Research Guides @ Fordham: African American Studies: Slavery in New York

Selection of Books

As always, please check the library catalog for additional books on this topic.

The Last Slave Ships [electronic resource] : New York and the End of the Middle Passage by John Harris
Yale University Press, 2020.
Pretends to Be Free : Runaway Slave Advertisements from Colonial and Revolutionary New York and New Jersey (Revised and expanded ed.) by Graham Russell Gao Hodges and Alan Edward Brown (editors)
Fordham University Press, 2019.
Call number [RH & LC Stacks] E445.N56 P74 2019
Slavery and Freedom in the Mid-Hudson Valley [electronic resource] by Michael E. Groth
SUNY Press, 2017.
Emancipating New York : The Politics of Slavery and Freedom, 1777-1827 by David N. Gellman
Louisiana State University Press, 2006.
Call number [RH Stacks] E445.N56 G45 2006
Slavery in New York by Ira Berlin; Leslie M. Harris (editors)
New Press, 2005.
Call number [LC & RH Stacks] F128.9.N4 S55 2005
New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan by Jill Lepore
Alfred A. Knopf, 2005.
Call number [LC & RH Stacks] F128.4 .L47 2005
Black and White Manhattan : The History of Racial Formation in Colonial New York City by Thelma Wills Foote
Oxford University Press, 2004.
Call number [RH Stacks] F128.9.A1 F66 2004
In the Shadow of Slavery [electronic resource] : African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863 by Leslie M. Harris
University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Call number [LC & RH Stacks] F128.9.N4 H37 2003
Jim Crow New York : A Documentary History of Race and Citizenship, 1777-1877 by David N. Gellman; David Quigley (editors)
New York University Press, 2003.
Call number [RH Stacks] E185.93.N56 J56 2003
Somewhat More Independent [electronic resource] : The End of Slavery in New York City, 1770-1810 by Shane White
University of Georgia Press, 1991.
Cal number [LC QuinnX Stacks & RH Stacks] F128.44 .W54 1991

The African Burial Ground in New York City

African Burial Ground Final Reports
Provides access to reports conducted by the U.S. General Services Administration and Howard University covering the historical, bioanthropological, and archaeological significance of the African Burial Ground found at 290 Broadway.

The African Burial Ground in New York City by Andrea E. Frohne
Syracuse University Press, 2015.
Call number [RH Stacks] F128.9.N4 F76 2015
Breaking Ground Breaking Silence : The Story of New York's African Burial Ground by Joyce Hansen; Gary McGowan (Illustrator); Gary Mcgowan (Illustrator)
Henry Holt, 1998.
Call number [RH Stacks] F128.39 .H36 1998

Open Access Digital Collections

An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, Laws of 1799, Chapter 62.
Image and transcription of the law passed to gradually abolish the institution of slavery in the State of New York.
Slavery in New York: A Historical Sketch by Ansel Judd Northrup
Published by the University of the State of New York in 1900, this book chronicles many primary sources, particularly laws, for further research.
New York Public Library Digital Collections on Slavery
Over 1,800 images, books, essays, and other documents relating to slavery from NYPL. Limit your search to by city name to see items relating slavery within New York State.
NYC's Early African American Settlements
Research guide from NYPL with links to primary sources for New Amsterdam’s “Little Africa,” Manhattan’s Seneca Village, Brooklyn’s Weeksville community, and Staten Island’s Sandy Ground neighborhood.
Colonial North America at Harvard Library
Provides access to a wide-ranging collection of digitized materials as part of an ongoing, multi-year project. Search "New York" to see digital collection items relating to slavery in New York state.
New York Slavery Records Index
A searchable compilation of records identifying individual enslaved persons and their owners, beginning as early as 1525 and ending during the Civil War.
New York Heritage Digital Collections
A collaborative project of eight Empire State Library Network highlighting digital collections from around New York state.
New-York Manumission Society Records, 1785-1849
Contains 11 volumes of records for the New-York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves (commonly known as the New-York Manumission Society) covering its activities from its founding in 1785 through its dissolution in 1849.
Replication Data for New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan by Jill Lepore
Contains demographic information about the City of New York in the 1730s and 1740s compiled by Jill Lepore for her book on the alleged slave rebellion in 1741. (See listing for her book in the box on the left.)

Primary Sources in Library Databases

Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans Digital Edition
From Readex. Books, pamphlets, and broadsides published during the 17th and 18th centuries from the bibliography by Charles Evans and Roger Bristol's Supplement.
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker
From Readex. Books, pamphlets, and broadsides published during the early 19th century from the bibliography by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker.