Vermont, in 1777, was the first state to end slavery. In New York State, people voted to abolish slavery in 1799, but it wasn’t stopped overnight. It was phased out gradually until 1827, a period of almost thirty years.
Meanwhile, slavery continued in the South and was the major cause of the Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865. All slaves in southern states in rebellion against the Union were declared free in 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Cementing that decision was the victory of the North (the Union) in the war.
Although slavery was abolished in the North prior to the South, northern states were still deeply entwined with, and profiting in many ways, from southern slavery. Cotton farmed by slaves on southern plantations, to name just one example, was purchased by northern millowners to produce clothing and other products.
In both the North and the South a number of black people were living in freedom during the time of slavery. Some enslaved persons freed themselves by escaping their owners. Others were set free for a number of reasons, often at the time of the slave owner’s death.
For those who were free, regardless of the reason, life was still very difficult. Visitors to America reported being surprised that even where slavery had been abolished in the North, blacks were segregated, or separated, from whites. The famous French diplomat and historian Alexis de Tocqueville, in his classic 1835 book Democracy in America, maintained that discrimination against blacks struck him as worse in the North than in the South.
“The prejudice of race appears to be stronger in the states that have abolished slavery than in those where it still exists,” Tocqueville wrote.
Timeline: The End of Slavery in Northern States
Slavery, once abolished, did not always end abruptly. Instead, in five northern states the institution was phased out over a period of years, even decades. The justification for gradual emancipation, as it was called, was that it would give society, especially owners of enslaved persons, a chance to adapt to the change. Here is a general timeframe for the end of slavery in the North.
Vermont is the first state to end slavery: 1777.
Pennsylvania officially (by law) ends slavery in 1780. However, those born before 1780 were slaves for life; if born after 1780, they were freed at age twenty-eight.
Massachusetts ends slavery: 1783.
New Hampshire ends slavery: 1783.
Rhode Island officially ends slavery in 1784. However, those born before 1784 were slaves for life; if born after 1784, they were indentured to their masters until age twenty-one.
Connecticut officially ends slavery in 1784. However, those born before 1784 were slaves for life; if born after 1784, they were indentured to their masters until age twenty-five.
New York begins to officially end slavery in 1799. However, those born before 1799 were slaves for life; if born after 1799, they were indentured to their masters until age twenty-five if female and twenty-eight if male. In 1817 a new law was passed saying all enslaved persons would be free in 1827.
New Jersey officially ends slavery in 1804. However, those born before 1804 were redefined as “apprenticed for life” (involuntary servitude); if born after 1804, they were indentured for twenty-one years if female and twenty-five years if male.
(Maine was admitted to the Union as a free state in the Missouri Compromise in 1820.)
Dates mark the official (by law) end of slavery. States indicated by an asterisk were emancipated gradually.
Before they became states, the following were part of the Northwest Territory created by the Northwest Ordinance (federal law) of 1787, which declared the lands free. However, slavery had been occurring in these areas prior to statehood. As each one applied for statehood, it had, as part of its state constitution, to declare the abolition of slavery. Therefore, each of these states entered the Union as a free state:
Ohio: 1803
Indiana: 1816
Illinois: 1818
Michigan: 1837
Iowa: 1846
Wisconsin: 1848
Minnesota: 1858
States that were not part of the Northwest Territory but also entered the Union as free states were the following:
California: 1850
Oregon: 1859
Kansas, after struggles over slavery that led it to become known as Bleeding Kansas: 1861
Nevada: 1864
West Virginia was admitted as a slave state in 1863 but ended slavery ten months prior to the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery and made all states free on December 6, 1865.
Black chimney sweeps in New York. Because of discrimination in hiring, black men and women were typically stuck with the most difficult and dirty jobs.
THREE
A City Divided by Race
HOW WERE BLACK NEW YORKERS discriminated against?
In every way imaginable New York was a city where segregation (the separation of people by race) and disenfranchisement (a denial of a person’s rights) were a way of life. Black New Yorkers were second-class citizens.
An important example of disenfranchisement (and the way the term is usually used) involved the right to vote. Every state that joined the Union after 1819 denied blacks the right to vote. That didn’t change until 1870, when the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed. Prior to that, only in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts did blacks have the right to vote without restriction.
In New York before 1821, both black and white men could vote if they owned $100 worth of property. After 1821, all white men—not just those who owned property—could vote, but black men had to own $250 worth of property. Since only a handful of black men in the entire state met that requirement, the vast majority were blocked from casting a ballot.
(Meanwhile, regardless of their race, women were not allowed to vote at all. The fight for women’s right to vote was a long and difficult struggle that didn’t succeed until 1920, when the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed. Even then, many black women were prevented from voting.)
Segregation meanwhile can occur in several ways. When dictated and enforced under the law, it is legal segregation, also called de jure or “under the law.” However, segregation can also be de facto (“in fact”), or by custom.
