A view of Long Island's slave history
History is full of political and corporate voices, mostly educated, generally well-to-do men and women. Christopher Matthews and his team search for the unspoken voices of African slaves who lived and worked on the farms and big estates and are part of Long Island history.
While anti-slavery leaders secretly helped captive Africans flee their Southern masters, other Long Island property owners were still purchasing slaves at open markets, swapping and renting them to each other. Of the 21,000 slaves in New York State in 1790, probably about 2,000 lived on Long Island. After a gradual emancipation process, all were freed by 1827.
Matthews, a Hofstra University anthropology professor, will speak about his excavations of an 18th-century Long Island slave quarters tonight at the Brentwood Public Library, part of the library's Black History Month observance. Slave quarters were rare on Long Island, with most owners having only two or three slaves, but the wealthy Lloyd family had as many as 10 on the 1766 Joseph Lloyd Manor estate on Lloyd Neck, Matthews said.
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While anti-slavery leaders secretly helped captive Africans flee their Southern masters, other Long Island property owners were still purchasing slaves at open markets, swapping and renting them to each other. Of the 21,000 slaves in New York State in 1790, probably about 2,000 lived on Long Island. After a gradual emancipation process, all were freed by 1827.
Matthews, a Hofstra University anthropology professor, will speak about his excavations of an 18th-century Long Island slave quarters tonight at the Brentwood Public Library, part of the library's Black History Month observance. Slave quarters were rare on Long Island, with most owners having only two or three slaves, but the wealthy Lloyd family had as many as 10 on the 1766 Joseph Lloyd Manor estate on Lloyd Neck, Matthews said.