NYC Black History - Downtown
This website is the re-learning and compilation of research regarding how black people lived during the 18th through 20th century. Most of what is know today is through Harlem. But the origins of black culture in New York City did not begin there. It began in lower Manhattan. In an area better known as Five Points.
Made known by Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York, that story only concentrated on the Irish. What was not so well revealed as how Five Points was a haven/ghetto for freed African Americans and free black sailors. This area though a squalid swamp gave birth to such wonders as what we now know as Tap Dance.
Although there must have been a plethora of racial harmony, what is easier to find is the records of continued unrest and strife of the neighborhood.
Made known by Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York, that story only concentrated on the Irish. What was not so well revealed as how Five Points was a haven/ghetto for freed African Americans and free black sailors. This area though a squalid swamp gave birth to such wonders as what we now know as Tap Dance.
Although there must have been a plethora of racial harmony, what is easier to find is the records of continued unrest and strife of the neighborhood.