The Creation of Seneca Village
The Irish began moving into the community in considerable numbers after 1850, primarily for the affordable housing (Rosenzweig & Blackmar 1992). Unlike African Americans, the right to vote had not been an issue in their decision. However, they were probably also motivated by discrimination they received downtown as recent, unskilled immigrants. Their Catholic faith made many Irish a target for prejudice on another level.
On 27 September 1825, a white couple, John and Elizabeth Whitehead, sold the first parcels of the farmland they had purchased between 83rd and 88th Streets, from 7th to 8th Avenues, which they had bought the year earlier. The Whiteheads had purchased the land from James and Maria Fairlie on 2 February 1824. The short turnaround time suggests that the Whiteheads were engaging in real estate speculation.
The first buyers on that September day were black. Andrew Williams, a bootblack and trustee of African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, paid $125 for three lots. Epiphany Davis, a fellow trustee of AME Zion Church, bought twelve lots for $578. By the end of the day, 23 lots had been sold to free African American males. Within a week, the trustees of AME Zion had bought six lots more, to be used as burial grounds. Both Williams and Davis made individual purchases as well. Twenty seven additional parcels of land were purchased between 1825 and 1832, mostly by African Americans, and there were nine houses in the area by 1829.
The presence of land lots without structures indicates that not everyone who bought land lived on their purchases. John Marshall owned five lots in Seneca Village, but probably lived in his house on Centre Street, downtown. In such cases, the motive to buy land may have been political. The settlement of Seneca Village correlated with the final emancipation of African Americans in New York in 1827.
A few years prior to the initial settlement of Seneca Village, New York State changed its constitution in 1821, requiring $250 in property holdings and three years residency for black men before they could vote, while gradually waiving the property requirement for white men. Inheritance of land was prohibited in black families starting in 1809, making it difficult to amass the $250. Another complicating factor was racial discrimination, which restricted African Americans to low-paying, menial jobs. They had a more difficult time raising captital to buy property through their work alone than whites. Expensive real estate prices in downtown Manhattan, as well as reluctance to sell to blacks, compounded the situation. In this context, Seneca Village was an opportunity for black people to own land and gain a voice in politics, and in some cases, still live downtown in the hub of activity.