA, UK, Europe

That's true..BUT... nowadays we're our own worst enemy..not Babylon

We have the power...but not the will or the judgement to use it effectively as other groups do.. Chinese, Indians, Koreans, Jews etc come to mind

Instead we consume ourselves with entertainment (mainly music & sport) ... instead of focusing like a laser on education and enterprise

Vey backward prioritizing

[Gamma]

partly true .... babylon set the thing in motion arready, self hate etc suh alldem haffi duh is sit back an' mek WE perpetuate fi dem policies .... yuh juh si what happen when yuh step outta line (mlk/malcolm)?

dem get one a we fi spy on mlk from the inside .....

[Don1]

partly true .... babylon set the thing in motion arready, self hate etc suh alldem haffi duh is sit back an' mek WE perpetuate fi dem policies .... yuh juh si what happen when yuh step outta line (mlk/malcolm)?

dem get one a we fi spy on mlk from the inside .....

I agree that self hate is a huge problem...we see that even on this site with the Brown Man Time/Roast Breadfruit/Self Hate syndrome some display...and I would guess this site's membership has above average exposure & education...so one can imagine what the majority less exposed is like.

However it is up to us to cultivate those things which will lead to progress as a group...

To the extent WE fail to do that...it's ridiculous to blame Babylon... we are responsible and we are to blame ultimately