The peoples of Red Hook

By Carolina Salguero, special to Red Hook WaterStories 

This is a complicated topic, so for this Red Hook WaterStories 1.0, we offer introductory info and the promise that more content will follow. This is an ongoing project!  Note, this is a water-themed history because PortSide NewYork’s mission relates to the waterfront. We expect that most of the major groups who lived and worked in Red Hook will have a connection to the waterfront and will thus be included; but our research is not done. 

PortSide NewYork acknowledges that we are are land and waterways that are the homeland of the Lenape, a place they call  "Lenapehoking."  The Lenape were displaced by European settlers and forced to move as a group multiple times to several US states far from here. Lenapehoking encompasses all of NYC and a large part of downstate NYS, all of New Jersey, part of western Connecticut and of eastern Pennsylvania. More info at the Lenape Center.

This is an intro to the people story of Red Hook, to the parade of ethnic groups that lived and/or worked here roughly in the order of their arrival. Take this as an outline, a timeline, not a deep history, and bear in mind that we still have a lot of research to do. We have found that many histories of Red Hook get things wrong and/or erase things, so we do original research.

Native American Lenape people use and enjoy Red Hook primarily as a summer place for hunting, fishing and growing maize and squash. They have a village here called Merechkatvikingh.  The Lenape term for their homeland, a large region ranging from over what is now Connecticut, New York, Delaware and Pennsylvania, is Lenapehoking. What is now New York City was the center of Lenapehoking.

Dutch colonists arrive in the early 1600s, moments after they arrive in Manhattan, and bring diverse nationalities, religions and races (including enslaved Blacks) and forcibly push out the Lenape in various oppressive ways typical of the time. See info on one Dutch 1640 one land patent here.

A Lenapehoking Anthology is a resource produced by The Lenape Center in collaboration with the Brooklyn Public Library.  "This anthology of essays and interviews features leading Indigenous scholars, culture bearers, and artists offering important new scholarship and knowledge of Lenape culture and history that is not readily available to the general public."--Page 14.  The Brooklyn Public Library has many copies available to be borrowed.  More on the Lenape as we further our research. 

After the Native-American Lenape period, Red Hook has a long history of being a mixed-race, ethnically diverse place.  The Dutch start this diversity, which is often fraught with conflict and in some ways not, because the Dutch colonies included free people of multiple nations, races, and religions.  This is partly due to a tolerance in the Dutch culture; it is also because their colony is founded for commercial reasons, it is a trading outpost not a cultural settlement. In comparison, Puritan New England is founded by one religious sect, intolerant of others, that is creating a colony for that culture.  The Dutch also introduce enslaved Black people, so Black people are part of the mix early on, and being Black with the Dutch is complicated, because the Dutch simultaneously accept slavery and free Black people in their society.

When the English take over New Amsterdam in 1667, the rights of free Blacks, and women, begin to be taken away. See section below from Wikipedia entry about the violent suppression of the New York Slave Revolt of 1712:

"By the early 18th century, New York City had one of the largest enslaved populations of any of the settlements in the Thirteen Colonies. Slavery in the city differed from some of the other colonies because there were no plantations producing cash crops. Slaves worked as domestic servants, artisans, dock workers, and various skilled laborers. Enslaved Africans lived near each other, making communication easy. They also often worked among free black people, a situation that did not exist on most Southern plantations. Slaves in the city could communicate and plan a conspiracy more easily than among those on plantations.

After the seizure of New Netherland in 1667 and it's incorporation into the Province of New York, the rights of the Free Negro social group were gradually eroded. In 1702, the first of the New York slave codes were passed, which further limited the rights enjoyed by the African community in New York; many of these legal rights, such as the right to own land and marry, were granted during the Dutch colonial period   On December 13, 1711, the New York City Common Council established the city's first slave market near Wall Street for the sale and rental of enslaved Africans and Native Americans.

By the early 1700s, about 20 percent of the population were enslaved black people. The colonial government in New York restricted this group through several measures: requiring slaves to carry a pass if traveling more than a mile (1.6 km) from home; discouraging marriage among them; prohibiting gatherings in groups of more than three persons; and requiring them to sit in separate galleries at church services."

At that time "New York" means Manhattan. At that time, Brooklyn is not yet consolidated into a city, it is a collection of villages. PortSide has not yet researched this Red Hook era in depth, but all of this would have reverberated here since Red Hook is just a short boat ride away from Manhattan. In those days, unlike now, the waterways are not seen as cutting Red Hook off from the rest of the city. The waterways are the highway, and so Red Hook is very connected to lower Manhattan.

Note that Dutch culture did not die with England annexing New Amsterdam. Brooklyn retains a strong Dutch influence into the mid-1800s, with books still widely sold in the Dutch language and churches offering services in Dutch. 

