A television news producer called the other day to ask about the Plain Sight Project, a joint effort with the East Hampton Library and a changing cast of volunteers to identify and document the enslaved people who lived on the East End of Long Island from the establishment of the first English towns in 1640 to about 1830, when the last known enslaved person here would have been freed. The plan is for a spot about the project to appear on NBC 4 News out of New York City on Monday, the first day of Black History Month.
I manage the project with Donnamarie Barnes of Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island, itself to be featured on NBC 4 later in February. During the past 10 months, we have been more than gratified by invitations to speak from various organizations, including Temple Adas Israel in Sag Harbor, Guild Hall, and the Parrish Art Museum. Our objective is to dispel the myth that slavery did not exist in the North.
We tell people in their own communities to ask, “Was there slavery here and who were the enslaved?” Even asking can open eyes, as we have learned since getting started on this effort in 2017.
When we began our research, as far as I knew there had been at most a handful of the enslaved in East Hampton. There were two graves with markers indicating that the inhabitants had endured bondage. The Gardiners might have held enslaved people, but that was about it. How wrong I was. An intern quickly found the names of or clues about nearly 300 enslaved people in East Hampton alone. Which makes sense when you learn that slavery existed here for almost 180 years. King Cotton, the Southern plantation era of American history still most associated with slavery, lasted only a few decades.