New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Jamaica

Four New Yorkers Being Inducted into Abolition Hall of Fame

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National Abolition Hall of Fame and MuseumThe institution of race-based slavery in what is now New York dates to 1627 when 22 enslaved Africans were brought to New Amsterdam (now New York City) by the Dutch West Indies Company. From that day forward some Americans opposed slavery and sought its abolition.

The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Madison County, NY, has announced four abolitionists will be inducted this fall: Black Americans William Wells Brown and Samuel Ringgold Ward, and also William and John Jay II – descendants of American Patriot John Jay. [Read more…] about Four New Yorkers Being Inducted into Abolition Hall of Fame

Coffee: A Commodity That Transformed Early America

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Coffee Nation: How One Commodity Transformed the Early United StatesHave you ever wondered why so many Americans drink coffee in the morning? In early America, colonists drank a lot of coffee — and less tea that we usually think. Coffee is among the most common goods traded and consumed worldwide, and so omnipresent its popularity is often taken for granted.

But even everyday habits have a history. When and why coffee become part of North American daily life is at the center of the book Coffee Nation: How One Commodity Transformed the Early United States (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2025). [Read more…] about Coffee: A Commodity That Transformed Early America

Mixed-Race Britons & the Atlantic Family

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ben_franklins_worldWho do we count as family? It a relative was born in a foreign place and one of their parents was of a different race? Would they count as family?

Eighteenth-century Britons asked themselves these questions. As we might suspect, their answers varied by time and whether they lived in Great Britain, North America, or the Caribbean. [Read more…] about Mixed-Race Britons & the Atlantic Family

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