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THIS IS AMERICA - Coming Face-to-Face With the History of Slavery in New York CityBy Cynthia Kirk

Broadcast: Monday, February 20, 2006

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. Slavery was not just in the South. Some early Americans in the North also owned African slaves. In fact, historians say the capital of American slavery for more than two hundred years was New York. In colonial times, one of out five people in the city was a slave.


1851: A slave named Caesar (photographer unknown)

VOICE ONE:

Now, many people are interested in learning more about this part of the history of America's largest city.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

A discovery in New York City in nineteen ninety-one brought people face-to-face with the past. Workers found human remains1 as they broke ground for a new federal office building.

More than four hundred remains from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were unearthed2. In nineteen ninety-three, officials declared the African Burial Ground a National Historic Landmark3.

Now an exhibition at the New-York Historical Society explores the history of slavery in the city. Visitors see hundreds of objects, including slave ship documents, bills of sale and wanted posters for runaway4 slaves. Events are recreated with sound and pictures. Visitors learn how slavery was important to the northern economy.


Run Away Slave Notice

VOICE ONE:

New York City used to be called New Amsterdam. It was a Dutch colony on the southern end of Manhattan Island, at the mouth of the Hudson River. It was the main settlement in the territory of New Netherland.

The Dutch West India Company settled New Amsterdam in sixteen twenty-four. The first slaves from Africa arrived a few years later.

VOICE TWO:

In the words of the New-York Historical Society: Enslaved Africans were at work in New Amsterdam from its beginning. The slaves wore Dutch clothing. They learned the Dutch language. They lived much like the Dutch, except they were the property of other people. Slave owners included Peter Styvesant, the director-general of the colony.


Peter Stuyvesant

The slaves cleared land, grew crops and built roads, buildings and defenses. Wall Street, where the New York Stock Exchange is located, runs along what was once the wall of a fort built by slaves. Slaves built Fort Amsterdam, where Battery Park is now located. And they cut the road famous today for its theaters: Broadway.

First the Dutch and then the British built the local economy on ships, slaves, crops and manufactured goods. Many people profited from slavery. Historians say that without slave labor5, New Amsterdam might not have survived.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In the sixteen forties, the Dutch West India Company began to give slaves half-freedom. They could settle nearby in what the Dutch called the land of the blacks.

But the people who lived there had to pay a yearly tax. They had to work for the colony whenever needed. And their children became slaves. But the people were free to farm their own lands and sell what they grew.

New Amsterdam did not have enough colonists6 to do the work needed to create a major port city. As the New-York Historical Society explains, efforts to get more Dutch people to move there largely failed. So did efforts to put Native Americans from nearby villages to work, and keep them from fleeing.

The Dutch often seized European ships in the Atlantic and captured their African crew members. In the words of the historical society: Bringing the captured African seamen7 to New Amsterdam seemed to solve these problems. The Africans could be forced to work, and they could not escape and go home.

VOICE TWO:

In sixteen sixty-four, the British captured New Amsterdam. They renamed it New York. The British expanded slavery and strengthened slave laws. Blacks could not own property. They could not gather at night or in groups of more than three. And there were restrictions8 on where they could go. Historians note that the British rewrote many of these laws often, which suggests that the measures did not work well.

Records show that the British were much rougher in their treatment of slaves than the Dutch had been. Slaves faced death or other severe punishment for crimes like robbery, setting fires or plotting to revolt. Punishments were often carried out in public.

Yet even under repressive laws many slaves married and had families. They attended religious services and produced poetry, art, music and literature. Denied a vote, they organized political pressure groups and created a lively press, the New-York Historical Society says.

VOICE ONE:

During the seventeen hundreds, historians say, forty percent of all households in New York owned slaves. At the time of the American Revolution, New York had more slaves than any American city except Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston is a major port in the South.

Almost anything that people bought in New York 鈥?cheese, tobacco, cloth, rum, sugar, butter 鈥?was grown or made by enslaved labor, the historical society says. Often the goods arrived on ships owned by slave traders.

The local economy was built on a large, unpaid9 labor force that kept stores well-supplied and prices reasonable.

VOICE TWO:

Unlike the South, New York City did not have large plantation10 farms. Slaves did not live in rooms with large numbers of other slaves. They lived in the kitchens or back rooms of their owners' houses.


A scrubwoman

Southern slaves most often worked either in the fields or as house servants. In New York, enslaved men often learned a skill. Early builders and manufacturers depended on them. A few were taught to read and write.

