History of slavery in New York (state)

The enslavement of Africans in the region that became the State of New York began under the Dutch West India Company as part of the Atlantic slave trade. The Dutch West India Company brought eleven enslaved Africans to New Amsterdam in 1626, with the first slave auction held in New Amsterdam in 1655, making the beginning of institutionalized slavery in what would become New York City. With the second-highest proportion of any city in the colonies (after Charleston, South Carolina), more than 42% of New York City households enslaved African people by 1703, often as domestic servants and laborers. Others worked as artisans or in shipping and various trades in the city. Enslaved Africans were also used in farming on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley, as well as the Mohawk Valley region. Despite Northern geography, New York developed one of the largest enslaved populations outside the South, and the legacy of slavery remained visible in the city's social and economic hierarchies well into the 19th century.

During the American Revolutionary War, British troops occupied New York City in 1776. The Philipsburg Proclamation promised freedom to enslaved persons who left rebel masters, and thousands moved to the city for refuge with the British. By 1780, around 10,000 black people lived in New York. They created vibrant communities within the city, supporting one another through churches, mutual-aid networks, and informal economies. Many had escaped from their enslavers who lived in both northern and southern colonies. After the war, the British evacuated about 3,000 enslaved people from New York, taking most of them to resettle as free people in Nova Scotia, where they are known as Black Loyalists.

After the American Revolution, the New York Manumission Society was founded in 1785 to work for the abolition of slavery and to aid free Black people. The state passed a 1799 law for gradual abolition, a law which freed no living slave. After that date, children born to enslaved mothers were required to work for the mother's enslaver as indentured servants until age 28 (men) and 25 (women). The last enslaved persons were freed of this obligation on July 4, 1827 (28 years after 1799). African Americans celebrated with a parade. The Emancipation Day parade held in New York City on July 5, 1827, when African Americans celebrated the completion of gradual emancipation. They marked the occasion with a grand Emancipation Day parade, marching in organized groups with music, banners, and church leaders, followed by speeches, prayers, and community celebrations throughout the city.

Upstate New York, in contrast with New York City, was an anti-slavery leader. The first meeting of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society opened in Utica, although local hostility caused the meeting to be moved to the home of Gerrit Smith, in nearby Peterboro. The disruption underscored both the strength of abolitionist organizing in the region and the intense opposition such efforts continued to face. The Oneida Institute, near Utica, briefly the center of American abolitionism, accepted both Black and white male enrollees on an equal basis, as did for women the Young Ladies' Domestic Seminary in nearby Clinton. New-York Central College, near Cortland, was an abolitionist institution of higher learning founded by Cyrus Pitt Grosvenor, that accepted all students without prejudice: male and female, white, Black, and Native American, the first college in the United States to do so from the day its doors opened. It was also the first college to have Black professors teaching white students. However, when a Black male faculty member, William G. Allen, married a white student, they had to flee the country for England, never to return.