They located four homes on Hunterfly Road, which were the only homes left from the original town of Weeksville. In 1968, Pratt researchers found remnants of the lost city while flying over Brooklyn in an airplane. By the 20th century, the town was nothing more than a memory.īut history has its breadcrumbs and if you take the time to follow them you can create a way to keep that history alive forever. By the 1880s, Weeksville was secluded no more and the Eastern Parkway was built leaving residents not much choice but to leave. The community thrived and continued to grow throughout the 19th century, but Brooklyn was growing and would soon swallow Weeksville whole. Establishing land in Weeksville gave Black men the opportunity to vote in elections they hadn’t been privy to in the past. In 1821 there was a $250 property requirement for Black men to vote. Sarah Smith would also found the Equal Suffrage League of Brooklyn, the first suffrage organization for Black women in the nation’s history.Īlong with economic prosperity, Weeksville also brought political opportunities for Blacks who had been strategically kept out of the process. Her sister, Sarah Smith Tompkins Garnet was Brooklyn’s first female school principal. Susan Smith McKinney Steward, the first Black female doctor in the state of New York was a resident of Weeksville. The seclusion would not only keep the town’s residents safe from the white and dangerous world around them but would also grant them the freedoms to build a self-sufficient community with education at the forefront.
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The Lefferts family estate was comprised of most of what is now known as Bedford Stuyvesant and Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.Ī year later, Thompson would begin to sell the lots to free Blacks in Brooklyn, selling two of the lots to James Weeks a longshoreman with a vision of a self-sufficient Black community hidden within the slopes and valleys of Bedford Hills, secluded from the rest of Brooklyn. Thompson purchased 32 lots from wealthy Brooklynite John Lefferts. In 1837 The Abolitionist and Black community leader Henry C. Smart and savvy free Black men saw this as an opportunity and began to buy plots of land from wealthy whites who would sell. But in Kings County, there were 879 slaves, almost the same amount as free Blacks in the county.ĭuring The Panic of 1837 wealthy white landowners began liquidating their holdings in fear of losing money on their assets and properties. By 1820 there were just 518 slaves in New York City and a thriving free Black population of over 10,000. Families who did not own slaves would regularly rent them from their neighbors.Īlthough slavery was on its way out in New York, it was a way of life for thousands of Blacks who called Brooklyn their home. Families usually owned a smaller number of slaves and the slaves usually lived in the same house as their owners. It was more ingrained into the northern culture and economy. Slavery in Brooklyn was vastly different than the plantation-style slavery adopted by southern whites. Nearly 60% of households in Kings County were slave owners. More than one-quarter of the inhabitants were Black slaves. In 1801, Kings County, which today is known as the borough of Brooklyn, was still primarily under Dutch rule. When we think of slavery we don’t usually think of New York, but the state didn’t end the practice until 1827. Tucked away deep inside the history of one of New York City’s most famous boroughs is the extraordinary story of a little town called ‘Weeksville’. MORE: T h ere’s A Black Village Under Central Park That Was Founded By Alexander Hamilton’s Secret Black Son
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