What Happened To Seneca Village

In 1821, future Vice President and 8th President Martin Van Buren led New York Democrats in a Constitutional Convention to amend the State Constitution. The outcome was the Second Constitution of New York. Among the amendments adopted was the abolition of the land-owning restrictions for white men to vote. Also adopted was a tightening of requirements for Black men to vote - holding property with a value of $250. They also had to prove they lived in New York State, and paid taxes, for three years prior to the election.

1821 also saw the founding of "the largest and wealthiest church of colored people in (New York City), perhaps in the country." The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church rose out of Lower Manhattan's John Street Methodist Church, (est. 1766), which engaged in discrimination and segregation against Blacks, forcing several families to meet and consider their next steps. Keeping in mind that the potter's field where the AMEZ Church buried their dead was about to get repurposed into Washington Square Park, moving was becoming a necessity.

Two of the AMEZ founders were William Hamilton and James Varick. Hamilton was one of the first abolitionists in the United States, a fine orator, and suspected to be the illegitimate son of Alexander Hamilton (his mother was a freed woman of color). Varick, a Methodist minister, had been with John Street and encouraged a split in 1796, and in 1822 became AMEZ's first bishop as a debate raged within the Methodist Church over the acceptance of Black ministers. By the end of the Civil War AMEZ had over 46,000 members and was sending missionaries to the South to help the newly-freed enslaved and establish churches. Total membership in AMEZ and its satellite congregations across the country numbered over 200,000.

As AMEZ grew, so did this neighborhood near the Upper West Side, between what would have been Seventh and Eighth Avenues and 82nd and 89th Streets. Fleeing the crowded streets of Lower Manhattan, and the racism that came with it (Manhattan was a central location of the colonial slave trade), combined with the promise of land ownership, a Black shoeshiner named Andrew Williams bought three lots. Others followed suit, and in 1825 the five-acre Seneca Village was established by a group of Free Blacks, the first community of its kind in New York City. The name is rumored to have referred to anything from "Senegal" to the Roman philosopher Seneca (who advocated for individual liberty) to an Underground Railroad code word. At the time, most of New York City's residents lived in lower Manhattan, below 14th Street, so the remote north side of Manhattan had affordable land prices which were attractive to aspiring African-American landowners. There was a natural spring at Summit Rock - the highest point in what would become Central Park - that provided fresh water. There were over 250 residents of Seneca Village, over half of them property-owning Black residents. Thanks to the 1821 Constitutional Convention and the increased restrictions on how Black men could vote, Seneca Village was politically and culturally important. On July 4, 1827 New York became the first state to pass a law totally abolishing legal slavery. Seneca Village was growing. While Seneca Village contained just 1% of New York City's Black population, by 1855 it held 20% of its Black property owners and 15% of New York City's Black voters. Among these families was the Lyons family, educators and abolitionists who ran a boarding house for Black sailors that doubled as a stop on the Underground Railroad. The Lyons' daughter, Maritcha, worked in Brooklyn schools for almost 50 years and fought alongside Ida B. Wells in anti-lynching activism.

When the potato famine hit Ireland in the 1840s as political unrest in Germany unfolded, many immigrants settled in the area. Seneca Village added another AME church as well as a Catholic church. Colored School No. 3 was one of the few integrated schools in New York City. Some of the homes in Seneca Village were two-story frame houses. There was room for gardening, sometimes even a barn. At its height Seneca Village boasted 264 residents and three churches, two cemeteries, and a school. Almost a third of Seneca Village was Irish - one of the three churches was All Angels, a racially integrated congregation in which Irish immigrants worshiped alongside Free Blacks - a picture of racial harmony often unseen.

Frederick Law Olmsted was getting ready to head to Yale when he got sumac poisoning, weakening his eyesight. He went to sea for a while, became a merchant, and then turned to journalism while he settled on the family farm on the south side of Staten Island. It was as a journalist in 1850 that Olmsted traveled to England with the expressed purpose of looking at gardens, specifically Birkenhead Park near Liverpool, which had opened three years earlier and was thought to be the first publicly-funded civic park in the world. That same year, 1850, Andrew Jackson Downing, publisher of The Horticulturist, brought English architect Calvert Vaux to help him design Matthew Vassar's "Springside" estate. Olmsted would visit Downing, who had published Olmsted's essay on his visit to Birkenhead, at his estate in Newburgh, New York - 60 miles north of Manhattan, on the Hudson River. It was there that Olmsted met Vaux. Downing died in 1852 in the sinking of the steamship Henry Clay at Riverdale in The Bronx. He was in the process of designing the grounds of the Smithsonian Institution when he died. Olmsted and Vaux carried Downing's influence with them for the rest of their careers.

