This program has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the humanities.
Additional funding provided by TD Bank.
In 2023, the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum will host a series of 5 panel discussions in Upper Manhattan. The panels will explore topics such as forced removal of indigenous people, Dutch colonization, enslaved labor, and immigration.
In 2024, the museum will host a series of community dialogues to build on the panel discussions in 2023. These dialogues will discuss issues that are important in today’s social and political climate. We hope this project will allow members of the community to connect with each other, resulting in an even more unified community than the one that already exists in Inwood.
2023 Panel Presentations
Culture and Connection in Early New York
Date: Saturday March 11th, 2023 at 2PM
Location: Fordham University Lincoln Center, 140 West 62nd Street
No registration required to attend in person. If you would like to attend virtually, please register here.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the cultures and empires bordering the Atlantic ocean were defined by trade, colonization, slavery, and resistance. Chaired by Andrea Mosterman, this panel explores the shores of the Atlantic and the Caribbean as a meeting place for Africans, Europeans, and Native Americans. Our panelists will explore slavery in the Hudson Valley, relations between the Dutch and indigenous peoples, Dutch connections to the Caribbean, and the role of Dutch women in New Amsterdam.
Indigenous Communities of Greater New York
Date: Saturday April 1st, 2023 at 2PM
Location: Holy Trinity Church Inwood
No registration required to attend in person. If you would like to attend virtually, please register here.
The New York metropolitan area has yet to reckon with its history of marginalizing indigenous people – specifically the Delaware and Algonquin-speaking communities of the Northeast and Long Island. Chaired by Chritsian Aynne Crouch (Bard College), this panel casts a light on the practices, customs, and traditions of indigenous people. This will include a discussion of diaspora, as many of these communities were forced north, east, or west, as a result of the encroachment from European colonists and American migrants.
The Atlantic Slave Trade in New York
Date: Thursday April 20th, 2023 at 6:00PM
Location: PS 098
No registration required to attend in person. If you would like to attend virtually, please register here.
Although most New Yorkers do not recognize the city as a historic slave marketplace, the seaport did act as the western endpoint of the Middle Passage for tens of thousands of people brought to the New World against their will. Similar to much of the colonial North, the Dyckman family was plugged into the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade that forcefully relocated 12.5 million West Africans to the New World.
Slavery in Greater New York
Date: Saturday May 6th, 2023 at 2PM
Location: Hispanic Society Museum and Library
No registration required to attend in person. If you would like to attend virtually, please register here.
Chaired by Dr. Jennifer Anderson (Stony Brook University), this panel examines the lives of enslaved people in New York, Long Island, and the Hudson Valley. Past scholarship has primarily focused on the seaport of lower Manhattan and the labor routines that developed around an urban environment. This panel casts a larger net, inserting the Hudson Valley plantations and the slaveholders of Long Island into this dialogue of slavery in the North.
Remembering Slavery and Freedom in New York City
Date: Thursday June 8th, 2023 at 6PM
Location: P.S. 098 School
No registration required to attend in person. If you would like to attend virtually, please register here.
Led by Peggy King Jorde, this conversation will center on the Inwood Slave Burial Ground, located several blocks from the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum. This panel focuses on the legacies of slavery in New York City, and how the forced labor regime in remembered and commemorated. Dr. Jorde will speak on her work with the New York Slave Burial Ground located in lower Manhattan, and her recent efforts with the Historic Districts Council in the Bowery.
Meet Our Panelists!