the stolen history of new york

Examining the stories of the people and places lost in time to uncover the legacy of slavery and colonialism in modern-day Manhattan

In honor of my third year as a New Yorker and in light of the ongoing demonstrations by the Black Lives Matter movement and discourse around the significance of historical monuments, I thought I’d write about New York’s stolen history — the hidden and lesser-known parts that are omitted from modern documentation but are vitally important to the city’s history. “Stolen” because these stories were often deliberately erased out of shame and the contributions of marginalized communities erased. But part of becoming a better and actively anti-racist society is grappling with the darkest parts of our history.

From the subtly racist, like the ubiquitous ice cream truck jingle (as it turns out, a lot of the things we took for granted, like ice cream trucks and square dancing in elementary school, are byproducts of white supremacy), to the blatant erasure of indigenous people, New York City is filled with small markers of its checkered history that you may not notice at first blush. But once you know what to look for, you see the signs everywhere.

In understanding all of this, I found a lecture called “Colonial Persistence in New York City” by Benoît Challand at A Night of Philosophy and Ideas last year particularly useful, the motif of which was “facing our present.” It speaks to a shared…