Thursday, January 9th from 6:00pm to 7:00pm

Location: Van Cortlandt House Museum in Van Cortlandt Park

This talk by historian J. Keith Doherty will focus on a number of early farms in the Bronx that were owned by free Black men during the era of Gradual Emancipation, when slavery was slowly being abolished (1799-1827). Though several Black-owned farms existed in the rural environs of the city at the time, nearly all have been forgotten by history. This talk is an attempt to shed light on a long-buried chapter in our local history when Black men—many of whom had been enslaved in their youth—rose to become successful businessmen. In addition to being one of the only ways of gaining genuine financial independence, land ownership was critical for Black men as the sole means of acquiring suffrage, due to a racist mandate in the state constitution that required them to possess at least $250 worth of property to vote.

J. Keith Doherty is a former Professor of History and Art History at Boston University, where he earned his doctorate and taught for 14 years. Since returning to his native New York in 2012, he has authored several articles and a short book on the early history of the Bronx and Westchester, with a special focus on Black-owned farms in the area at the turn of the nineteenth century (1799-1850). In addition to his academic work, he is a researcher and educator at the Philipse Manor Hall, the VCHM’s architectural “twin” in Yonkers, and leads tours of various parts of Manhattan for the Big Onion touring company.

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