A gigantic map of all the cool plaques in the world. A project of 99% Invisible.

New York's Municipal Slave Market

NEW YORK'S MUNICIPAL SLAVE MARKET  On Wall Street, between Pearl and Webster Streets, a market  that auctioned enslaved people of African ancestry was  established by a Common Council law on...

NEW YORK'S MUNICIPAL SLAVE MARKET 

On Wall Street, between Pearl and Webster Streets, a market 
that auctioned enslaved people of African ancestry was 
established by a Common Council law on November 30, 1711 
This slave market was in use until 1762. Slave owners wanting 
to hire out their enslaved workers, which included people of 
Native American ancestry, as day laborers also had to do so 
at that location, In 1726 the structure was renamed the Meal 
Market because corn, grain and meal-crucial ingredients to 
the Colonial diet-ware also exclusively traded there 

Slavery was introduced to Manhattan in 1626. By the mid-18th 
century approximately one in five people living in New York 
City was enslaved and almost half of Manhattan households 
included at least one slave. Although New York State abolished 
slavery in 1827, complete abolition came only in 1841 when the 
State of New York abolished the right of non residents to have 
slaves in the state for up to nine months. However, the use of 
slave labor elsewhere for the production of raw materials such 
as sugar and cotton was essential to the economy of New 
forest land for the construction of Broadway and were among 
the workers that built the wall that Wall Street is named for 
and helped build the first Trinity Church. Within months of the 
market's construction, New York's first slave uprising occurred 
a few blocks away on Maiden Lane, led by enslaved people 
from the Coromantee and Pawpaw peoples of Ghana. 
 
Submitted by @profwiley

Nearby Plaques On Google Maps