Long before Brooklyn became a go-to borough for hipsters and commuters, it was once America's third-largest city and separate from Manhattan and New York City, says Pretty. Kanakamedara explains in Brooklyn People: The Remarkable Story of a Free Black Community. Shaped a Borough” (NYU Press).
But it was also the place where one in three black residents were enslaved at the end of the American Revolution, a statistic that would inevitably spark a wave of activism in the years that followed.
“Brooklyn was the slave-owning capital,” writes Kanakamedara. “And it was in this context that the free black community in the far northwest corner of town began to outline the landscape and imbue the land with the radical potential of freedom.”
Told through the stories of four ordinary families in 19th century Brooklyn's black community, the Cloggers, the Hodges, the Wilsons, and the Gloucesters, it explores not only their extraordinary lives but also the lives of Fort Greene, Williamsburg, Dumbo, and beyond. It also reveals how the region became a hotbed. For a social justice movement focused on a new liberated future.
As Professor Kanakamedara of Bronx Community College has written, these urban villages were “part of a sophisticated northern antislavery space rooted in and integral to Brooklyn's own steady growth.” He played a vital role in the fight for liberation.
In “The Brooklynites,” Kanakamedara reveals the systemic and structural racism these families encountered as they fought for freedom in the face of horrific odds.
Even after the Revolution, it took 30 years for New York to formally abolish slavery — what Kanakamedara calls “gradual emancipation” — and members of the black community were still confined to manual labor.
“Their lives offer valuable lessons about freedom, democracy, and family – both what we are born with and what we choose,” she wrote. “Their powerful stories continue to resonate with people today.”
“Brooklynians” also considers the long-term impact these families will have on New York's most populous borough.
“This is the story of New Yorkers' past lands, homes, and labor, and the legacy they left us,” Kanakamedara writes.
“This is the story of Brooklyn.”
