Complatency in the Slave Trade and Religious Institurions Staten Island

Like many ethnic European Americans, my paternal family immigrated from Ireland in the 1910’s as part of the great Irish Diaspora that lead to over 25% of Americans able to trace at least one ancestor to the Emerald Isle. The same was not true of my mother’s family. Her father’s paternal line could trace their lineage back to Salem, Mass in the 1550’s from Nottingham in England where they were descended from Huguenot glassblowers and could be easily called Puritans. They then settled on the North Fork of Long Island in a town called Southold where they accumulated property, businesses and slaves. While doing some family research for my uncle’s 80^th birthday, I discovered a bill of sale signed by one of my mother’s ancestors accepting payment for a slave. It read:

Know all Men by these Present that I Joseph Conkling of Queens Village in Queens County on Nassau

Island in the Province of New York for and in Consideration of Twenty five pounds Current money of the

Province aforesaid received to my full Satisfaction of Joseph Lloyd & John Lloyd of said Queens Village

on Nassau Island & County & Province aforesaid Have Sold and do by these Presents Bargain Sell and

Convey Unto the said Joseph & John Lloyd and to their Heirs & Assigns one Certain Negro Girl Name

Phebe of about Six Years of Age During the Term of her Natural Life and for the consideration of the

aforesaid Sum I the said Joseph Conkling do for my Self My Heirs &c Alienate Resign and make over to

them the said Joseph & John Lloyd their Heirs &c all the Right Title and Intrest Which I the said Joseph

Conkling have to the said Negro Phebe to be hereafter the Sole property and Estate of the said Joseph &

John Lloyd their Heirs &c in Testimony & Confirmation whereof I have hereunto set my Hand & Seal

this Sixth Day of September A.D. 1773

Signed Sealed & Delivered Joseph Conkling (seal) In Presence of Sarah Lloyd Rebecca Woolsey

A rather surprising and upsetting document. That document led me to some interesting discoveries about the prominence of Northern slavery, and its impact on our local region in general and within the colonial world of the Anglican Church and the early Episcopal Church as it came into being after the American Revolution.

Just to give you some further context, currently the Episcopal Diocese of New York is involved in a three-year cycle to foster growing awareness of how racism has shaped our history and continues to influence the present. One thing they have acknowledged is the complacency of our church around the issue of slavery in our past and acknowledge there are many colonial-era established parishes that benefited from the institution of slavery. That was true here on our island as well as Manhattan, the Bronx and the Hudson Valley.

Slavery was introduced to New York by the Dutch East India Company when they brought 11 slaves to New Amsterdam in 1626. We also know that the British continued to import slaves to New Amsterdam and its surrounding areas once they took control in 1664. Just to give some additional context, in 1771 the population of Staten Island was 2,874 out of which 594 were slaves. (20%) Slave holders here owned one to three slaves on average; the more affluent owned closer to five to ten. Northern slaves were usually well trained in a skill or trade working in close proximity to their owners in local businesses or farms.

On Staten Island, the first Anglican Parish which is still active today was established in 1709 in present Richmondtown. The Church of St Andrew was established by the “Society for the Propagation of the Faith in Foreign Parts”. The Society was an arm of the Anglican Church and was not only in the business of spreading the faith, but in converting slaves to Christianity. Interestingly enough, The Rev. Richard Charlton, one of the rector’s at St Andrew’s who was a slave holder, and who plays an interesting role in this saga, was originally employed by Trinity Church in Manhattan to instruct enslaved people in the faith and lead them to conversion. Charlton is probably known more for his granddaughter, St Elizabeth Bayley Seton, the first native born United States Roman Catholic to be canonized into sainthood.

William Tillyer, a slave owner, donated the land for the building of St Andrew’s first small church; Elia Duxbury, another founding member, left land to the church and his slaves to Aeneas McKenzie, the first rector of St Andrew’s. McKenzie, in turn, left the slaves to his two step sons. William Harrison, the second rector, was also a slaveholder instructing in his final will that the executors “sell all..” of his remaining slaves.

As most of you are aware, we may only have the first names of slaves that were recorded in legal documents like bills of sale, abandonment declarations post 1799, and of course, wills. There is however one notable exception in this cycle with the life of one Bill Richmond, who started his life enslaved in the household of the Rev. Charlton. Bill was born, by his account, in 1763, one of a total of thirteen slaves living in the Charlton household. By all accounts he was an engaging young man who caught the attention of Lord Percy, a pro-abolition British military leader who was stationed on Staten Island and had befriended Charlton. In 1777, Charlton allowed his young slave to become part of Percy’s service party and Bill departed to England. There this young man was educated, became a cabinet maker, a well-known bear-knuckle boxer and trainer, served in the honor guard at the coronation of George IV and opened and ran both a training gym and tavern in London. He married an English woman named Mary, they had several children and Bill died in London in December 1829. He is buried at St James’ Church in Piccadilly. Here on Staten Island, Nick Dowen, a member of Christ Church and one of Bill’s strongest proponents, has been working for many years to include Bill’s name in the Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame. If you are intrigued by Bill, you can read more about Bill in Luke G. William’s Biography, “Richmond Unchained”.

Now, St Andrew’s was not the only Episcopal Church that can trace some of its roots to slave labor. I am currently assigned to the Church of the Ascension which is located on Kingsley Avenue overlooking Martlings Pond; it was established as a chapel of St Andrew’s with support from Trinity Church in lower Manhattan in the year 1802. There is a wonderful account of how David Moore, the fifteen-year-old son of the then rector of St Andrew’s Church, Richard Channing Moore, piled wooden planks on the back of a wagon and drove it down to a plot of land at Richmond Terrace and Alaska Street to lay the floors of the new chapel. He did so with the assistance of two of his father’s slaves.

Looking at the list of founding members of what was then called “Trinity Chapel” and putting their names into the Joh Jay College data base of New York Slave holders revealed some startling statistics. Of the nine founding members and rector of St Andrew’s who is the founding rector of record for Ascension, a total of thirty-six slaves are listed in the New York Census of 1800. The names of the slaveholders read like a street map of our island: Peter Mersereau (3 slaves), James Guyon (6 slaves), Joshua Wright(1 slave), Paul Micheau (6 slaves), George Barnes (2 slaves), Peter LaForge (1 slave), John VanDyke (4 slaves) and Nicholas Journeay (6 slaves). Finally, the Rev. Richard Channing Moore owned 4 slaves. He left Staten Island when he was elected Bishop of Virginia, taking his chattel possessions with him.

There were also other leaders of other Christian denominations who also owned slaves. These included the leader of the Dutch Reform Church in Port Richmond. After emancipation a former slave of his was employed by the congregation of Ascension to be their caretaker at the Alaska Street location. They provided him and his family with a salary and small home. He and his wife are buried in the cemetery located at that location.

Recently, the Church of the Ascension voted to update their online and official history to include acknowledging the contributions of enslaved people to the founding of the congregation and the building of their first building. A conversation begun.

In conclusion, it can be said, that the roots of slavery on our beloved island have remained dormant and hidden for far too long, as has the history of slavery in the New York Metropolitan area. I hope these brief presentations can serve as catalyst to begin opening up viable and important conversations between all us as we continue to learn from our past to improve the present and future for all God’s children.