By Marquis Taylor

In May 2022, I began working as a research assistant with the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side. The house museum, which tells the stories of immigrants, migrants, and refugees who called the Lower East Side their home, was interested in learning more about Black people residing in Civil War-era New York in preparation for the launch of its latest permanent exhibition, which focuses on a Black family. For decades, the Tenement Museum only told the stories of families who had resided at 97 and 103 Orchard Street, the two tenement buildings the Museum owns. Now, for the first time, the Museum would set its stage about a mile west at 17 Laurens Street (now West Broadway) in the Eighth Ward (present-day SoHo), where Joseph and Rachel Moore, two Black migrants residing in New York, lived together from approximately 1864 to 1871.

*1869 New York City Directory listing Joseph Moore (collection of author).*

Researching Manhattan’s Eighth Ward presented an exciting opportunity to learn about a neighborhood deeply tied to Civil War-era Black New York — yet it also posed challenges regarding archival constraints. Newspaper articles from the mainstream white press, records produced by the city’s burgeoning municipal government, and reports from reformers and their institutions comprise the dominant archive of Lower Manhattan’s Eighth Ward, which is fragmented and tainted with racist ideology. Also, with much of the 19th-century built environment of present-day SoHo gone, researchers and historians alike are forced to not only confront these limitations but construct a counter-archive.

Only through engagement with the Black press, particularly The Weekly Anglo-African (later known as The Anglo-African), do critical aspects of the Black New York of Joseph and Rachel Moore’s era become more legible. New York City’s lone Black Civil War-era newspaper, The Weekly Anglo-African offers a counter-archive of the Eighth Ward and its Black community. While the mainstream white press depicted Lower Manhattan’s Eighth Ward as a community riddled with squalor, crime, and degeneracy, The Weekly Anglo-African illuminates the investments and priorities of this neighborhood’s residents beyond sensationalist and racist depictions. During the roughly two-decade period between the 1850s and 1870s, Black New Yorkers sustained a robust network of institutions primarily centered in Lower Manhattan's Eighth Ward. Founded in the decades following Emancipation in New York, [1] Black New Yorkers created churches, schools, and businesses to elevate their moral, economic, and political status.

Lower Manhattan’s Eighth Ward

The Eighth Ward – present-day SoHo – was bounded on the north by Houston Street; to the east, by Broadway; to the south, by Canal Street; and west, by the Hudson River. [2] *Map of the city of New York, Library of Congress.*

By the early 1850s, the racial, ethnic, and economic makeup of lower Manhattan's Eighth Ward shifted as the neighborhood became increasingly populated with working-class Black New Yorkers and Irish immigrants. Although both groups often competed for jobs and housing, census records illustrate that Black New Yorkers and Irish people lived together in tenement apartments as boarders, friends, spouses, and family. In 1870, there were eighty households in Manhattan's Eighth Ward composed of Black-Irish families. [3] Joseph and Rachel Moore’s household was a part of that figure; the couple provided housing for Rose Brown, an Irish immigrant, and her son Louis Mundy, who was Black and Irish. [4]

*“An alley on the Lower West Side of New York - within two blocks of Fifth Avenue.” New York Public Library Digital Collections.*

Between the 1850s and 1870s, the Eighth Ward had one of Manhattan's highest concentrations of Black residents. Data collected by W.E.B. Du Bois for his report Some Notes on The Negroes in New York City asserts that 45% of all Black New Yorkers were distributed among Manhattan’s Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth wards in 1850. [5] The Eighth Ward remained an area housing a significant portion of the city’s Black community until the 1870s. [6]

*W.E.B. Du Bois, Some Notes on the Negroes in New York City, The Atlanta University Conference (Special Report, January, 1903).*

The influx of Black New Yorkers into the Eighth Ward, mainly moving uptown from the Five Points and other parts of Lower Manhattan, fueled anxieties among the neighborhood’s white American residents. A New York Times article published in April 1853 mentioned the changing character of the Eighth Ward, noting that “many people of prosperity [moved] up town and another class [came] in.” [7] Sensationalist journalism regarded a particular set of streets – Canal, Laurens, Sullivan, and Thompson – as the “ulcer” of the community. Those streets became labeled “Rotten Row,” cementing the idea of crime, vice, and degeneracy to a few blocks with a sizable portion of Black residents. [8]

The (Weekly) Anglo-African (1859-65)

