Manhattan's West Village Used to Be Known as "Little Africa". How Did it Get so White?
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Dutch West India Company
12 min read
The article mentions this company granted land to freed Africans in the 1640s, but readers likely don't know the full scope of this trading company's role in the Atlantic slave trade, colonization of the Americas, and its complex policies toward enslaved and freed people in New Netherland.
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African Grove
9 min read
Mentioned as 'the first Black theater company in America,' this pioneering institution in 1820s New York produced Shakespeare and original works, faced violent opposition from white audiences, and launched the career of Ira Aldridge. Most readers won't know its fascinating and turbulent history.
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Great Migration (African American)
11 min read
The article describes Black residents moving from Greenwich Village to Harlem as part of a 'larger trend,' but doesn't explain the massive demographic shift of 6 million African Americans from the rural South to Northern cities between 1910-1970 that fundamentally reshaped American culture and politics.
The lively streets of Greenwich Village in New York City hold a secret history, one that challenges common perceptions of the area. It’s an ironic twist of history that this very neighborhood, often associated with white wealth and bohemian life, was once a cornerstone of the earliest free Black life in America—possibly even the first free Black settlement in the colonies.
The Dutch Origins: “Land of the Blacks” (1640s)
To understand this history, we must look back to the 1640s, when the area was part of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. The Dutch West India Company formally established this land as the “Land of the Blacks” (Winkel-straat, roughly meaning “Corner Street” or “Black Alley”).
The company granted land tracts to freed and “half-free” Africans, such as Manuel de Gerrit de Rues. This wasn’t done purely out of goodwill; these grants served a strategic purpose. The Black settlers were placed in a buffer zone outside the main, walled settlement of New Amsterdam (which is now the Financial District or Fi-Di). This location essentially protected the main colony from the Indigenous Lenape Native Americans who lived further north. In exchange for this service and a small annual tax, the Black settlers gained a precarious foothold in the new world.
English Rule and Reclaiming Freedom (Post-1664)
When the English took control of the colony in 1664, renaming it New York, they brought a much stricter system of racial segregation and oppression. The new governor, Richard Nicolls, soon began the systematic process of seizing the land that the Dutch had granted to the free Black residents. This displacement scattered the community and curtailed the freedom they had briefly known.
However, the story didn’t end there. After New York abolished slavery in 1827, a wave of formerly enslaved people and their descendants began to return to the familiar ground of the original “Land of the Blacks.”
The Rise of “Little Africa” (Mid-1800s)
This growing community, concentrated around Minetta Lane, officially earned the name “Little Africa.” It quickly grew into a vibrant and crucial cultural hub. With over 5,000 Black residents at its peak, the neighborhood boasted its own banks, schools, and cultural institutions like the groundbreaking African Grove Theater (the first Black theater company in America).
Nearby institutions played a vital role, too. Mother Zion A.M.E. Church (one of the oldest Black churches in the country) became a critical stop on the ...
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