Weeksville, NY Was One of Longest Surviving Free Black Communities

Throughout the 1800s, free Black settlements sprang up all across the country in Virginia, Oklahoma, New York, Florida and Pennsylvania.

Some states had even abolished slavery years prior to Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. New York ended slavery in 1827.

Among those Black settlements was Weeksville, believed to have been founded on this day in 1838, according to the African American Registry. Located in Brooklyn on mostly farmland, Weeksville provided a place of refuge for Black New Yorkers.

Weeksville boasted a higher percentage of property owners than any other free Black settlement. By 1870, the community included vital institutions like churches, a school, an orphanage and a newspaper.

All this and more on “Prime.”

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