- 1700s: NYC had more slaves than any other city except Charleston, South Carolina.
- Early 1800s: An opponent of abolitionism, criminal judge Richard Riker (family owned Rikers Island Jail) abused the Fugitive Slave Act to send free blacks South into slavery (similar to events in movie 12 Years A Slave).
- Although the City acquired Rikers jail in 1884, it’s currently viewed as one of the nation’s cruelest (dilapidated conditions, warehousing mostly poor blacks/latinos awaiting trial).
- Many NYC buildings, banks and landmarks are named after slaveowners.
