You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.

Ben Franklin's World is a production of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.

But then as I was trying to describe my book project, just to people, even colleagues, they would say, well, what are you working on?

I said, the end of slavery in New York.

And they always said, slavery in New York?

There was slavery in New York? Or do you

mean after the Civil War? And I realized I couldn't talk about the end of something if people

didn't know that it existed.

Hello and welcome to episode 405 of Ben Franklin's World, the podcast dedicated to helping

you learn more about how the people and events of our early American past have shaped the present-day

world we live in. And I'm your host, Liz Covart. When we think of slavery in early America, we often think of the plantations and

economies of the South. But did you know that slavery was also deeply entrenched in New York City?

Did you know that African and African Americans helped New York City confront slavery,

freedom, and racism in the early republic and antebellum or pre-Civil War periods?

Leslie M. Harris, a professor of history at Northwestern University, and the author of In the Shadow of Slavery, African Americans

in New York City 1626 to 1863, joins us to explore the history of Africans and African Americans

in early New York City. Now, during our

exploration, Leslie reveals the arrival of Africans in New Amsterdam and the early history of slavery

in New York City, the contributions Africans and African Americans made to the construction and

development of New York City and the journey that New York City and New York State took to end slavery.

But first, did you know that Ben Franklin's World has a brand new newsletter?

It's called History Behind the Headlines.

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