This also means that Brooklyn is less passionate about the cause of the American Revolution since settlers who fled oppression or lack of opportunity in England are not as dominant a part of the culture as they are in New England. One fun fact version of this? The word "stoop," as in stoop-sitting in front of the building. Stoop is descended from a Dutch word, so is the word "cookies." The English call cookies "biscuits." More on the Dutch legacy in NYC in the book "Island at the Center of the World."

Until around 1850, Red Hook is a mostly blue-green blue space with tide mill ponds, farms, marsh and open water  when a massive manmade harbor and complex or warehouses called Atlantic Dock is built. (Remains of that live on as the contemporary Atlantic Basin.) Atlantic Dock triggers industrial and residential developments, and the pace of growth is intense for 100 years, very intense.  For example, Robins Dry Dock & Repair (the precursor to Todd Shipyard) had about 2,000 employees in 1939. Four years later, they had 19,617.  That is more than Red Hook’s population today – in just one shipyard.

For about a hundred years after the end of the mill pond era, Red Hook becomes a hard working, and often hardscrabble place, awash with diverse people, many of whom are transient: thousands of sailors arriving from international ports, the Eastern seaboard, and upstate along with visitors and commuters from this harbor.  Think of it as a maritime Times Square.

Red Hook was a “sailortown.” Until the shipping container was invented (1960s), ships could spend weeks in a port unloading and reloading, and sailors on leave spent time ashore. Also, back then, many sailors’ contracts ended with a voyage, and the sailors would stay in port until they could find their next ship.  Boarding houses, hotels, taverns, entertainment palaces and brothels catered to (and bilked) the sailor, fresh off the boat with money in his pocket. 

In the words of on our Red Hook WaterStories advisors Johnathan Thayer, “sailortowns saw constant turnover in population and fostered a sense of “otherness” relative to the rest of the city—a characteristic of portside areas and seafaring culture which continues to shape the urban landscape to this day.”  A sense of “otherness” DOES define Red Hook to this day.

There were also transient maritime families.  After the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 and through WWII, whole families lived on the barges they worked. Barges were staffed by families - which is no longer the case.  Many barges that plied the Erie Canal wintered over in salt water Red Hook while the upstate fresh water canals were frozen, their children attending Red Hook schools.  During WWII, such families were working the dangerous coastwise trade where vessels were attacked and sunk by German U-boats. More about them in our blogposts about Don Horton. 

• PortSide interviews Don Horton in Red Hook
• Don Horton’s written memories of anchoring off Red Hook
• Don Horton’s effort to get Congressional recognition of WWII Merchant Mariners who were women, children, elderly and disabled (as of Veteran’s Day 2013)
• and Veterans Day 2014 update on that effort

Lastly, there were lots of transient New Yorkers due to how much the water was used for transportation – until recently. Near the shantytowns along Gowanus Bay, penny ferries  and rented boats were common. From the 1800s well into the 1900s, many businesses shipped supplies and their manufactured goods locally across the harbor, and businessmen in the marine industry would hop on a boat in lower Manhattan to get to Red Hook shipyards. In 1834, the Hamilton Avenue ferry terminal opened to service Green-wood Cemetery, since many prominent dead were to be buried there. Massive funeral processions came across on the ferry, as did many weekend visitors, since Green-wood was a popular destination for carriage rides during the 1800s.  Atlantic Dock actually provided the bond to start this popular ferry service, a sign of how linked maritime players were to the non-maritime world.

The presence of the Hamilton Avenue ferry enabled the development of Carroll Gardens since the new brownstone residents would be just a short ferry ride from the Wall Street area. That led to daily commuters flowing through the area. 

“Ferry Place,” an entertainment district, grew up along Hamilton Avenue near the ferry terminal. At the other end of Hamilton Avenue in Red Hook, along GowanusBay, near a penny ferry, there was rowdy entertainment in the shantytowns until the 1890s. 

Our research suggests that, over the years, Red Hook attracts a great number of strivers, people who come here to execute a vision in and about Red Hook. Some are immigrants from overseas. Some move here from upstate New York (Colonel Daniel Richards, James Stranahan) Some become prominent (Colonel Daniel Richards, James Stranahan, James Beard, Greg O’Connell). Some do not, such as shanty-dweller Louis Heineman; but Heineman’s dogged persistence feels like a very Red Hook story.  Note, that New York Times article discussing Heineman conflates squatters and shantytowns. Shantytown residents in Red Hook were usually paying “ground rent,” they were not squatting. For more, see our article "Shantytowns, affordable housing, back in the day." Our own research into Heineman shows that he was not a squatter, but a property owner and respected citizen. His tavern sounds like the Sunny's Bar of the day. He is buried in Green-wood Cemetary Section 128, grave 535 near 20th Street and 7th Avenue.

