Celebrating the Abolitionist Movement in Brooklyn
Just last year, the city planned to raze some Duffield Street houses that may have been part of the underground railroad. Now, a piece of that street is co-named “Abolitionist Place,” and “a multi-faceted proposal to memorialize the history of abolitionism, the anti-slavery movement, and the Underground Railroad in Brooklyn,” called “In Pursuit of Freedom”…
Just last year, the city planned to raze some Duffield Street houses that may have been part of the underground railroad. Now, a piece of that street is co-named “Abolitionist Place,” and “a multi-faceted proposal to memorialize the history of abolitionism, the anti-slavery movement, and the Underground Railroad in Brooklyn,” called “In Pursuit of Freedom” is on the horizon. The $2 million effort is courtesy of a coalition of heavies in the Brooklyn cultural scene, including New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and the Commemoration Advisory Panel, who selected the proposal from the Brooklyn Historical Society, the Weeksville Heritage Center and the Irondale Ensemble Project. The project will include a theatrical performance, an interactive exhibit and a self-guided walking tour. Good thing the houses are still here!
Tour, Play, Exhibit Mark Brooklyn Underground Railroad [NY Observer]
It’s great that the City is honoring Brooklyn’s proud Abolitionist past, and this new initiative sounds like a good start.
As it stands, the City’s press release does not mention Duffield Street, but I do hope the grant recipients work closely with the Duffield Street advocates.
While 227 Duffield has been saved from destruction by the City, several other properties are awaiting eminent domain condemnation notices. This story is far from over.
What was Lincoln’s first words after waking up from a 3 day drinking binge?
I freed the who?
So do I MM. In the local elementary school history lessons Brooklyn’s historical significance in the American Revolution, Civil War and Civil Rights movement is often overlooked. Many of the ‘fugitive slaves’ who did not continue on to Canada, settled throughout the borough but especially in Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, Flatbush and Canarsie. Of course the old Brooklyn Churches like Plymouth Congregational where Henry Ward Beecher preached fiery sermons to ditinguished guests such as Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Sojourner Truth and even Abraham Lincoln were instrumental in the abolition of slavery. Martin Luther King, Jr. would later preach the first version of his ‘I have a dream’ speach in that very same church. I always wonder when I am in any old building about the people who walked those very same halls years and centuries before me.
Sounds very interesting and fills in some gaps in the very important history of the abolitionist movement in Brooklyn. The fires lit from the pulpits of Brooklyn, and the work of untold, unknown people in the literal trenches, played an important role in Lincoln’s outlook on slavery, and the direction of the national abolitionists movement leading up to, and through, the Civil War.
I look forward to seeing what happens here.