Celebrating Black History Month

You Are Here – A Walking Tour of the Geographical History of Enslaved and Free Africans in Manhattan 1613 – 1865

SOLD OUT — You can join the waiting list by clicking the button on this page. Also, consider joining our webinar lecture with Lawrence Henderson on February 22nd. You can find more information about the free webinar and sign up here.

Join author, tour guide, and native New Yorker Lawrence Henderson for a in-person walking tour and discussion of the lives of enslaved and free African people in lower Manhattan from the 17th to 19th centuries. This popular walking tour is based on Lawrence’s book You Are Here – A Geographical History of Enslaved and Free Africans in Manhattan: 1613 – 1865.

With a focus on Greenwich Village, this fact-filled educational tour will cover key sites in African American history in old New York. Please note there are very limited spaces for this program. A walking tour in February is exciting, but can present some challenges. Please be prepared to traverse NYC streets and sidewalks in winter weather. Be sure to dress appropriately and have appropriate footwear. Lawrence gives this tour year-round and will take us through a comfortable 1 hour to 90 minute tour, with indoor stops along the way.

Some of the sites on this tour are well-known, while others are more obscure, and cover both free and enslaved people. All give participants a deeper understanding of the evolution of an African American community in New York in its earliest days — from Dutch to British to American rule, before and after abolition. Learn how the first enslaved Africans helped build so much of the essential infrastructure upon which our city was based and founded, and how the government-sanctioned sale of human beings took place in New York.

Lawrence shares that, as with the Manhattan of today, his book stands on the shoulders of a long line of African Americans who preceded him — people who did not choose to come here, but once here, brought their courage, culture, and creativity.