Lost in Time: Seneca Village
Central Park, one of New York's most famous landmarks for
tourist and despite its popularity few people know that the creation of this
park was built on the destruction of a little known residential area occupied
by free blacks called Seneca Village.
Seneca Village…a buried place; If it were not for
historical records or the many artifacts found during a recent
excavation and a stone outcropping near the 85th Street entrance to Central
Park believed to be part of a foundation of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion
Church, it would be another important aspect of our history that would have
been forgotten and erased from the pages of time.
Seneca Village existed from
1825 through 1857, it was made up of a community founded by free black people
who purchased land for sale from West 82nd to West 85th streets. The first to
buy land in the area was Andrew Williams and Epiphany Davis in 1825. The
population was 250 residents living in 70 houses. In
1821, the state of New York decreed that if African American men possessed $250
in property holdings and proof of three years of residency in the state they
would be eligible to vote.The ownership of property
gave African American men the opportunity to participate in the US democracy. Because of
this decree many residents like a cooper (barrel maker) named James Hinson was
eligible. Census data shows that his property, including two lots of land and a
two-story residence with an attached shed, was valued at $550. Hinson had
originally purchased his property for $325.
As Seneca Village's population began to increase and
thrive Irish and German immigrants also purchased property among the African
American residents. By 1855, a New York State Census found that Seneca Village
had 264 residents. In 1851, Ambrose Kingsland, New York's mayor decided with
the influx of immigrants to enhance the city's popularity and aesthetics, he
along with the wealthier merchants, bankers and landowners would create a
park for their families to enjoy for leisurely pleasures. The land they chose
was occupied by the residents of Seneca Village as well as 1,600 people who
lived in the surrounding areas. Of
course, the residents protested through the court system but the city used the
law of eminent domain to seize their land. The Seneca Village homeowners had
little recourse as the media labeled them as "squatters living in
shanties" and "nigger village" this did not garner public
sympathy or support.
Over two thirds of Seneca Village was African America and
50% owned their land. Sadly,not only were the residents forced to leave, (some
evicted violently), renters got no compensation at all and homeowners were poorly compensated for their land. In the
thirty-two years of its existence Seneca Village had made its imprint in
America History as a defining community in its time.
~In 1855, over 2,000 African American residents lived in
New York and only 100 were eligible to vote. 10 of those 100 were residents of
Seneca Village.
~50% of African American residents owned their own land
and this was five times the average ownership rate for all New Yorkers.
~Albro Lyons, Levin Smith and S. Hardenburgh were
property owners of Seneca Village as well as participants in the abolitionist
movement.
After the residents were evicted and Seneca Village destroyed
they did not rebuild, some remained in New York but there is no record of what
happened to them. Some historians tried to locate the descendants of the Seneca
Village residents but none were ever located.
Central Park (today)
In 2011, a group called the Seneca Village Project pressured
the city to create a plaque. It
describes the Seneca Village as a "unique community" that was
probably "Manhattan’s first prominent community of African American
property owners."
The group went on in 2011 to get permission for an
archaeological dig in Central Park to gather more information about the village
and its residents.
*Sources:
wikipedia.org
citymetric.com
centralparknyc.org
