Charlene Mires. Capital of the World: The Race to Host the United Nations. New York: New York University Press, 2013. Pp. 328. ISBN: 9780814707944. $30.00 cloth, $25.00 paper. There was a moment, seventy years ago, when the world’s hopes for peace centered on northern Nassau County. Before the United Nations (UN) took up residence along […]
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Mac Griswold. The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation on Long Island. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013. Pp. 480. ISBN: 9780374266295. Paper, $18.00. Mac Griswold’s book details the fascinating history of her discovery and exploration of Sylvester Manor, a relic of Long Island’s past located on Shelter Island, and family owned for […]
Continue ReadingIn this special issue of the Long Island History Journal, we highlight an impressive array of new scholarship on African American archaeology and community history on Long Island. Some of our contributors offer us a peek at their preliminary findings from ongoing works-in-progress. Others are sharing the results of years of field work and laboratory […]
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The Unkechaug Indians of Eastern Long Island: A History. By John A. Strong. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2011. 332 pp., list of illustrations, preface, appendix, notes, references, and index. $29.95 hardcover. John Strong might be called the dean of Long Island Indian studies. Over the course of his career, he has produced several excellent histories of Long Island […]
Continue ReadingIssues of cultural awareness and racial equality for African Americans have long been important topics of discussion on Long Island. Historical research has proven that blacks were tightly woven into the social fabrics of both Nassau and Suffolk Counties since the earliest settlement period. However, most of the initial fact-finding and preservation of artifacts related […]
Continue ReadingDavid Bernstein is the Director of the Institute for Long Island Archaeology and Associate Professor of Anthropology at Stony Brook University. He has conducted archaeological investigations throughout northeastern North America, lower Central America and the Caribbean. Charla E. Bolton, AICP, served for 32 years as a land use planner with the Town of Huntington, specializing […]
Continue ReadingAfrican American experiences on Long Island are tied to the earliest colonial period. They include struggles with slavery, quests for freedom and autonomy, and the building of long-lasting institutions and ways of life that have given the region its character. In addition to the in-depth case studies featured in this special issue of the Long […]
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While travelling along Middle Road in Cutchogue, New York, you may notice the large Town of Southold sanitation facility seemingly out-of-place among the agricultural fields, vineyards, and farm houses. What you will likely not see is the historic Church Lane neighborhood, which borders the sanitation facility on the north side of Middle Road. This is […]
Continue ReadingIntroduction Jupiter Hammon, acclaimed as the United States’ first published African American poet, is now recognized as a significant figure in American literature. Born in 1711, he published his first poem in 1760 and died about 1805, leaving an important body of poetry and prose. He lived most of his life on a large northern […]
Continue ReadingIntroduction Most visitors to Rock Hall Museum in Lawrence, NY, are quite surprised to learn that this stately manor was home not only to a well-to-do white family but also to one of the largest groups of enslaved Africans in a single household in what was then Queens County. Learning that the owners of the […]
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