Christopher Moore (b. January 20, 1952, d. March 13, 2022, of complications from COVID and pneumonia) was a curator, archivist, author, storyteller, researcher, and the longest-serving member of New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, from 1995 to 2015. Moore became a notable fixture in the New York City preservation movement through his work to preserve […]
On March 26, 1647, Anthony (also referred to as Antony) Congo, a newly manumitted slave of the Dutch West India Company, was granted six acres of land by the Council of New Amsterdam just east of the Bowery. His was one of more than thirty land grants to freed slaves by the Dutch New Amsterdam […]
In continuing our celebration of black history, we have a new and exciting entry to our Civil Rights and Social Justice Map: North America’s First Freed Black Settlement. According to historian Christopher Moore, the first legally emancipated community of people of African descent in North America was found in Lower Manhattan, comprising much of present-day […]
