Themes in American History

Immigration had important effects on the economic life, housing and culture of cities. One of the similarities between New York City and Boston is by the 1850s, more than half of the residents were foreign born(Chudacoff 64). On the other hand, in the 1820s and 1830s, Boston established free elementary schools in 1818, New York followed in 1832(Chudacoff 52).

Another similarities of these two cities are until the 1850s, the settled areas of even the largest cities, such as New York and Boston, rarely extended beyond the two miles from the city center—the average distance a person can walk in half an hour. Thus historians have labeled this early urban configuration the “walking city” because of its size and major mode of conveyance(Chudacoff 57-58). Moreover, an almost annual excess of new arrivals over those departing doubled and tripled populations of most established cities between 1840 and 1850. Crowding in settled areas swelled. By 1850 there were 135.6 persons per acre in New York, while 82.7 in Boston(Chudacoff 59).

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Most of American great cities were built near waterfront, which were true to both Philadelphia and New York. The completion of Erie Canal in 1825 created connection for New York City to the western markets. It linked the Hudson River to the Great Lake (Chudacoff 44). On the other hand, as a response to New York City, Philadelphia started its construction of transportation. The Pennsylvania railroads were built. One similarity of the two cities is that they were both the most populated cities from 1830 to 1860, and their population increased dramatically during the years (Chudacoff 60).

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I would like to compare New York City with Charleston, South Carolina because it was the only city which had higher number of slaves in proportion to urban population than New York at the end of 18^th century. The great number of slaves in Charleston was caused by expansion of cotton production, during the Antebellum period, which relied heavily on slave labor.

Both cities were seaports, so in most cases that was the first stop for the enslaved people who arrived to the United States. Life of the busy Charleston seaport provide unique opportunists, which were not available to people who worked on plantations. In New York as well as Charleston, slaves could “enjoy” urban life mostly because they live away from their masters supervision. They had obligation only to bring certain amount of money they made.

While slavery in New York starts to decreasing in early 1800s due to Gradual Emancipation Law, Charleston kept people enslaved for much longer period. According to New York Historical Society in 1828 “most New York slaves had already been freed.” In contrary, in 1856, Charleston’s city ordinance prohibited the practice of public auctions of slaves which initiated opening of special sales room, yards and marts. One of them was called The Old Slave Mart and “when sales were held in the shed, slaves stood on auction tables, three feet high and ten feet long, placed lengthwise so slave owners could pass by them during the auction” (nps.gov.) Slaves auction at the Old Slave Marts ends in 1862. This huge time disproportion, shows how slavery institution were approached differently in different parts in the county.

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