Thomas DiLorenzo on slavery in New York

Last Friday I toured the New York Historical Society's exhibit on "Slavery in New York," accompanied by Butler Shaffer and his daughter Bretigne. We were quite surprised at the high ratio of historical truth to political correctness. I purchased the book on the subject published by the Society, which says this in the introductory chapter:

"For nearly three hundred years, slavery was an intimate part of the lives of all New Yorkers, black and white, insinuating itself into every nook and cranny of New York history. For portions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, New York City housed the largest urban slave population in mainland North America, with more slaves than any other city on the continent. During those years, slaves composed more than one quarter of the labor force in the city and perhaps as much as one half of the workers in many of its outlying districts. Slavery died with glacial slowness; slaves could be found in New York into the fifth decade of the nineteenth century."

There were still slaves in New York in the 1850s and, according to the Society's publication, New Jersey did not end slavery until 1865.

Bet you didn't learn that in school.

~ Thomas DiLorenzo, "The Myth of the Morally Superior Yankee," LewRockwell.com Blog, January 8, 2006

13th Amendment - 75th Anniversary
1865-1940