English slave laws in the colony were much harsher in comparison to Dutch slave laws. For one thing, slaves were considered chattel or property, and their enslavement ended only with their death or manumission. The earliest slave codes passed in 1664 defined slavery as an inherited racial status-meaning that the children of slaves were also slaves. New York slaveholders could inflict any punishment short of mutilation and death on their human property. Freed blacks were also denied most civil rights under English rule. Any crime committed by a black against a white was severely punished, while white crimes against blacks were largely ignored.

According to the first U.S. Census, the slave population in New York grew to 21,324 by 1790, making New York the largest slave-owning state north of the Mason Dixon line, a distinction it held throughout the two centuries the state practiced slavery. In New York City, a large percentage of the blacks were free-some 33 percent or 1,482 inhabitants by 1820. In the nearby rural area of King County, in what is present day Brooklyn, most of the blacks that lived there were slaves and worked as farm laborers. In New York City, on the other hand, one third of the black population worked as skilled artisans. Not only did many enslaved Africans live and work in New York prior to the American Revolution, New York City prospered as a thriving center of the slave trade. New York slaving ships made over 150 trips to Africa between 1715 and 1776. Most of the enslaved people brought to Manhattan were transported from New York after a brief time in port to the Caribbean or else to Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia.

As in other slave-holding states many of New York's earliest slave laws were motivated by the fear of a black rebellion against slavery, an apprehension that became reality in 1712 and 1741. After a deadly slave revolt in New York City in 1712 that killed nine whites, stricter slave codes were passed. In putting down the upraising of several dozen enslaved people, the authorities executed 25 slaves. Of this group 20, including a woman, were hanged; three were burned to death-including one over a slow fire that lasted for eight hours; and one of the accused was strapped to a wheel and his bones broken with a heavy hammer. The colony's 1731 slave code was designed to regulate nearly every aspect of a slave's life from morning to nightfall. It stated that no more than three blacks could assemble on Sundays. They were also prohibited from carrying weapons and using city streets after dark unless accompanied by their master. Out of a fear that blacks were spreading disease in fruits and vegetables, the New York City Council prohibited slaves from selling their own produce at large public markets in 1740. These laws did not prevent the deadly episode of 1741, during which a series of fires broke out in the city. The white community took these fires to be an open slave rebellion, and in the end 13 blacks were burned at the stake, 16 others were hung along with four whites, and 71 were deported from the colony.

Beginning in 1799, the state legislature passed a series of gradual emancipation acts that freed all slaves born after that date. Children born prior to that year were required to serve until they reached the age of 25 for girls and 28 for men. This act was preceded by a law passed in 1781 by the New York Assembly, which manumitted all blacks serving with the state's military forces in the American Revolution. In 1817 a new emancipation law was passed freeing all slaves born prior to 1799. Although freed by state statute in 1727, legal discrimination remained, especially in voting and laws regulating social activities. For example, although the state assembly dropped in 1821 all property qualifications for voting, black males were still required to own $250 in property in order to cast a ballot. Slavery was finally abolished in New York in 1827. On July 4 of that year some 10,000 African Americans were freed without compensation to their owners.

Not all New Yorkers supported the idea of emancipation or the idea of increasing the state's free black population. Many joined the American Colonization Society, an organization based in Washington, D.C. that proposed sending African Americans to Liberia in West Africa. During the 1850s, New York along with New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Maryland, and Virginia contributed several thousands of dollars to the colonization movement.

Some New York slaveholders sought to counter the financial losses they stood to suffer with emancipation by selling their slaves to slave traders who transported them to markets in the Deep South, where slaves were still in high demand and could fetch high prices. Some historians note that the sharp decline in the state's free black population after 1800 was a direct result of New York blacks being kidnapped and sold to southern states. In 1840, the state legislature finally moved to prevent this practice with laws requiring that kidnapped slaves be returned to state authority for safekeeping.

Even after emancipating the state's black population, New York remained heavily invested in slavery and prospered from the institution. New York bankers and merchants financed the lion's share of the South's cotton trade, and the state's politicians usually supported pro-slavery legislation at the federal level to curry favor with southern slaveholders in hopes of having steady access to the shipment via New York of the South's cotton to England. The connection with cotton was particularly strong in New York City. When the South seceded in 1861 Mayor Fernando Wood suggested that New York City declare itself a free city, so that merchants could continue to do business with slaveholders selling cotton.