Newspapers rallied around the idea of a large, centrally-located municipal park within the limits of New York City, gardens similar to what you would find in London and Paris. In 1853 New York City officials began planning. The unofficial boundary of metropolitan New York City by the mid-1850s was 23rd Street, well south of Seneca Village, though New York City's population had quadrupled between 1821, the founding of AMEZ, and 1855. Initially, officials picked a spot known as Jones Wood, on the water on the Upper East Side, but white landowners had enough political pull to dissuade city officials from choosing it, asking for a further inland location. While this area of Manhattan was kinda-sorta vacant, there were over 1,600 New Yorkers living there, including the nuns of the Academy of St. Vincent, and Seneca Village. That Seneca Village was a growing Black community (and a chorus of thinly-veiled racist views that Seneca Village was on its way to becoming the next Five Points), and that the residents of Seneca Village didn't have the same political pull as the Upper East Siders, didn't help their cause. Seneca Village was cast as a "wasteland" inhabited by "squatters" who lived in "shanties." It was far enough away from metropolitan New York City that most New Yorkers didn't bother to run uptown and see for themselves.

The New York Commercial-Advertiser wrote:
Give us a park, be it central, or sidelong, here, there, anywhere...a real park, a large park.

City officials settled on a site  On July 21, 1853 - 51 weeks after Andrew Jackson Downing's death - the Central Park Act was passed, in which the New York State Legislature set aside 778 acres of land between Fifth and Eighth Avenues and 59th and 106th Streets in central Manhattan to create the nation's first major landscaped public space (it would be extended four blocks north to 110th Street a few years later), which would be known as Central Park. The "socially-conscious" types figured that a massive park such as this would contribute to the well-being of New York society, in public health and in a progressive civil society. 17,000 potential building sites were removed from the real estate market.

Most New York City newspapers cheered the removal of "the insects" from Seneca Village. The N-Word was used. Not all were in favor, though. Social reformer Hal Guernsey wrote:
Will anyone pretend the park is not a scheme to enhance the value of uptown land, and create a splendid center for fashionable life, without regard to, and even in dereliction of, the happiness of the multitude upon whose hears and hands the expenses will fall?

Still, the City had to obtain that land legally, or at least something approaching legality. Enter Eminent Domain. The Just Compensation Clause in the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides, "Nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." And "Just Compensation" indicates fair market value should be paid to the landowners. This was the justification used by New York City officials in razing Seneca Village (and other, smaller neighborhoods) to build Central Park. It didn't hurt that popular opinion had been swayed by newspaper owners and editors dead set on "modernizing" New York City, even if it meant tearing down a more modern version of America: that of a successful Black neighborhood featuring landowning freemen before the Civil War.

In June 1856, New York City mayor Fernando Wood (a Tammany Hall man who was a central figure in the Gangs of New York-famous Dead Rabbits/Bowery Boys Election Day fight) initiated a contest judged by a board headed by Washington Irving. Olmsted, already the superintendent of the Park's work force, and Vaux worked together on their plan, submitted it to the board, and won, beating out 32 other proposals.. Olmsted and Vaux called it Greensward, "for their preferred landscapes of sweeping meadows and vast water bodies designed to appear limitless, while brilliantly belying the Park's long and narrow rectangle within New York City's rigid grid."

The residents of New York City that found themselves firmly within the boundary of Central Park petitioned the courts for two years to save their homes, churches, and schools. Ultimately in 1857 the 1600 residents, including all of Seneca Village, were paid (evicted) from their homes to build Central Park. One newspaper wrote that the Seneca Village police raid would "not be forgotten...as many a brilliant and stirring fight was had during the campaign. But the supremacy of the law was upheld by the policeman's bludgeons."

Olmsted wrote that Central Park was "of great importance as the first real Park made in this country - a democratic development of the highest significance." It was one of the first examples of Urban Renewal, "reinvigorating" a Black neighborhood targeted for destruction for the purpose of the betterment of the elite. There are no known records of what happened to the eternal residents of Seneca Village's two cemeteries.

Click here for an interactive map of Seneca Village.

The Impeachment Process and How It Works

For no reason at all, I thought we'd spend a little time talking about how the process of impeaching a president actually works. A lot of my students are surprised to find that "Getting Impeached" doesn't automatically mean that a president is removed from office. It's happened twice to a sitting president - Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton - and both survived their trials in the Senate. It is extremely difficult to remove a sitting president - and that's by design.

First, the roots of the idea of impeachment are found in 14th century England. Under medieval British law, the House of Commons was the prosecutor and the House of Lords acted as the judge of Baron William Latimer, the first person to be impeached. What did Latimer do? Atlas Obscura has the story, but basically he sold a castle to the enemy, released enemy ships after taking a bribe, had the Crown repay loans that never actually existed, and kept fines that were meant to go to King Edward III. He essentially enriched himself through his position and disrespected the Crown. As a result Latimer lost his seat on the Royal Council and went to prison before King Edward III died and one of his buddies used his influence to release him. That was pretty much it for impeachment in England until the 17th century when Parliament put the 1st Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of Strafford, Archbishop William Laud, the Earl of Clarendon, and Thomas Osborne (Earl of Danby) on trial. Some were removed, some weren't, but impeachment was a deterrent against bad behavior by public officials.

Of course the British-leaning Alexander Hamilton (you know him: there's a million things he hasn't done, but just you wait...) would have known about all of this. In the 65th installment of the Federalist Papers, Hamilton outlined why having impeachment as a check against the Executive Branch was necessary:
A well-constituted court for the trial of impeachments is an object not more to be desired than difficult to be obtained in a government wholly elected. The subjects of its jurisdiction are those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust. They are not of a nature which may with peculiar propriety be denominated POLITICAL, as they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately to the society itself.

