We think of the South when we talk about American slavery. In 1703, New York City ranked second in the colonies by percentage of enslaved population — behind only Charleston.

More than 42 percent of households in the city held slaves.

It started in 1626, when eleven Africans were unloaded from a Dutch ship. In 1644 those eleven petitioned the director general for their freedom — and got a version of it, for entirely practical reasons. The colony was skirmishing with Native Americans and the fear was that enslaved men might run and fight alongside them.

So they were granted half-freedom. They could buy land and earn a wage. But their children would be born into slavery.

Where they were allowed to settle tells you exactly what the arrangement was. They were placed north of the wall — the defensive stockade of New Amsterdam, which is why we have a street called Wall Street. Outside the barrier. A further obstacle between the colony and any attack.

A sacrificial buffer.

They settled near Fresh Water Pond, also called Collect Pond. That neighborhood would later become Five Points.

The English took over in the 1660s and kept importing. In 1708 the New York Assembly passed the Act For Preventing The Conspiracy of Slaves, prescribing capital punishment for any enslaved person who killed or attempted to kill their master. In 1711 a formal slave market opened on Wall Street where it meets the East River. It ran for 51 years.

In 1730, fearing insurrection, the Assembly banned any gathering of more than three enslaved people without a master present. Penalty: up to forty lashes per offense.

Then came the Conspiracy of 1741 — a supposed plot by poor whites and enslaved people to revolt. The city held 10,000 people, 2,000 of them enslaved. A few fires, a wave of rumor, and a white indentured servant named Mary Burton testifying. It played out much like Salem.

This history is under the pavement of the financial district.

This is one of the entries in New York City’s Little Black Book 1: Secrets, History, and Trivia of the World’s Greatest City.

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