On a truly American 4th of July, New York abolished slavery in 1827

“The progress of emancipation, though slow, is nevertheless certain,” said the Reverend Nathaniel Paul to an assembled Albany congregation on July 5, 1827, just one day after the state of New York had marked America’s day of independence by granting that same right — or some variant thereof — to slaves.

“Let us then relieve ourselves from the odious stigma…for the enjoyment of the rights of freemen,” he went on, “and convince them and the world that although our complexion may differ, yet we have hearts susceptible of feeling; judgment capable of discerning, and prudence sufficient to manage our affairs with discretion, and by example prove ourselves worthy the blessings we enjoy.”

There were free blacks in New York long before 1827, thanks to the British Army. As historian Eric Foner writes in his book Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad, “the first emancipation proclamation” was written by the Earl of Dunmore, colonial governor of Virginia, who promised liberty to slaves willing to fight to weaken the revolutionary forces. The British occupied New York City as the war was winding down, during which time it became a mecca for free blacks. At the end of the conflict, as Foner writes, “60,000 loyalists, including some 4,000 blacks — those formerly enslaved in the city, others who had fled there during the conflict, and slaves brought by loyalist owners — were behind British lines in New York City.” He quotes Boston King, a fugitive slave from South Carolina who ended up in New York and left a record of his experience, writing “I began to feel the happiness of liberty, of which I knew nothing before.” King claimed that the war’s end brought “universal joy among all parties, except us, who had escaped from slavery” because of rumors that fugitive slaves “were to be delivered up to their masters, . . . fill[ing] us all with inexpressible anguish and terror.”

British commander Sir Guy Carleton kept his promise to the slaves who’d enlisted in the war effort. He surprised George Washington when he insisted that the Treaty of Paris brokering peace between the nations — which said the British must return American property seized during the war — not be extended to slaves, who had been promised freedom. Carleton argued it would be a “dishonourable violation of the public faith” to break that promise and when the British left American shores, it was with more than 3,000 blacks whose names were carefully recorded in a “Book of Negroes.”

But for the many left behind, the path to abolition in New York was uneven and rocky. A group of 18 prominent citizens formed the New York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, and Protecting Such of Them as Have Been or May be Liberated (better known as the Manumission Society), which sought to help blacks, who it feared were “habituated to submission” and prone to “practices of immorality.”

The state passed the Gradual Emancipation Act on July 4, 1799, effectively freeing the future children of slaves living in the state. It was a half-hearted admission of the brutality of slavery, and it did little for those then in bondage. Furthermore, the children who would be “free” were still bound to indentured servitude into adulthood: 28 years of age for men and 25 for women. In 1817, an amendment to that act stipulated that all slaves born after July 4, 1799 were free. It was partially a response to the swell of support for abolition following the War of 1812, in which many black Americans fought.

Particularly following the 1817 law, abolitionist sentiment was in the air. Knowing they would soon be free, a number of slaves negotiated with their masters for an early release, and some were successful. Joining an established chorus of well-meaning quakers and other whites who’d come to see abolition as key to the pursuit of the revolutionary ideal of equality, a movement of black abolitionists emerged, and they were increasingly well organized. According to Foner, nearly 11,000 free blacks were living in New York by 1820 and “very quickly an infrastructure of black institutions emerged — fraternal societies, literary clubs, and ten black churches, representing the major Protestant denominations.”

A few months before full abolition in 1827, the first edition of Freedom’s Journal, the first black-owned and operated newspaper in the country, was published. The paper printed regional, national, and international news, as well as job and housing listings. In its inaugural issue, the editors wrote, “We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us. Too long has the public been deceived by misrepresentations, in things which concern us dearly.” Four months later, they were finally, legally free.

By 1840, the New York census reported no slaves living in the state.