SE04 INTRODUCTION

Dreams of Black Wall Street

This season will focus on free Black communities and free Black societies during the antebellum period of the 19th century in New York, specifically New York City. They include one in each of what would become the five boroughs of New York City: Seneca Village in Manhattan; Weeksville in Brooklyn; Newtown in Queens, Sandy Ground in Staten Island; and the community surrounding the Centerville AME Church near Westchester, which was part of the present day borough of the Bronx. This deep dive into this time period will also include an analysis of free Blacks and people of African descent in Manhattan who, rather than living exclusively or predominantly Black neighborhoods, lived in enclaves. Finally, this season will also focus on the New York City Drraft Riots and Massacre of 1863. It is considered to be one of the worst insurrections in US History.