Slavery in Cities

Slavery in colonial America began in the early 17th century when the first African slaves were brought to Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. By the mid-18th century, the population of enslaved Africans in British North America was approximately 250,000, the majority of whom were in the Southern colonies. While slavery is generally associated in the public imagination with the rural plantation South, there were also considerable slave populations in both Northern and Southern cities. Most slave cities were in port areas involved in the transatlantic slave trade. Urban slave populations were mainly brought to North American cities from Africa via the West Indies.

In the North, large urban slave populations were established in port cities. Enslaved Africans were first brought to New York City (formerly a Dutch settlement known as New Amsterdam until annexed by the British in 1664) by the Dutch West India Company in 1626. The Dutch used slave labor primarily in agriculture and for infrastructural development of the New Netherland colony. Between 1660 and 1664, approximately 400 slaves were transported to New Amsterdam. Just over a century later, New York had more slaves than New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island combined, making it the largest slave colony in the North. There were a total of 19,062 enslaved Africans in New York colony, the highest concentrations of which were located in and around New York City. By 1790, approximately 75 percent of slave owners in New York possessed not more than one or two slaves, while households mainly in the upper economic strata tended to own five or more.

Boston and Philadelphia were also prominent Northern slave cities. As in New York, the slave populations within these urban centers were increasing by the mid-18th century as a result of the slave trade. Throughout the New England colonies, slave cities experienced increases in their slave populations until the American Revolution. In the colony of Pennsylvania, approximately half of all slaves were located in Philadelphia, which had an estimated 6,000 African slaves in 1751. Slave trading was a common practice in cities such as Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. Slave auctions were public events that most often took place at the business premises of local slave agents or at public market centers. In New York, slaves were sold at locations such as the Fly Market, the Merchant's Coffee House, and Proctor's Vendue House. In Boston and Philadelphia, slaves were sold along with other commodities such as rum, sugar, and coffee at similar establishments.

Male African slaves were often preferred over female slaves in Northern cities, because African women were often thought to reproduce too quickly. In fact, infertile females were seen by Northern urban slaveholders as more valuable. By 1755, a significant gender gap developed in the slave cities throughout the North because of the considerable demand by slave owners for more African men than women. The 1756 census taken in New York records 7,500 male slaves and fewer than 6,000 female slaves. Urban slaves in the North were often given more freedom than rural Southern slaves. With the growing industrial economy, many of the slaves in Northern cities were allowed to hire themselves out to work for other employers under agreement with their owners to receive a percentage of the money they earned. This agreement gave the urban slave partial independence, and at the same time enabled the slaveholder to make additional profits from his investment. Furthermore, this process of hiring out allowed slaves in cities to learn trades from their employers. Most female slaves worked as domestic servants, while male slaves in the cities worked as blacksmiths, coachmen, cooks, carpenters, shoemakers, tailors, brush makers, millers, and weavers. The rise of industrial growth in the Northern states provided opportunities for African slaves to work in manufacturing industries such as the [Page 727]iron, textile, and maritime trades. There was strong opposition among white workers who competed for many of the same jobs as urban slaves.

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