HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY – FALL 2024 VIDEOS

Lead Coordinator: Ilene Winkler

History of New York City is a history and philosophy course that explores significant events, people, and issues from the city’s past.

NOTE: To view a video click on the link below its description. Once the video window comes up (in a new tab), click on the start button to begin.

HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY
The Real Native New Yorkers

Presenter: Sandra Abramson
Presentation Date: September 3, 2024

What was Lenapehoking — our area — like in 1491? Who lived here and what did they do? What happened to them when the Dutch arrived in their homeland? How did their lives change? What is Lenapehoking like now and what are the Lenapes who live here doing to memorialize and reclaim their homeland? Join us to discover these amazing people.

HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY
How New Amsterdam Became New York

Presenter: Michael Wellner
Presentation Date: September 17, 2024

Do you know that NY City’s official colors are orange and blue, and not the red and white that you might think of befitting a former English colony? Are you aware that the Dutch ruled New York for only forty years, from 1624 to 1664, but their influence prevails right up to this day? Please join us as we review the somewhat brief history of the Dutch founding of New Amsterdam, and the incredible, long-lasting (400 years after all!) effect they have had on our wonderful, diverse and generally very tolerant city.

HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY
Slavery in New York before the Revolution

Presenter: Susannah Falk Lewis
Presentation Date: October 1, 2024

In the last class on New York history, we learned how the Dutch landed in what is now Manhattan. Unlike settlers in New England, they were traders, seekers of wealth, not settlers. Their primary source of trading profit was beaver fur. But their other source, not generally known, was trading African people for profit with Dutch, English and French traders. Despite the Dutch reputation of tolerance, the Dutch also owned slaves.

We will ask how did Black people, both free and enslaved, live? What was their status? What brought about slave uprisings and how did the Dutch and English colonists deal with them?

We will also take a “deep dive” into the life of Phyllis Wheatley, the first African American poet of the colonial era. Though she lived in Boston, she embodied the issues facing the colonists. And, finally, we will think about the morality of slavery in the light of fighting for liberty from England.

HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY
The English Colony

Presenter: Larry Shapiro
Presentation Date: October 15, 2024

“Our chiefest unhappyness here is too great a mixture of nations, and English the least part.” (A settler’s complaint.) After the renaming of New Amsterdam for its new landlord, The Duke of York, the English minority in New York City faced two challenges: how to wrest a profit from a colony that had under-performed for the Dutch, and how to turn a port town where 18 languages were spoken into a place where English settlers would feel at home. Let’s discuss how that turned out, and add this question: why did their successes lead to estrangement and a burgeoning independence movement?

HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY
From the Battery to the Wall

Presenter: Paul Golomb
Presentation Date: October 29, 2024

In a departure for New York’s history, this presentation will focus on the original (European) settlement on Manhattan, covering the changes and developments from the Dutch outpost to today; a virtual walking tour of Quest’s neighborhood.

HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY
New York City During the American Revolution

Presenter: Ilene Winkler
Presentation Date: November 12, 2024

Brooklynites, do you know you live on the site of the biggest battle of the Revolutionary War? Staten Islanders, do you know your borough was a Tory and British army stronghold? Manhattanites, do you know your city was nearly destroyed by a brutal British occupation that lasted most of the war? Everyone, come learn about New York’s unique role in the war for American independence and celebrate President Washington’s triumphant entrance into our beloved city.

HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY
Class Canceled

Presentation Date: December 3, 2024

Class canceled.