A documentary screened recently as part of the Rye Free Reading Room’s observance of Black History Month delves into the role of New York as the epicenter of the slave trade in the 17th and 18th century.
The 30-minute film narrated by former Rye Country Day School student Richard French IV, “The Hidden History of Slavery in New York,” describes how Wall Street was once America’s largest slave market, lower Manhattan was largely built by slave labor, and many major New York banks can trace their roots to entities involved with the trading of slave-produced commodities like tobacco and cotton.
The 2023 film argues that New York students are taught that slavery was a Southern phenomenon with little mention of its local roots. As French says in the documentary, “New York was not a bystander to slavery, far from it.”
A desire to create greater awareness of New York’s involvement with this shameful chapter of American history is what inspired Larry Epstein to produce the film, Epstein told 60 people at the library. “It’s a really difficult, but important topic,” he said.
Rye High School senior Maddie Morgan, a post-screening panelist and a member of the Rye Human Rights Commission, said she would like to see Rye schools include northern slavery in its curriculum.
“Our education does no justice to the true of horrors of what happened in New York,” said Morgan.
There was slavery in Rye from the 1600s until New York finally abolished the institution in 1827. A paper published last year in The Westchester Historian by Rye resident and Rye Record contributor Howard Husock said 12.5 percent of Rye’s population in 1790 were slaves and 42 of Rye’s 205 families then owned slaves.
Rye street names refer to several of those slave-holding families, including Theall, Purdy, Guion, and Halstead. The Jay family, whose home is preserved as part of The Jay Heritage Center on Boston Post Road, had a complex relationship with slavery; over several hundred years, members of the family both owned slaves and were leading abolitionists.
Several speakers at the event suggested ways to learn more about Rye’s relationship to slavery and its African American community.
There are ongoing efforts to preserve The African American Cemetery at 215 North Street and better understand the histories of those buried there, said James J. Henderson III, president of the Port Chester-Rye NAACP.
Last year Rye’s train station plaza was renamed in honor of local civil rights leaders Orial and Paul Redd, noted attorney Mayo Bartlett. A “Walk Rye History” plaque at the site recounts the Redd’s efforts.
The Jay Heritage Center recently released a short documentary called “If These Stone Walls Could Talk” about African American history in the Rye, Harrison, and Mamaroneck area.
For most of the 60-plus years Ingraham Taylor, a member of the Rye Human Rights Commission, has lived in Rye, there were no substantial Black History Month programs, but that has changed, she said. This screening marked the third year in a row of programming, thanks in part to the efforts of the Human Rights Commission.