Lastly, much as been written about crime in Red Hook, but in focusing on that vivid part of the history, much has been overlooked about other businesses and residents and dynamics in the community.  Since many have focused on crime, we are leaving the criminal sector to future updates of this project. 

Below is the list of major ethnic groups we have identified at this time, roughly in the order they arrive. 

Native Americans.

The Lenape use what they called Saponickan or Sapohanican, then mostly marsh or water, for seasonal farming (corn), fishing, shellfishing and hunting waterfowl.  They create large oyster middens (piles of oyster shells) along the south side. In short, the Lenape work or summer here. This is not a year-round residential site.  The Lenape create a long path which becomes Red Hook Lane that runs from Red Hook to downtown Brooklyn. One block of that survived into 2016.  

Search Red Hook Waterstories for more on Native Americans

Dutch

The first colonists here are sponsored by the West India Company in the Netherlands. Henry Hudson was English, most colonists are Dutch, but the group includes other Europeans and some people from North Africa. According to the massive 1867 history of Brooklyn by Henry R. Stiles, the Dutch stamp remains strong into the 1800s.

According to Stiles, Brooklyn's "Dutchness" limits local enthusiasm for the Revolution (Dutch colonists had not fled the English the way New Englanders had and therefore had no built-in resentments to English rule. The war is bad for business, and the Dutch were very focused on business; so, descendants of the Dutch were not quick to the ramparts.)  

Stiles says that Dutch books and language instruction are prevalent into the mid 1800s.  This legacy is evident in many Dutch names of Red Hook streets and the name of the place itself. Roede (red) Hook (hook) is the Dutch name for Red Hook, so named due to the red soil and the point of landing sticking out into the UpperBay.  The Dutch skills in water management shape Red Hook physically for 200+ years. The Dutch bring make tide mill ponds and canals, both of which define Red Hook until the construction of the Atlantic Dock complex in the late 1840s.

Search Red Hook Waterstories for more on the Dutch

Blacks

Black people are among the first arrivals during the Dutch colonial period. There are free blacks, and the Dutch also introduce slavery.  Initially, the enslaved people are from Africa; but the Dutch don’t find them compliant enough, so they switch to shipping slaves from the Caribbean.  During the early Dutch slavery period, from 1640s onwards, about a third of the population is black.  The economy in this region depended on slavery in many ways, and the rollback of slavery was slow and complicated.  In the Red Hook-Gowanus area, enslaved blacks build one of the tide mill ponds for Coles Mill (memorialized by a very short Coles Street).  Black men are a significant presence working as sailors on ships on the eastern seaboard until the advent of Jim Crow laws; see the essay "Blacks on the New York Waterfront During the American Revolution" we commissioned from Charles Foy.  During the Revolutionary War, since the British offer blacks their freedom, thousands of them fought on the side of the British during the war. They were at risk when the British lost the war and thousands left for Canada. "The Book of Negroes" lists 3,000 formerly enslaved people allowed to emigrate from New York for Nova Scotia in 1783 for that reason.

In early 2018, John Jay College released a massive research project, The New York Slavery Index. It has than 38,000 records of slavery within the State of New York from 1525 through the Civil War.  Our team has yet to search this for all the records of enslaved people in Red Hook. If you would like to take on this project, please get in touch.  We do know that multiple street names in the neighborhood are those of the first white families, and many of them were slave owners.

The waterfront figures large in emancipation as a place where escaped men can readily find work (ships often have multi-racial and multi-lingual crews) and later as a route in the underground railroad.  Blacks were also very present in the Menhaden fishing fleet and in oystering.  We have not yet done census research for Red Hook to know the status (enslaved, free, native born, nation of origin) for blacks in Red Hook –  but it is clear that blacks have a long history here.  

A significant event in the devolution of slavery occurred in Red Hook, in Atlantic Dock, in 1860, when the slaver ship ERIE was sold.  President Lincoln sought to send a message that laws against shipping in slaves would be enforced, the captain of the ERIE Nathanial Gordon was hanged and his ship sold.

Search Red Hook Waterstories for more

Norwegians

Norwegians first arrived in New Amsterdam during the Dutch colonial period.  In the 1850s, they become a major immigrant presence, and the community is centered in Brooklyn and Red Hook in particular.

The first Norwegian Seaman’s Church still stands at 111 Pioneer Street. 

Norway then - and now - is a major maritime nation, and Norwegian immigrants bring those skills with them, and many work waterfront jobs ashore and afloat.  Usually men come first and later send for women and children. Initially, many of the men worked here for while and returned to the home country, as did some of the first Italians to arrive.