Hamilton deemed the Senate as the perfect venue for the trial as the Senate is basically the Colonial American version of the House of Lords. Hamilton:
What other body would be likely to feel CONFIDENCE ENOUGH IN ITS OWN SITUATION, to preserve, unawed and uninfluenced, the necessary impartiality between an INDIVIDUAL accused, and the REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PEOPLE, HIS ACCUSERS?

(Emphasis Hamilton's).

And so the process is virtually the same in the United States, as the only body of the government that can impeach a president is the House of Representatives, while the trial is held in the Senate. However, a number of steps must be taken in order to get from the House's impeachment to the Senate's verdict.

Today the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi (Democrat from California) announced that there would be a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. It's going to take a while to see any kind of conclusion, and here's why:

-There must first be an impeachment resolution introduced into the House of Representatives. This will presumably take place very soon.

-Then Speaker Pelosi has to direct the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, or a special committee, to hold a hearing on the resolution to decide whether to put the measure to a vote by the full House of Representatives, and when to hold such a vote.

The House Judiciary Committee is currently chaired by Jerry Nadler (D-NY). There are 23 Democratic members (including Rep. Nadler) and 16 Republican members of the committee. It would take a minimum 20 votes in favor of impeachment for the resolution to move to a full vote in the House of Representatives.

-The House of Representatives is currently controlled by the Democrats, with a 235-199 lean. There is one Independent representative - Michigan's Justin Amash, who famously left the Republican Party on July 4. A simple majority of representatives in the House is required to approve an article of impeachment, meaning it would take 218 votes in order to officially impeach the president. If 218 members of the House of Representatives vote to impeach President Trump, he's impeached. Gone, yeah? Simple, right? Haha no. Then things get Weird.

-The impeachment process then moves to the Senate, who officially "tries" President Trump to determine if he committed a crime. But "a crime" is somewhat misleading. Regard:

The first president to be impeached was Democrat Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, in 1868. Why? Well the official reason was because he removed Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton from his position without the approval of the Senate as dictated by the Tenure of Office Act which he was trying to challenge, anyway (this is a longer story for another time). Johnson was on a mission to essentially block the Radical Republicans' attempts to upend white supremacy in the American South following the Civil War.

The House charged Johnson with "disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt, and reproach of the Congress of the United States" and impeachment passed 126-47. 53 members of the 40th Congress did not vote but, there were 47 Democrats in the 40th Congress. Please note how the Democrats and Republicans switched platforms between basically this moment and the mid-20th century. Would a civilian be convicted of violating the Tenure of Office Act? I don't think a civilian can be charged with violating the Tenure of Office Act.

-Anyway, there is no set procedure by the Senate for the trial of the President. Those details are determined by the Senate leadership. The Senate currently has a Republican majority by a 53-45 margin.

-Members of the House of Representatives are still involved in the trial, even though it takes place in the Senate, serving as "managers" like prosecutors would do, presenting evidence in a normal criminal trial.

-President Trump would have special counsel represent him in the trial with John Roberts, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, presiding over the trial.

-The actual proceedings look like an actual criminal trial, but with the Senate as the jury. After closing arguments Senators can retire to deliberate and reconvene to vote "Guilty" or "Not Guilty." It takes a two-thirds majority of the Senate (67 Senators) voting "Guilty" in order to convict. If 67+ Senators vote "Guilty," then the president is removed from office and the vice president (Mike Pence) is sworn in as president.

-Again, Republicans enjoy a 53-45 advantage over the Democrats, with two Independent senators: Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Both caucus with the Democrats. In order to remove President Trump from office, it would take all 45 Democratic senators plus both Independents (which isn't a stretch) plus twenty Republican senators to vote "Guilty."

How long will this whole [waves hands around head] thing take?

We only have two real precedents to go by here: Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. Richard Nixon resigned the presidency before the House of Representatives could vote to impeach over the Watergate scandal.

President Andrew Johnson went from dismissing Secretary Edwin Stanton on February 21, 1868 to being formally impeached on February 24. The trial began on March 4, 1868 - exactly one year before the winner of the 1868 presidential election would be inaugurated - and lasted eleven weeks, with Johnson escaping "conviction" on May 16 by one vote. Johnson did not seek reelection in 1868. This entire process took 83 days.

The House of Representatives began impeachment proceedings into President Bill Clinton (whose impeachment story is much more Rated R and, thus, interesting, and is definitely for another time) on October 8, 1998 - almost precisely in the middle of Clinton's second term - and formally voted to impeach Clinton on December 19, 1998. The actual trial in the Senate for Clinton was much quicker than it was for President Johnson. Clinton's trial began on January 7, 1999 and ended with his acquittal on February 12. All 45 Democratic senators voted Not Guilty, along with ten Republican senators. Clinton's removal failed by 22 out of 100 votes. From start to finish this process took 128 days. But there were some holidays in there.

Who knows how long it will take this time around? Months, likely, especially as 2020 is an election year.