One of the cornerstones of Lower Manhattan’s Black community was The Weekly Anglo-African, managed by brothers Robert and Thomas Hamilton. Born into a free Black family, both Robert and Thomas witnessed their father William's involvement with the earliest documented Black newspaper in the country, Freedom’s Journal, which he founded in 1827 alongside a group of free Black men months before slavery was abolished in New York state. In July 1859, the Hamilton brothers published the inaugural issue of The Weekly Anglo-African out of their office at No. 48 Beekman Street. Having been “brought up among Newspapers and Magazines,” Thomas and Robert sought to galvanize Black people and their allies “from nearly every city and town” against the growth of slavery nationally and the passage of laws intended to limit the rights of free Black people. [9]

*The Weekly Anglo-African, 1 no. 26 (January 14, 1860).*

The Weekly Anglo-African was a weekly publication, in print from 1859 to 1865. In 1859, the paper’s subscription cost four cents per issue, or a subscriber could pay two dollars for an entire year’s subscription. Within the first few months of operation, The Weekly Anglo-African received tremendous support from other antislavery and Black newspapers. Frederick Douglass wrote: “The new year has thus far brought to our notice nothing more gratifying and encouraging than this new publication.” [10] Despite its support, the financial woes of the young paper prompted Robert and Thomas to sell it in March 1861, but they managed to reacquire the paper in July 1861 and changed its name to The Anglo-African.

Regarded as one of the most influential Black newspapers of the Civil War era, The Weekly Anglo-African reported on issues of local, statewide, national, and international interest to its readership. Known for its widespread coverage and correspondents in locales such as San Francisco, Toronto, Chatham in Canada West, Troy, New York to Jamaica, The Weekly Anglo-African connected Black communities in disparate locations. [11]

Reimagining the Eighth Ward

Although Civil War-era Black newspapers are ephemeral, piecing together advertisements and local commentary from surviving issues of The Anglo-African establishes Black New Yorkers’ priorities. In the decades following slavery’s abolition in New York, Black New Yorkers demonstrated a commitment to strengthening Black public education, supporting local businesses, and challenging the institution of slavery.

A survey of the articles in the paper reveals the centrality of Colored School No. 2 in the community. Colored School No. 2 was located at 51 Laurens Street, in the lower part of Manhattan’s Eighth Ward. Although publicly financed, the funding for Black schools in Manhattan was wholly inequitable compared to white schools. For every dollar reserved for Black schools, the Board of Education allotted approximately $1,600 for white schools. [12] Leaders within the Black community often criticized the Board of Education for perpetuating this disparity, despite Black New Yorkers attending public school an estimated 25% more than their white counterparts. [13]

In addition to advocating for better school funding, articles in The Weekly Anglo-African also illuminate how Black schools were sites of dissent against the institution of slavery. Under the direction of Fanny Tompkins, principal of the Female Department at Colored School No. 2, advanced students performed the Oratorio of Joseph in December 1859. The music selection references the Biblical Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his brothers. According to The Weekly Anglo-African, the performance occurred at the nearby Shiloh Church and “was filled ‘from pit to dome’” and had nearly 1,000 guests in attendance. [14] The proceeds from this performance benefited the families of the martyrs aiding in John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry. Six months later, Mrs. Mary S. Leary, the wife of Lewis S. Leary, a martyr in the raid, wrote to Fanny Tompkins thanking her for the gift of $100 and “kind letter of explanation.” [15]

“Aid For The Families of The Martyrs.” The Weekly Anglo-African (December 17, 1859).

Similar to Colored School No. 2, churches were an integral part of the Eighth Ward’s Black community. During the Civil War era, prominent speakers like Frederick Douglass and Reverend Henry Highland Garnet lectured at Black churches in the Eighth Ward, such as Shiloh Baptist and St. Philip’s Episcopal Church. Both men condemned slavery, but they had sharply differing opinions on the subject of emigration. Douglass advocated that Black people remain in the U.S. and fight for equality, while Garnet believed that equality and freedom for Black people would never be achieved in the U.S. and encouraged Black people to explore the merits of Liberia. [16] Performances and sermons alike animated and raised the political consciousness of residents throughout the Eighth Ward. These events received the attention of the Black press, which wrote vigorously about these activities, especially as the nation became more divided on the issue of abolition.

The advertisements and articles in The Weekly Anglo-African showcase community members who owned businesses and were also visible philanthropists. Madame Magnan was among the dozens of Black women placing advertisements in the Weekly Anglo-African paper from 1859 to 1865. A resident of the Eighth Ward, Madame Ann Magnan offered lessons in Spanish guitar and singing at her home, located at 154 Sullivan Street. [17] In addition, Magnan appeared in several other issues of the Black press, most notably organizing concerts and raising funds on behalf of Black institutions. In March 1860, Magnan helped plan a fair showcasing the pupils at the Colored Orphan Asylum in Manhattan. The students, presumably trained by her in singing and recitation, performed before an interracial audience hoping to solicit enough funds to keep this vital institution afloat. [18] Business women like Madame Magnan and her business and political efforts are legible in The Weekly Anglo-African and counter the depiction of a declining neighborhood as captured in the white press.