In 1915, the 4^th Avenue subway line opens and many Norwegians move from Red Hook to better housing in Sunset Park and Bay Ridge and commute to their Red Hook jobs.  Many Norwegians and Norwegian-Americans worked on our MARY A. WHALEN. Norwegian accents were prevalent in the tug, barge and tanker fleets in New York harbor until the 1980s.  There is a lot of documentation about Norwegian Red Hook, the challenge is to edit and synthesize. We’re on it.

Search Red Hook Waterstories for more about the Norwegians

Irish

The Irish are a major ethnic group, coming in waves to Red Hook over decades starting in the 1840s due to the Irish Famine. They were a major labor force in the 1840s construction of Atlantic Dock, a massive man-made harbor that jumpstarted the urbanization (and port-ification) of Red Hook.  Before that, they had a huge role in digging the Erie Canal, which inspires many to get into the maritime business since they see how waterborne commerce between upstate and New York harbor will grow.  So many Irish got into the tug and barge business that there was a time when the towing industry (tugs and barges) in New York harbor was called “the Irish Navy.”

There is considerable friction in Red Hook between the Germans and the Irish since Germans are shipped over from Germany to break a strike by the Irish building Atlantic Dock in the 1840s. During Red Hook’s shantytown era (roughly 1840 to 1900) there are four Irish shantytowns and one German one. Shantytown dwellers of the 1800s are not usually squatters; they paid “ground rent” and built their own shelters. For more, see our essay “Shantytowns, affordable housing, back in the day.”

Search Red Hook WaterStories for more on the Irish

Germans

From the middle of the 1800s until the hideous fire aboard the General Slocum in 1904 which devastates and scatters the German community, German communities are a visible part of the fabric of Manhattan and Brooklyn. 

According to Maggie Blanck’s deeply researched website, “In the mid to late 1880s, the foreign born population of Red Hook was predominately Irish, followed by German. In 1886 the Brooklyn Eagle Almanac gave the following statistics based on the 1880 census. Brooklyn had a population 566,663 - 177,694 were born in foreign countries… a total of 55,339” from various German-speaking regions (there was no country of Germany yet).  That makes Brooklyn about 10% German and the Germans about 31% of the immigrant population. 

There is considerable friction in Red Hook between the Germans and the Irish since Germans are shipped over from Germany to break a strike by the Irish building Atlantic Dock in the 1840s.  

During Red Hook’s shantytown era (roughly 1840 to 1900) there are four Irish shantytowns and one German one. Shantytown dwellers of the 1800s are not usually squatters; they paid “ground rent” and built their own shelters. For more, see our essay “Shantytowns, affordable housing, back in the day.”

Search Red Hook WaterStories for more on the Germans

Puerto Ricans

New York City’s Puerto Rican community starts in Red Hook because ships from Puerto Rico (Porto Rico in the early days) dock in Red Hook. One of them  SS CAROLINA is memorialized in song. Jesus Colon, who becomes a significant activist, arrives as a stowaway on the SS CAROLINA when he is 16 years old.

When the first Puerto Ricans arrive here, they Ricans are foreigners, coming from a Spanish colony. In 1898, Spain cedes the island to the US.  In 1917, the U.S. Congress passed the Jones–Shafroth Act, granting Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship.  After establishing a strong community in the Red Hook area, Puerto Ricans spread out around the city, especially in El Barrio or Spanish Harlem. 

There is a strong Puerto Rican community centered around Columbia Street north of Hamilton Avenue that maintains a sense of that history well into the 1970s. Some of their members are strong voices resisting a 1970s plan to build a containerport along Columbia Street. 

Today, there are still many Puerto Rican families in Red Hook who have been here for generations.

Search Red Hook WaterStories for more on the Puerto Ricans

Italians

People tend to associate Italians with working on the docks, but they were not the first ethnic group to work in stevedoring and shipping.  They had to break into the industry. Their story on the waterfront is long, deep and complicated.  We are working on this story and need to do more research before writing further on this group.  Please get in touch if you have knowledge on this subject.

Search Red Hook WaterStories for more on the Italians

Spaniards

Spaniards are a micro-immigrant group in New York City.  There was a colony in Brooklyn centered in BrooklynHeights that sprinkled into Red Hook.  Their waterstories include both how they arrived by ship and their work in the marine industry.  They were here because ships from Spain docked at the foot of Atlantic Avenue. A remnant of that Spanish community is Montero’s bar on Atlantic Avenue.  An example of Spaniards in the maritime industry is GMD Shipyard (for General Marine Diesel). The firm started in Red Hook and now which runs the graving docks in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. We have some information and need to do more research before writing further on this group. Please get in touch if you have knowledge on this subject.

Search Red Hook WaterStories for more on the Spaniards

Greeks

For millennia, Greeks have been major mariners and Greeks bring those skills with them to Brooklyn.  Greeks were - and are - involved in maritime businesses in Red Hook (and New York harbor).  We need to do more research before writing further on this group. Please get in touch if you have knowledge on this subject.