An example of de facto segregation occurred in public education in New York. An 1841 state law declared that all children age five to sixteen could attend a district school if they lived in that district. Yet black children did not often attend school alongside white children because the officials in charge were allowed to open separate schools for black children, and they often did. When it came time to distribute funds, schools for black children received far less money. They were “dark, damp, small, and cheerless” places, according to one newspaper account.
Another example of de facto segregation was in hiring practices. Many jobs, for example, were not open to blacks. Racist white employers simply would not consider hiring them, and there were no laws in place to make them do so.
Blacks who wanted to be professionals became ministers (a position then open only to men) or teachers. Only a small number of people were able to acquire the education needed to qualify for a teaching position. Elizabeth Jennings, according to one record, was one of just thirteen black teachers in New York City in 1855, and that number included men.
Those who dreamed of becoming bankers, doctors, or lawyers found it all but impossible. One educated young black man expressed his sadness and frustration. “What are my prospects?” he wrote in a letter that has often been cited by historians. “No one will have me in his office; white boys won’t work with me. Shall I be a merchant? No one will have me; white clerks won’t associate with me.”
Even the poorest white immigrants could rise from poverty faster than black New Yorkers. Not that it was easy, but it could be done, even with the burden of having to learn English. For blacks, education was not the key to success that it was for whites.
As a result, male black New Yorkers had no choice but to take the hardest and lowest-paying jobs, such as chimney sweeps, laborers, servants, mariners (working on the docks or on ships), barbers, coachmen, and cooks.
Black women had even fewer options. Other than peddling goods on the street, the most common ways to make a living were cooking, cleaning, and doing washing. Sometimes these jobs meant living away from their families. Those who were hired as live-in servants, for example, moved to their employers’ homes. The only time they spent with their own families was one day a week, on Sunday.
Even in churches there was segregation, with black worshippers often forced to sit in a balcony or on a back pew. Black New Yorkers responded by starting their own churches, including the First Colored American Congregational Church, on Sixth Street near the Bowery, where Elizabeth was headed on July 16, 1854.
Blacks and whites did not mingle openly except in the poorest neighborhoods, such as Five Points. Segregation in housing was common and on the rise. By 1852, 86 percent of black residents lived below Fourteenth Street, almost half of them in a single area that included parts of the Third, Fifth, and Eighth wards. The Jennings family home on Church Street was in the Fifth Ward. Three-quarters of Manhattan streets did not have any black residents at all. Black New Yorkers reported feeling stared at and uncomfortable in many parts of the city.
Theaters were segregated, with black patrons usually sold seats in a separate section far from the stage. There were stores where black New Yorkers were not welcome, and they were barred as customers from most hotels and restaurants.
And if blacks in New York wanted to take a streetcar, they encountered rules that forced them to ride on the outside of the car or to wait for one displaying a sign that stated COLORED PEOPLE ALLOWED IN THE CAR. The “colored” streetcars were often called Jim Crow cars, an insulting term used by whites to describe black people.
Jim Crow cars often came late, if they came at all. Conductors of cars meant for whites only (which did not carry a sign saying “white” but were simply unlabeled) would sometimes allow a black passenger to board if none of the white passengers objected—and if the conductor felt like it.
Segregated streetcars were a source of great frustration for black New Yorkers. As Manhattan expanded, the streetcar system became more important for getting to work. Each time Elizabeth, or any black person, needed to get somewhere by streetcar, the uncertainty surrounding the journey was stressful. Black New Yorkers could leave home early and still arrive late.
On that summer day Elizabeth, standing beside Sarah, was feeling that pressure. According to her own written account, all she wanted was to get to choir rehearsal on time. A streetcar finally came into view, and she held up her hand to signal the driver to stop. Although it was an unmarked streetcar meant for whites, she hoped the conductor would be understanding and let them ride.
With Sarah right behind her, she stepped up onto the platform, ready to make her case.
What Was Jim Crow?
Jim Crow was the name of a character in a minstrel show, a type of performance in which a singer, accompanied by music, tells a story. While minstrel shows date back hundreds of years, the Jim Crow character, which depicted an insulting portrait of a black man, became popular in the United States starting in the late 1820s.
Jim Crow and the other minstrel characters were played by whites with their hands and faces blackened with soot. The popularity of minstrel shows in New York helped launch the Jim Crow character nationally.
Over time the term Jim Crow began to be used to refer to segregation. Streetcars in New York City meant for blacks were often called Jim Crow cars, according to the book Gotham, Edwin G. Burrows’s and Mike Wallace’s Pulitzer Prize–winning book on New York history. The term is most closely associated with racist laws that were passed to restrict blacks in the post–Civil War South. So-called Jim Crow laws created separate (and inferior) facilities in every part of society, including schools, hospitals, and transportation. Public rest rooms and drinking fountains in the South were labeled “Whites Only” and “Colored.”
Manhattan Map 1856
A street map of lower Manhattan from 1856 showing:
A.New York’s Slave Market at Wall Street, which was in operation from 1711 to 1762.