After the Civil War, Black entrepreneurs and their advertisements helped acquaint newcomers to the city and the area. Tilmon’s Employment Agency, which received aid from the Freedmen’s Bureau to support freedwomen and men coming to New York from the South, routinely advertised its agency in the pages of The Anglo-African. [19]

*“Advertisement.” The Anglo-African (September 9, 1865).*

In late 1870, local leaders began the process of displacing Black residents from the Eighth Ward. To improve traffic flow between Lower and Upper Manhattan (at this time, Upper Manhattan referred to anything north of 14th Street), city planners finally decided to widen Laurens Street. This plan resulted in the demolition of scores of buildings, thus displacing hundreds of residents in the Eighth Ward. [20] Although the neighborhood was composed of both Black Americans and European immigrants at the time of demolition, the mainstream press focused on the community’s Black population. The New York Herald reported: “Laurens street, or that portion of it already demolished, was mostly inhabited by colored people.” [21] The street widening, coupled with an influx of Italian immigrants at the end of the nineteenth century, contributed to a process that essentially removed Black people from this neighborhood to areas farther north in Manhattan, like the Tenderloin District. [22] By 1900, only 10% of Black New Yorkers resided in areas south of 14th Street. [23]

*“South Fifth Avenue,” New York Herald (October 16, 1870).*

Although Joseph and Rachel Moore’s Eighth Ward tenement apartment no longer stands and much of their neighborhood has been razed to aid in the city’s expansion, the Black press of the time illuminates how Black people created community and sustained vibrant institutions during precarious moments fraught by the strengthening of laws that sought to expand slavery and undermine the freedom and rights of free people of color.

Marquis Taylor is a fourth-year history Ph.D. Candidate at Northwestern University. For the 2023-2024 year, he served as a Mellon Public History Fellow at the Tenement Museum.

[1] New York State’s gradual emancipation law went into full effect in 1827.

[2] Citizens’ Association of New York, Report of The Council of Hygiene and Public Health of The Citizens’ Association of New York upon The Sanitary Condition of The City (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1865), xxii.

[3] Virginia Ferris, “ ‘Inside of the Family Circle:’ Irish and African American Interracial Marriage in New York City’s Eighth Ward, 1870” American Journal of Irish Studies 9 (2012): 154.

[4] Year: 1870; Census Place: New York Ward 8 District 4, New York, New York; Roll: M593_981; Page: 53B.

[5] W.E. Burghardt Du Bois, Some Notes on The Negroes in New York City (Atlanta: Atlanta University Press, 1903), 1.

[6] ibid.,.

[7] “Walks Among The New-York Poor. “Rotten Row.”” The New York Times (April 19, 1853).

[8] ibid.,.

[9] “Apology.” The Anglo-African Magazine 1, no. 1 (January 1859): 1.

[10] “Notices of The Press.” The Weekly Anglo-African (July 30, 1859).

[11] ibid., 44.

[12] New York (State) Legislature Assembly, Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York (Albany: Charles Van Benthuysen, 1859), 16.

[13] ibid, 15.

[14] “Aid For The Families of The Martyrs.” The Weekly Anglo-African (December 17, 1859).

[15] “Acknowledgment.” The Weekly Anglo-African June 23, 1860.

[16] “The Colonization Scheme,” Frederick Douglass’ Paper, 5, no. 5 (January 22, 1852); Anna Mae Duane, Educated for Freedom (New York: New York University Press, 2022), 127.

[17] Advertisements. The Weekly Anglo-African, May 12, 1860.

[18] “The Colored Orphan Asylum.” The Weekly Anglo-African, March 24, 1860.

[19] Carol Faulkner, Women’s Radical Reconstruction: The Freedmen’s Aid Movement (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), 124.

[20] “The Widening of Laurens Street.” The Evening Post, June 7, 1870.

[21] “South Fifth Avenue.” New York Herald, October 16, 1870.

[22] Seth M. Scheiner, Negro Mecca: A history of the Negro in New York City, 1865-1920 (New York: New York University Press, 1965), 17-18.

[23] ibid,18.

Civil War-Era Black New York and Historical Memory: Locating the Eighth Ward