July 5, 1827 ~ A Lesser Known Celebration of Emancipation
Hope Infusion Newsletter • July 5th Edition
New York City once had more slaves than any colonial city except Charleston. That paradigm changed due to the anti-slavery influence of the Quakers. Their efforts gained traction leading to establishment of the first anti-slavery club in 1785 and gathering further steam when the New York legislature passed a gradual emancipation law in 1799.
Under this law children born to slave women after July 4, 1799, were freed, AFTER at least 20 years of indentured servitude. Males were freed at 28, females at 25.
Unrestricted freedom took effect 28 years later, on July 4, 1827, with the enactment of a new emancipation law.
Blacks wanted to celebrate this momentous shift, but were concerned that a celebration parade held on the Fourth of July would be disrupted. It was quite common for Blacks to be attacked by white hecklers on public holidays.
They chose, instead, to celebrate the new law on the day after. So on July 5, 1827, 4,000 blacks marched along Broadway, preceded by an honor guard on horseback and a grand marshal carrying a drawn sword.
The parade route led to the African Zion Church, where abolitionist William Hamilton declared, "This day we stand redeemed from a bitter thralldom."
Celebrations were held by Blacks around New York State, and extended to blacks in Boston and Philadelphia who joined in the joyful commemoration.
Frederick Douglass's famed 1852 speech: “What to the Slave is the 4th of July?”, and the 1827 celebration of slavery's end in the state of New York both took place on the fifth of July rather than the fourth.