Cultural Diversity, Ethnic Tensions, and Economic Marginality in an Early Bronx Settlement — Part 2
By Marian Swerdlow
Only one church building from the time of the ancient Village still stands, the former Potts Memorial Church on Washington Avenue. As for the “successor” buildings these congregations moved into after the dissolution of the Village, three of them — the former St. John’s German Evangelical Lutheran Church on Fulton Avenue, the First Congregational Church of Morrisania on Forest Avenue, and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Washington Avenue — still stand, although just outside the borders of the ancient Village. The latter two retain their original congregations. Each of the three is a beautiful building in a very different style, and each well worth a visit. The demolitions of the magnificent third St. Augustine’s church (1895 - 2013), and of the historic former Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church (2019), are part of the story of an area that has been one of the poorest in New York City for over half a century.
Cultural Diversity, Ethnic Tensions, and Economic Marginality in an Early Bronx Settlement — Part 1
By Marian Swerdlow
The Village of Morrisania, founded in 1848, was the first area west of the Bronx River to be densely settled in what today is the Bronx. Despite this historic significance, almost nothing has been published about it in the past century, possibly because of the scarcity of resources in the community that is today in the ancient Village’s footprint.
Damn’d Good Shots: A Matter of Honor on the Streets of New York, 1783
By Todd Braisted
What had caused such hot-headed emotions between the two senior officers present with the regiment? Delicacy, in the 18th Century manner. This life-and-death struggle centered around the regimental clerk, Sergeant James Perkins, being illegally detained by Lt. Col. Campbell to transcribe all his legal proceedings after his being suspended from duty. Upon being ordered to join the corps, after Campbell’s suspension, the disgraced lieutenant colonel made us of “the most rude & violent Expressions, in which Colo. Campbell thought proper pointedly to make use of” against Major Coffin.
Two-Hundred Fifty Years Of Organ-Building In the City: PART I — 18th-Century Imports and a Burgeoning 19th-Century Cottage Industry
By Bynum Petty
Thus, Henry Erben established himself as the greatest organ builder in the country, and with this instrument set new standards of construction and tonal quality by which all others were judged. Erben’s instruments simultaneously established New York City as the leading center of organ building, which it remained for the next nine decades.
Black Loyalists in the Evacuation of New York City, 1783
By L. Goulet and Mary Tsaltas-Ottomanelli
From 1776, the city stood as the stronghold of British operations in the thirteen colonies. The last British officials departed on November 25, ending their seven-year occupation of the city. We remember this event today as Evacuation Day. It was once a celebrated holiday but has since been largely forgotten by the public. Public commemorations primarily concentrated on the return of Patriot forces. It is crucial to move beyond the narrow focus and highlight the importance of expanding public memory to include the experiences of Loyalists who evacuated and the thousands of Black Loyalists who sought their freedom.
Bound by Bondage: Slavery and the Creation of a Northern Gentry
Review by Emily Holloway
Maskiell argues that both social groups – the enslavers and the enslaved – built, maintained, and challenged their respective terms of community and belonging, whether through diplomacy or corporate mergers disguised as marriage arrangements or by sustaining regional networks of contacts to foment rebellion and resistance. The text at times navigates a vast geographic scale, but successfully keeps the narrative grounded in the roots of elite Dutch society in seventeenth century New Netherlands…The overall book project seeks to illuminate the incremental and cumulative changes along with the continuities linking Dutch colonial practices to English colonial institutions in the transition from New Netherlands to New York.
The Pirate’s Wife: the Remarkable True Story of Sarah Kidd
Review by Kevin McDonald
…[S]he has produced a lively and entertaining biography of Sarah Kidd, from her arrival to the city through her multiple marriages and business dealings, with the book’s main focus on her relationship with William and the aftermath of his notorious demise. The narrative hits full sail when the privateer-turned-pirate returns from the Indian Ocean and Sarah becomes his accomplice in crime. Overall, the book is a stirring and fast paced yarn that helps reveal another layer of the Kidd saga, and more broadly suggests that the old axiom, “behind every great man is a great woman,” might be true even when dealing with pirates.
The fire, which came on the heels of the British conquest of lower Manhattan island, killed hundreds, burned about a fifth of the buildings in the city, and created long-lasting housing and food crises for thousands of civilians and soldiers. In the aftermath, British, Continental, and New York authorities blamed one another for the conflagration as ordinary people sought to recoup their losses, rebuild their lives, and take advantage of opportunities opened by the destruction. . . The Great New York Fire of 1776 makes us rethink many of our assumptions about the American Revolution and New York City’s role in it.
Dutch-American Stories: New Amsterdam: What’s in A Name?
By Jaap Jacobs
The small colonial town that the Dutch founded in North America was called New Amsterdam. We now know it as New York City. The story of how the name evolved has many twists and turns and is, in fact, a tale of war and peace.
Late Colonial-Era New York City Lawyers and the Building of a Provincial Legal Community
By Sung Yup Kim
From the early 1760s to the eve of the Revolution, Albany lawyer Peter Silvester and Attorney General John Tabor Kempe collaborated on at least a dozen cases in the colony of New York. On many occasions, Silvester acted as a de facto agent for the New York City-based Kempe, sometimes assisting the latter in his public duties as attorney general of the colony. When Kempe needed information about an Albany resident charged with assaulting a neighbor, for example, Silvester examined the local court minutes to check if the person had any criminal record, or if there were outstanding charges against him in any of the local courts.
