20; as cited in White, 1991). In 1817, a law passed
that would emancipate enslaved peoples; however,
it was only to be effective in 1827 (White, 1991).
Seneca Village
During and following the emancipation of enslaved
peoples in New York City, racial tensions rose (Vox, 2020,
January 20). Free Black residents of New York began to
purchase plots of land in Uptown, between 82
nd
and 89
th
streets along Eight Avenue. This became known as the
community of Seneca Village, growing to around 300
members and including three churches, schools, and a
cemetery (Jaynes, 2005; Wall & Rothschild, 2011). Seneca
Village offered an affordable place to live in an area that
was considered to be safer from racial tensions than
other parts of New York City. Through land ownership,
Black men could vote under voting laws of the time.
Later, German and Irish immigrants moved into Seneca
Village (Vox, 2020, January 20; Wall & Rothschild,
2011). Records from the time period highlight coex-
istence of different demographics within the region,
apparently absent of racial confrontation.
Seneca Village was considered a middle class
neighborhood (Wall & Rothschild, 2011).
Creation of Central Park
In 1853, when land was zoned for Central Park, it included
Seneca Village and additional areas of residential prop-
erties. This presented an issue: New York City would
have to seize domain of the land for the creation of the
park. Newspapers, which we know to be a driving force
in citizen perception of urban forestry and topics of
city planning, began to weigh in on the issue of Seneca
Village (Jaynes, 2005). The papers attempted to under-
score the necessity of the removal of these residential
areas on the premise that they were low-income areas
with derelict conditions, despite evidence that the res-
idents of Seneca Village were middle class and well
educated. According to Jaynes (2005), Seneca Village's
residents were described by the newspapers as "squat-
ters" and "bloodsuckers" living in a "shantytown."
When New York City seized the land in and around
Seneca Village through the right of eminent domain, land-
owners were compensated for their loses, albeit many
felt the compensation was inadequate relative to >>
SmartHistory produced a superb video and conversation between
archeologist Dr. Diana Wall and art historian Dr. Steven Zucker
about Seneca Village, the predominantly Black community that
was razed in the process of creating Central Park.
urban-forestry.com 13