The significance of slavery to the life of early New York City was brought dramatically to light in 1991, when construction workers digging two blocks from City Hall uncovered, under 20 feet of pavement and rubble, the remains of an African-American burial ground that dated to the eighteenth century. The so-called "Negroes Burial Ground" was closed in 1790, and it contains over 20,000 graves, including those of numerous children. Some of the graves contained cowrie shells-a valuable form of currency in West Africa. Others revealed the remnants of British and American military uniforms. Most of the bodies were buried facing west, according to the Christian believe of the time that on Judgment Day the dead would thereby be facing in the expected direction of the Second Coming of Christ. Many of the graves were marked with heart-shaped images, possibly African in origin.

Primary:

Laws of the State of New York, Volumes 1-3. New York: Thomas Greenleaf, 1798.

Public Laws of the State of New York. Albany, New York: H. C. Southwick, 1809.

Revised Statutes of New York, 1875. Volumes 1-3. New York: Banks & Brothers, Law Booksellers, 1875.

Secondary:

Harris, Leslie M. In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003

Hodges, Graham Russell. Root and Branch: African Americans in New York and East Jersey, 1613-1863. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.

McManus, Edgar J. A History of Negro Slavery in New York. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1966.

Reiss, Oscar. Blacks in Colonial America. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., Inc., Publishers, 1997.

White, Shane. Somewhat More Independent: The End of Slavery in New York City, 1770-1810. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1991.

TYPE	YEAR	LAWS/CODES	DESCRIPTION
Protection	1652	Statute	While under Dutch rule, strict laws were passed in an effort to prevent the mistreatment of slaves. Whipping was forbidden unless the owner received permission from authorities.
Slavery legalized	1664	Statute	Statutory recognition of slavery.
Alcohol	1680	Statute	Prohibited blacks from consuming alcohol.
Alcohol	1702	Municipal	Common Council of Albany ordered town constables to remove blacks and Indians from taverns on Sundays. Tavern owner fined six shillings per person removed.
Commerce	1702	Statute	Prohibited trade with a slave without his master's consent; the recipient of the goods was fined five pounds plus three times the value of the item.
Travel	1705	Municipal	Albany passed laws stating that a slave could be punished with execution if he was found more than 40 miles north of Albany. (It was presumed that a slave was on his way to Canada with information about Albany's defenses against the French.)
Slave status	1706	Statute	Christian baptism did not alter the status of enslaved blacks.
Travel	1710	Municipal	New York City prohibited slaves from traveling on its streets at night without a lantern with a burning candle.
Slave code	1731	Municipal	Perhaps with the slave revolt of 1712 in mind, the New York City Council codified its slave laws in 1731. No more than three blacks could assemble on Sunday. Blacks could not carry weapons. Nor were they permitted on the streets after dark except with their master. No more than 12 blacks were permitted at a funeral, aside from the carriers and gravediggers. Blacks were prohibited from using the streets in a disorderly manner.
Commerce	1740	Municipal	The New York City Council prohibited blacks from selling their own produce at large public markets. Law was passed in response to the fears of the white population who believed that blacks were spreading disease in their fruits and vegetables. Violators whipped unless their owner paid a fine of six shillings.
Alcohol	1773	Statute	Liquor sales to slaves outlawed. Tavern keepers could lose their license for three years if law violated.
Manumission	1785	Statute	State legislature authorized manumission of all slaves under age 50 without posting a security bond if the slave had a certificate of his ability to provide for himself.
Slave trade	1788	Statute	The purchase of a slave with intent to sell him out of state was made illegal; the individual was fined 100 pounds, and the slave was freed.
Emancipation	1799	Statute	All slaves born after 1799 freed. However, if a black's mother was a slave, he or she served her master until age 25 for women and age 28 for men.
Marriage	1809	Statute	Slave marriages made legal, and freed blacks could acquire an estate.
Slave trade	1810	Statute	Prohibited residents from importing slaves.
Education	1810	Statute	All slave owners were required to teach enslaved black children to read the Bible.
Military service	1812	Statute	Provided for the mustering of two regiments of black troops who would receive the same pay as white soldiers. Enslaved blacks could enlist with permission of their masters and would be freed at war's end.
Emancipation	1817	Statute	Passage of the gradual Abolition Act provided that on July 4, 1827, every black born in New York before July 4, 1799, would be free, and all black males born after that date would be free at the age of 28, and all females would be freed at the age of 25.
Runaways	1817	Statute	Persons of color owing service or labor in any other state could be returned to where they came from.
Emancipation	1827	Statute	Slavery abolished. On July 4, 10,000 slaves were freed without compensation to their owners.
Runaways	1840	Statute	Provided trial by jury for alleged fugitive slaves.
Kidnapping	1840	Statute	Duty of Governor to return persons kidnapped or transported into another state for the purpose of slavery.
Non-resident slave holders	1841	Statute	Out of state slave owners could not keep their slaves in the state for more than nine months.