The Denial Method of Historiography?
From Courier Life Publications
05/26/2007
Historian gives credence to underground Railroad claims
By Stephen Witt
A key city historian offered his views last week on the Duffield Street abolitionist houses and appears to have landed on the side of preservationists.
Christopher Moore, a curator at Harlem’s Schomburg Center, and regarded as one of the city’s foremost African-American historians, is also a member of the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC).
His name reportedly came up at the May 1 City Council hearing regarding the city’s plans to condemn and demolish the Duffield Houses and replace it with 1.5-acres of open space and underground parking for 750 cars.
Preservationists have argued that the houses, located at 225, 231, 235, 223, 227 and 233 Duffield and 436 Gold streets, are linked to the Underground Railroad and Abolitionist Movement, and should be preserved.
The city’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) hired the consulting firm, AKRF, to research the accuracy of these arguments.
The AKRF report concluded that there is not enough evidence to support the contention that the buildings, 223-235 Duffield, were a part of the network of people who helped fugitive slaves find freedom.
“The information on the properties, owners, and residents identified through the research process and the oral tradition collection effort did not conclusively document the presence of Underground Railroad activity,” the report states.
AKRF reportedly said Moore was one of the people they interviewed in preparing the report, which included a 12-person peer review committee, oral histories, architectural surveys, outreach to more than 230 individuals, and research into hundreds of documents at institutions, agencies, and organizations.
However, at the City Council hearing, AKRF reportedly backtracked and said they never actually spoke with Moore.
Moore spoke via email exclusively with this newspaper on the conditions that he is speaking as a historian and not an LPC commissioner.
Additionally, Moore said he has no comment, specifically, about the AKRF report.
“Finding six houses on Duffield Street [one owned by anti-slavery activist Harriet Truesdale], all connected by an exterior front-yard trench that could have provided passage from house to house [a use asserted by the oral traditions of those who lived in the homes], in a neighborhood where Walt Whitman once published an abolitionist newspaper; an African American church (Bridge Street African Wesleyan Methodist Church), served as a known Underground Railroad station; a college (Polytechnic University) was founded by abolitionist John Howard Raymond; in a city (Brooklyn) which was one of the nation’s most important hubs of the Abolitionist and Underground Railroad movements—and not conclude the likelihood of historic value of these houses—is a manner of historic reasoning that I do not share,” said Moore.
“It is, uncomfortably, too close to the denial method of historiography,” he added.
Moore’s comments came a day after the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) held public condemnation hearings concerning the houses.
Downtown Brooklyn Partnership President Joe Chan said the property, located in what is known as Willoughby Square, has always been the centerpiece of the Downtown Brooklyn Plan, and is an important incentive to attract private investment.
“The city government’s commitment to create Willoughby Square has led to the planned development of 500 new hotel rooms, 1,000 units of mixed income housing, more than 500,000 square feet of retail space and at least 125,000 square feet of new office space,” said Chan.
“We expect nearly 3,000 construction jobs and 1,200 permanent jobs as a result,” he added.
Chan continued, “Acquisition of property is critical and necessary for Willoughby Square to move forward—and without Willoughby Square, much of this new investment, and therefore businesses, jobs and housing, will not happen.”
But several at the hearing, which drew about 50 people, according to EDC estimates, continue to say demolishing the houses is like destroying a key piece of a sordid chapter of American history.
“It is utterly outrageous that the city is attempting to condemn houses that form crucial parts of American and black history to put up a parking garage that can be better placed beneath the hotel itself,” said Joy Chatel, owner of 227 Duffield Street, where Truesdale once lived.
Chatel said her house should become a museum for those seeking to learn about the Underground Railroad and the Abolitionist Movement.
“Our children need to walk in the same spaces our ancestors walked in. They need to be able to walk in the house that the Truesdales’ risked their lives to save freedom seekers,” said Chatel.
EDC spokesperson Janel Patterson said the research done by AKRF on the Duffield Street Houses over the past two years represents one of the most comprehensive and thorough analytical efforts ever conducted on Underground Railroad activity at a single site.
“Although the report did not confirm a history of Underground Railroad activity at the sites in question, we look forward to working with members of the City Council to determine how to commemorate the substantial activity that occurred within the greater Downtown Brooklyn neighborhood,” she said.
Moore responded that the anti-slavery and Abolitionist Movement was championed in the city and dozens of black and white leaders in Manhattan and Brooklyn need to be recognized.
Among these Brooklyn leaders, he named, were Henry Ward Beecher, Arthur and Lewis Tappan, Rev. J.W.C. Pennington, and Rev. Henry Highland Garnett.
“Memorialization should be one part of the city’s plan. A museum of the Underground Railroad opened a few years ago in Cincinnati,” said Moore.
“I would argue that Brooklyn and New York City are equally, if not more, deserving of a museum to honor the Abolitionist Movement and the Underground Railroad,” he added.
– Gary Buiso contributed to this story
©Courier-Life Publications 2007