Most females slaves worked as servants and could not read or write.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Some slaves rebelled. A reported plot in seventeen forty-one led to the execution of thirty blacks and four whites. It became known as the Great Negro Plot to destroy New York.

In the end, the American Revolution crushed the system of slavery in New York City. The thirteen British colonies in America declared their independence on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six.

The British lost the war in seventeen eighty-three. But they kept their promise of freedom and passage to Canada for more than three thousand slaves who fought on their side.

VOICE TWO:

The issue of slavery had always divided people in the city. But after the war, more and more white New Yorkers started to think that slavery should end. They saw that it conflicted with the goals of freedom and equality that led to the revolution and the creation of the United States.

Poor European immigrants increasingly did the work that slaves had done. Slave labor, though, was still important to the New York City economy.

Slavery would end, but it would end slowly.

VOICE ONE:

The legislation was a compromise. Laws delayed the end of slavery in New York State until July fourth, eighteen twenty-seven. Some other states in the North also passed similar laws of gradual emancipation11.

New York City became actively12 involved in the Underground Railroad which helped blacks escape from slavery.

In the Confederate states of the South, the plantation economy still depended on slaves. It took President Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War in the eighteen sixties to end slavery in America.

VOICE TWO:

Listen now to some of the reactions that visitors have recorded at the slavery exhibit in New York:

(SOUND)

VOICE ONE:

Slavery in New York: A Landmark Exhibition has been extended through March twenty-sixth at the New-York Historical Society. The Web site is slaveryinnewyork, all one word, dot o-r-g (slaveryinnewyork.org). There is also a related book called Slavery in New York, edited by two history professors, Ira Berlin and Leslie Harris.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

THIS IS AMERICA was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. Internet users can read and hear our programs at voaspecialenglish. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. We hope you listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.



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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 remains 1kMzTy     
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹
参考例句:
  • He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
  • The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。
2 unearthed e4d49b43cc52eefcadbac6d2e94bb832     
出土的(考古)
参考例句:
  • Many unearthed cultural relics are set forth in the exhibition hall. 展览馆里陈列着许多出土文物。
  • Some utensils were in a state of decay when they were unearthed. 有些器皿在出土时已经残破。
3 landmark j2DxG     
n.陆标,划时代的事,地界标
参考例句:
  • The Russian Revolution represents a landmark in world history.俄国革命是世界历史上的一个里程碑。
  • The tower was once a landmark for ships.这座塔曾是船只的陆标。
4 runaway jD4y5     
n.逃走的人,逃亡,亡命者;adj.逃亡的,逃走的
参考例句:
  • The police have not found the runaway to date.警察迄今没抓到逃犯。
  • He was praised for bringing up the runaway horse.他勒住了脱缰之马受到了表扬。
5 labor P9Tzs     
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦
参考例句:
  • We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
  • He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后,他已经疲惫不堪了。
6 colonists 4afd0fece453e55f3721623f335e6c6f     
n.殖民地开拓者,移民,殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Colonists from Europe populated many parts of the Americas. 欧洲的殖民者移居到了美洲的许多地方。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Some of the early colonists were cruel to the native population. 有些早期移居殖民地的人对当地居民很残忍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
7 seamen 43a29039ad1366660fa923c1d3550922     
n.海员
参考例句:
  • Experienced seamen will advise you about sailing in this weather. 有经验的海员会告诉你在这种天气下的航行情况。
  • In the storm, many seamen wished they were on shore. 在暴风雨中,许多海员想,要是他们在陆地上就好了。
8 restrictions 81e12dac658cfd4c590486dd6f7523cf     
约束( restriction的名词复数 ); 管制; 制约因素; 带限制性的条件(或规则)
参考例句:
  • I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
  • a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制
9 unpaid fjEwu     
adj.未付款的,无报酬的
参考例句:
  • Doctors work excessive unpaid overtime.医生过度加班却无报酬。
  • He's doing a month's unpaid work experience with an engineering firm.他正在一家工程公司无偿工作一个月以获得工作经验。
10 plantation oOWxz     
n.种植园,大农场
参考例句:
  • His father-in-law is a plantation manager.他岳父是个种植园经营者。
  • The plantation owner has possessed himself of a vast piece of land.这个种植园主把大片土地占为己有。
11 emancipation Sjlzb     
n.(从束缚、支配下)解放
参考例句:
  • We must arouse them to fight for their own emancipation. 我们必须唤起他们为其自身的解放而斗争。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • They rejoiced over their own emancipation. 他们为自己的解放感到欢欣鼓舞。 来自《简明英汉词典》
12 actively lzezni     
adv.积极地,勤奋地
参考例句:
  • During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
  • We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

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