Review: New York slavery and Underground Railroad tour

A New York slavery and Underground Railroad tour is a great way of exploring a dark side to New York City’s past that remains largely ignored.

This review of the slavery and Underground Railroad walking tour is part of a special New York City collection created to celebrate the new direct flights from Sydney to New York. To find many more great things to do in New York City, head this way.

New York slavery and Underground Railroad tour price

At the time of writing, the New York slavery and Underground Railroad walking tour costs $39. Bookings can be made online.

New York slavery tour review: Custom House

Outside Custom House in Lower Manhattan, there are four statues representing Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa. Europe has its arm on a pile of books and a globe. America has a woman poised for action, holding a torch of liberty and corn, the symbol of plenty. Yet Africa is slumped, naked and vulnerable, atop a crumbling sphinx.

This should be enough to show you how the power balance has played out since Europeans arrived in North America. Northern states such as New York like to downplay their slavery history, preferring to let people think it was just a southern thing. But Ludie from Inside Out Tours is determined to show that’s not the case.

Her slavery and underground railroad tour through the oldest parts of Manhattan is more like a three hour lecture conducted in various locations. She’s passionate, occasionally furious, and eager for people to learn that the horrors of the past still have a knock-on effect today.

When did slavery end in New York?

What starts as an explanation of the transatlantic slave trade soon starts to narrow its focus to New York. The first shock is that New York finally became slavery-free in 1827, which is more than two centuries after being settled by the Dutch.

It was the biggest slave state in the north, with as many as 40% of households having slaves – as many as South Carolina. It’d be a different experience too, as most lived alone, cut off from other enslaved people working in other households.

Collecting water at the Well

It’s why, Ludie explains, the Well was so important. It’s still in place and covered with see-through glass, but this would be the place where every morning, slaves would go to collect water for their households. It was one of the few times they’d be given permission to congregate and be out on their own. And it’s where discussions happened. “This was the birthplace of the African American community in the city,” says Ludie.

Nearby is a sign marking where the slave market – which was used until 1762 – used to be. It’s not in the right place, as a skyscraper now occupies the spot on Wall Street between Pearl and Water Streets. It’s better than nothing, though – until 2014 there was nothing nearby to commemorate what it once was.

New York slavery tour review: Thomas Downing’s Oyster House

The JP Morgan Building, opposite Federal Hall on Wall Street, once belonged to Thomas Downing’s Oyster House – the hottest New York restaurant of the 1820s. But the people dining there didn’t realise that Downing’s son George hid fugitive slaves, escaped from the south, in the basement. It was a key station on the underground railroad, the system whereby enslaved people in the south would be helped to safety by people risking their lives and livelihoods to get them to slavery-free northern states or Canada.

The Underground Railroad in New York City

The network of ‘stations’ and ‘conductors’ had no central organisation – but ended up as a network of extraordinarily brave cells trying to right a wrong one person at a time. There are some remarkable stories – including one of Ellen Craft who passed as white and posed as a mute gentleman to allow her husband William to act as her manservant and interpreter.

There’s also the story of Henry Brown, who was posted to Canada in an excruciatingly tiny box.

New York slavery tour review: African Burial Ground

But then, sadly, there are thousands of stories that will probably never be known. And many of them belong to the bodies found, in 1991, in what is now known as the African Burial Ground. Uncovered during the construction of a federal building, later studies found that around 40% of the bodies belonged to children aged under 12, and some had muscle detached from the bones. That was an indicator that they were worked until they were broken.

And Ludie is determined that everyone, black, white or other, realises this is part of New York – and America’s – past. “This is OUR story,” she states with fierce intent. “You’re connected to it.”

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