REMARKS
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams advocates for bill to mark site of NYC's first slave market
0:39:34
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147 sec
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams addresses the NYC City Council to advocate for his bill, Intro 833-A, which would place a sign at Pearl and Wall Street marking the location of New York City's first slave market in 1711.
He emphasizes the importance of acknowledging this history and its lasting impacts on the city.
- Williams first introduced this bill in 2014 when he was a council member
- He highlights the connection between historical slavery and current economic disparities
- The bill aims to educate the public and pay respects to the descendants of enslaved people
Jumaane Williams
0:39:34
Thank you so much, and thanks so much to speaker Adams, Chair Williams, and members of the council for allowing the opportunity to speak and support of this bill.
0:39:43
During today's stated meeting, asking my college to support my bill until 8:33 a, which would ensure that a sign is placed at Pearl And Wall Street, the location of the 1st slave trade in 1711.
0:39:53
The sign will also include a description that describes the role of the slave market in the city's economy, the role of cities government and establishing the market and the use of the market in the sale of African indigenous persons.
0:40:04
I first introduced this bill in 2014 when I was a member in this body, but the legislation never came to a vote.
0:40:09
The administration at the time placed a sign in Manhattan Park on the corner of Wall And Water Street.
0:40:14
It has been 10 years since it was installed.
0:40:16
And while I'm grateful that the sign was placed con conveying our history, it is not at the current location.
0:40:22
In 2022, 2 of my staffers went to the intersection of Wall And Water Street to see the sign They encountered a senior citizen standing in front of the the place they were told when they saw a documentary on the New York slave trade on Manhattan network neighborhood network.
0:40:36
She went searching for the sign on 3 separate occasions and found it that day.
0:40:41
She had been looking at the correct she had been looking at the correct location where there was no sign.
0:40:45
The law of America was born from the balance and greed of human chattel slavery.
0:40:49
The emancipation proclamation along with the passage of the 13th amendment 1865 began to dismantle the institution of Chavez labor in America, but an equity and resources hardly ended there from the adoption of a black hose during the reconstruction to the implementation of Jim Crow Laws to the fight against the living minimum wage We can directly see the ways this violence and deliberate exclusion from economic safety has provided prosperity to our city today.
0:41:11
At this very moment, Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Tennessee, and others introduced legislation to not teach this history.
0:41:17
It is critical that people see the connection between what has happened today and what happened at this market.
0:41:22
Enslaved Africans were emancipated on paper, but shared no part of the wealth land and the institution their labor had financing created.
0:41:29
These structures have never been adequately addressed.
0:41:31
We sometimes talk about the enslavement in America as just part of our past, but communities still feel the crippling generational effects of the brutal violence that built the wealth of the financial institutions located on Wall Street.
0:41:42
Passing legislation will allow us to city this city to acknowledge and slave win, women, and children, and pay our respects to the descendants.
0:41:49
I would like to thank those who work in the bill, Kaye Bain, my legislative directive in 2014, and a historian Christopher Cobb, who's the president here today, who brought to my attention.
Amanda FarÃas
0:41:57
Your time has
Jumaane Williams
0:41:58
And my staff Can I ask to sign on to intro 279-242-4888?