Themes in American History

Throughout the  19th century, the primary occupation of people living in Kentucky was farming whereas for New Yorkers was manufacturing and constructing. All the dirty and hard works like producing hemp, and processing tobacco were attended to by slaves. The number of slaves appeared  to relate to the production of market-oriented crops and not to the amount of land owned and farmed. Also the small farming tasks were performed by slaves.Although  slaves were free and not owned, they had been given the most difficult tasks than any others. In contrast to kentucky, New York was one of the developed city where prominent Americans used to live there. As there were  many renowned individual living in the city, they  were able to import and own the slaves even just to make their standard in the society.

The demand for slaves were mainly for manufacturing, construction, and other household works. In contrast to New York, between 1850-1860 Kentucky used to export more slaves than did any other states (wikipedia ,”Slaves in Kentucky”). African American slaves used to be exported through Tennessee and Mississippi river from kentucky to New York and other states. During 19th century as all people living there were engaged to farming and crop production, there were no people owning any slaves. There was no demand for slaves whereas in New York, the demand was higher for the purpose of manufacturing, construction etc. The business was mostly depending on the slavery trade.

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New Orleans and New York have their share of differences and similarities. The most obvious difference is that one is a city from the North while the other is a city from the South.  Each has it’s own different lifestyle. With the North being more notable for freedom for slaves and industrial services, the South was none for its intolerance towards slave freedom and their agriculturalist lifestyle. For New Orleans, this wasn’t held completely true. New Orleans “resembled northern counterparts in their commercial functions and social complexity” ( Chudacoff and Smith page 72) Although they were one of the few cities that had commercial functions, the business people relied heavily on the Northern capital and markets. This big one similarity, one difference between New Orleans and New York was that in New York diversity was well known and in a sense accepted. In New Orleans the French speaking people and the English speaking people had to be divided in the city “between a French quarter and an American Quarter, separated by a street with a broad medican called the Neutral Zone” (Chudacoff and Smith page 67) The diverse population in New York was in a sense mixed weren’t living in their own sections as was the case in New Orleans.

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Slavery existed both in New York and in Delaware. Both of these places turned to Africa to get hold of slaves but Delaware was pushed out by the more aggressive Europeans. Delaware eventually turned to Indian slaves, but did not have much success due to diseases and migration that left the land free of Indians. African slavery was not big until Peter Stuyvesant took over. By reclaiming the Delaware Bay, African slaves were brought across the Atlantic to work on the new colony, Delaware.  By 1776, the Revolutionary War disrupted the economy, so slaves were not as important anymore, and made slave trading and slave owning unprofitable. By 1810, 78 percent of Delaware’s blacks were free while only 63 percent was free in New York. In Delaware, slaves sold out of the states were automatically declared freed, and slave ships were barred from its ports. The Revolutionary War had an impact on slavery on both of these colonies. There was a huge decrease in the amount of slaves after the war. Unlike the other northern states such as New York, the freeing of black slaves have been done voluntarily and not with legal requirements (www.slavenorth.com).

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Commercialization and Urban expansion made a huge impact to American cities, such as New York City and Philadelphia. All American cities could be characterized by their compactness (Chudacoff 65). After 1810 slaves that were freed by the Gradual Manumission act began to increase the free African-American population in the city. The city became the center of free African-American life. They were drawn to cities because of higher chance of employment and a higher concentration of free African Americans. There is a greater chance to find an acceptable marriage partner to establish a family, and participate in activities of African churches, schools, Fraternal societies, and organizations (Chudacoff 69).

Afican-American Scubwoman

In New York City, freed slaves were more likely to have a better skill than freed slaves in Philadelphia, because  New York artisans had relied heavily on slave labor throughout the eighteenth century and because many of the mulatto had skills trades (Chudacoff 70). However, in both cities, the majority of free African-American Population were women and main jobs were a domestic servants, laundresses, produce sellers, and prostitutes.

Domestic work was the most common form of job done by urban black woman.

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New York City was a city port that accepted many immigrants. By the 1850’s more than half the residents of New York were foreign born (Chudacoff pg.64). San Francisco became part of the United States in 1848 and soon after came the Gold Rush. San Francisco also accepted many immigrants but it seems that the Chinese was the main fastest growing group of people. White miners in the gold fields began to ask the state protection from competitive Chinese miners. San Francisco then imposed tax on “foreign” miners to encourage the Chinese to leave (Chudacoof pg.67). A similar action was taken on freed slaves that lived in New York and other cities; freed slaves had to pay an annual tax, even though they were “free.”

European Immigrants Arriving in New York, 1850's

Chinese Miners in San Francisco

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Compare Richmond to New York City, one difference is that the population of free black increased fourfold between 1790 and 1810. However, for New York City, the population of free black increasing started by 1810, increased even more after the Gradual Manumission Act (Chudacoff 60).

On the other hand, both cities remained a larger proportion of slaves in 1860. Because of the increasing of unskilled white laborers and selling slaves to the plantations. The number of slaves in the southern cities decreased largely. Only in Richmond, the slave manpower demand of processing iron and tobacco kept the population of slaves basically unchanged in 1860 (Chudacoff 64). 

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I think in theory the idea of a virtual museum is a great tool in navigating through history. Having that type of access to the past is not only culturally enriching but its definitely shows us how far we’ve come in technological advancements. However, the “Lost Museum” is a poor representation of what a virtual museum should be. The navigation part is the worst part about the museum. The museum has great potential but learning how to use the zoom in/out, pan left/right tool is disconcerting. I grew impatient and nearly gave up.

I did however find it quite clever that they included the rodent on the 2nd floor that happens to run pass your feet when you open the drawer. When opening the drawer I seen the image below that was pretty interesting to me. This slave was exhibited to be 161 yrs old when the autopsy proved her to be only 80 when she died. Barnum still went on telling people that it was a hoax and she was still alive somewhere. haha!

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