Black Gotham Stories

As the examples of Downing and Toussaint suggest, not all black New Yorkers were confined to the Five Points.  Indeed, in contrast to the “Harlem model” of a distinct, segregated community, blacks were dispersed throughout the city. 

In the city’s earliest years, geographic segregation between rich and poor, white and black had been difficult to maintain.  Merchants’ and tradesmen’s residential and work places often occupied the same premises, and employees lived with them or close by.  Hence, neighborhoods were not separated into residential and industrial areas; nor were they segregated according to class, race, or ethnicity. 

Although blacks congregated in the Five Points area, their homes also extended eastward to the East River in the Fourth Ward, and West toward the Hudson River in the Fifth Ward--today's neighborhoods of Tribeca and Greenwich Village.  In these areas, they mingled with the city’s non-black population as well.  With the passage of time, elite families gradually began moving their homes away from the downtown commercial area to more pleasant surroundings, first to Bowling Green then West to Greenwich Street and St. Johns Park, and North up Broadway, and finally “above Bleecker.” 

Yet, black and whites still found themselves in close proximity to one another.  The Fifth Ward, for example, was home both to whites of varying social classes and to blacks.  Downtown, the residences of many white merchants and tradesmen remained within short walking distance of the city’s commercial centers—around Pearl and Fulton Streets, for example—with their mixed populations.  Work places, markets--like Franklin Market--ferry terminals, and other public spaces brought together Gothamites of all backgrounds—rich and poor, native and immigrant, Irish and German, black and white.