B.City Hall.
C.The Jennings family home at 167 Church Street.
D.The center of Five Points.
E.The intersection of Pearl and Chatham streets, where Elizabeth and her friend Sarah boarded the streetcar. Chatham was later renamed Park Row.
F.The corner of Walker Street and the Bowery, known today as Bowery and Canal, where Elizabeth was ejected a second time.
G.First Colored American Congregational Church, on Sixth Street near Bowery, where Elizabeth had been headed on July 16, 1854.
Elizabeth Jennings as a young woman.
FOUR
“I Screamed Murder with All My Voice”
THE CONDUCTOR SAID NO.
Elizabeth tried to explain her situation. In her mind it was a perfectly reasonable request.
“I told him that I could not wait, as I was in a hurry to go to church and the other car was about a block off,” she wrote later. “He then told me that the other car had my people in it, that it was appropriated* for that purpose. I then told him I had no people; it was no particular occasion, I wished to go to church, as I had been going for the last six months, and I did not wish to be detained.”
The conductor, however, would not change his mind. “He insisted upon my getting off the car,” Elizabeth wrote. “I told him I would wait on the car until the other car came up. He again insisted on my waiting in the street, but I did not get off.
“By this time the other car came up, and I asked the driver if there was any room in his car,” she continued. “He told me very distinctly, No, that there was more room in my car than there was in his, yet this did not satisfy the conductor. He still kept driving me out or off of the car and said he had as much time as I had and could wait just as long.”
Elizabeth did not give up. “I replied, ‘Very well, we’ll see.’ He waited some few minutes, when the driver* becoming impatient, he said to me, ‘Well, you may go in, but remember, if the passengers raise any objections you shall go out, whether or not, I’ll put you out.’ I answered again and told him I was a respectable person, born and raised in New-York, did not know where he was born, that I had never been insulted before while going to church, and that he was a good for nothing impudent fellow for insulting decent persons while on their way to church.”
The conductor told her that he was from Ireland, although that made no difference to Elizabeth. “I made answer it made no difference where a man was born, that he was none the worse or better for that, provided he behaved himself and did not insult genteel persons,” she wrote.
Her words enraged the conductor.
“He then said I should come out** [or] he would put me out***. I told him not to lay his hands on me,” she wrote. “He took hold of me and I took hold of the window sash and held on. He pulled me until he broke my grasp and I took hold of his coat and held onto that. He also broke my grasp**** but previously he had dragged my companion***** out, she all the while screaming for him to let go. He then ordered the driver to fasten his horses, which he did, and come and help him put me out of the car. They then both seized hold of me by the arms and pulled and dragged me flat down on the bottom of the platform, so that my feet hung one way and my head the other, nearly on the ground.
“I screamed murder with all my voice, and my companion screamed out ‘You’ll kill her, don’t kill her.’ The driver then let go of me and went to his horses.”
But this would not be the end of the violent encounter. What happened next surprised Sarah, the conductor, and probably everyone on the streetcar.
FIVE
“You Will Sweat for This!”
ELIZABETH JENNINGS HAD A CHOICE TO MAKE. Most people probably would have backed dow
n. Most people, when physically assaulted by someone much bigger and stronger, would retreat.
But Elizabeth Jennings was not “most people.”
To everyone’s amazement, she got up and returned to the streetcar. Her friend, Sarah, stayed behind, watching from the sidewalk.
Once on the streetcar Elizabeth found a seat.
And she sat down.
The conductor reacted with fury. As Elizabeth recalled, “He said, ‘You will sweat for this!’ Then he told the driver to drive as fast as he could and not take another passenger in the car, to drive until he saw an officer or a Station House.”
At the corner of Walker Street and the Bowery (known today as the Bowery and Canal Street) a policeman was spotted, and the streetcar came to a halt. Elizabeth stayed where she was, but she could hear the conversation.
“The conductor told* that his orders from the agent** were to admit colored persons if the passengers did not object, but if they did, not to let them ride,” she wrote.
“The officer, without listening to anything I had to say, thrust me out, and then pushed me, and tauntingly told me to get redress* if I could,” she continued. “The conductor gave me [his] name and [the] number of his car; he wrote his name as Moss and the streetcar, No. 7, but I looked and saw No. 6 on the back of the car. After dragging me off the car he drove me away like a dog, saying not to be talking there and raising a mob or fight.”
The streetcar continued on its way, leaving Elizabeth dazed, bruised, and battered.
She got to her feet and brushed herself off. Because Sarah had not gotten back on the streetcar a second time, Elizabeth was alone. After catching her breath, she began walking slowly down Walker Street toward home, which was about three-quarters of a mile away.
“A German gentleman followed,” Elizabeth wrote. “He told me he saw the whole transaction in the street as he was passing” and offered to be a witness. On a piece of paper the man, who was a bookseller on Pearl Street, wrote down his name and address so that she could contact him later.
Streetcar to Justice Page 2
