Most of NYC history goes back to the early 1600s...except Queens. And there is a reason for that. In 1789, a fire in the Flushing clerk's home of Jeremiah Vanderbilt (where the records were kept) destroyed much of the documents...as an act of revenge.
Nelly, a 17-year-old enslaved woman, was 'loaned out' to Mr. Vanderbilt by Dutch Captain Daniel Braine. She fell in love with a half-African, half-Matinecock Native man who became her boyfriend. The Matinecock refused the Vanderbilt's offer to work on the estate and start a family, because he was afraid of being turned into a slave and/or producing a family that would then be sold into slavery by whites. And Vanderbilt wouldn't give Nelly her freedom to marry and resettle somewhere else so...
One day when the Vanderbilt family was away, Nelly and another enslaved female teenager by the name of Sarah filled the Vanderbilt's attic with hay and set it ablaze. The fire destroyed the house and all the local records. A young 33-year-old New York State Attorney General prosecuted Nelly who was ultimately convicted and hanged. Her accomplice Sarah was let go because she was deemed too young to know any better. The Attorney General who tried and sent Nelly to her death? Aaron Burr. Yeah, that dude was just made to be the villain in multiple musicals.
And I learned this story from #blackbreathsits, an organization going around NYC reclaiming historical sites by having black people pray, sit, and meditate on the land of our ancestors. Join them in the spring...when the weather is nicer.
No comments:
Post a Comment