Day Five A Walking Tour of the City with Ed O’Donnell
Historian, professor, storyteller and author Ed O’Donnell narrated a colonial history of New York today. His manner was easy going, fascinating and informative. As he began he painted a picture of the city not often told. Unlike the fictitious stereotypical “sale of New York”, Ed provided a researched history. He recommended Lies My Teacher told me. What fertile ground for critical thinking exercises. How do you know what you know?
Slavery in Colonial New York
Prior to the 1750s New York had the largest slave population. Wall Street had the largest slave trade, and New York had a hidden graveyard of 20,000 African Americans, some 450 remains found 17 feet below ground . Today is recognized, honored and memorialized at the African Burial Ground National Monument.
Tammany Hall Tweed Hall Political Machines and the Gangs of New York
Another colorful story unearthed by Ed was Tweed Hall, aka City Hall. This beautiful structure holds the story of patronage and political machines illustrated by the movie The Gangs of New York. David McCullough did an outstanding job explaining the system in his story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. Tweed’s machine would simple double the price and keep half. This allowed Tweed’s machine to provide kickbacks and picnic’s to harvest the immigrant vote. Amazingly at one point some 24 city elders were in various stages of jail and release.
Idea: Political machines are something students could illustrate in their own designs. They can build a “political machine” by sketching a machine and including in the machine terms such as graft, kickbacks, patronage, boss, hierarchy, corruption, immigrants, enfranchisment. These political cartoon type designs could allow for students to be creative with this concept.
1811-1825- A Time of Internal Improvements- big government?
Internal improvements grew New York City, a microcosm of the United States. Internal improvements provided the infrastructure to improve transportation, trade, commerce, and our economy. How to pay for such things? As a state-Taxes? As a nation-Tariffs? Taxes?These issues are alive today. A discussion at what the costs and benefits of taxes were then and now is a great way to engage students and allow them to debate issues of large and small government. Massive public works projects enabled the city to flourish and grow- were the costs worth it? How can this apply to today? I love to ask my students what they are willing to spend their tax dollars on and internal improvements provide a great framework for the discussion of big vs small government. Is government the problem? The solution? New York provides some examples of what big government did and does provide.
1811-Grid plan laid out
1811-City Hall built
1814- Ferry to Brooklyn Heights opens allows for first suburb
1817-Erie Canal Begins
1818-New York Stock Exchange
1825- Erie Canal opens and NYC rockets ahead of the competition
The Commons
The park adjacent to City Hall was once the site of the commons where militia drilled, hangings took place in public, proclamations were read and cows could graze. It was here that the Sons of Liberty put up poles protesting the Stamp Act.
New York had been the capital but Hamilton and Jefferson struck a deal that would move the capital southward in exchange for the acceptance of Hamilton’s financial plan for the country which included a central bank.
New York is the capital of commerce and what better place to unveil the Cathedral of Commerce, the Woolworth building in 1913? This 55 story building kept five floors for Woolworths and the rest, as Ed put it, was a real estate money making machine as well as an ad for the company.
Geez Sheila,
Were you taking notes?