Synopsis The American Revolution created opportunities for some enslaved Blacks to obtain freedom. Self-interested economic and military reasons prompted the British to declare free, all enslaved blacks in America who joined them in New York harbor...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Molly Ivins of the New York Times in her November 1981 piece, RED HOOK SURVIVES HARD TIMES INTO NEW ERA provides a historical overview of the place. Today, Red Hook is usually defined as the Brooklyn peninsula near Governor's Island,...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
The Red Hook WaterStories team has not yet written much about Red Hook longshoremen, their labor issues and working life. (This project currently receives no direct funds). We hope to remedy that some day but until then here...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
HE SAW THE NORTH POLE - The Intelligencer - Wheeling W. Virgina - May 17 1888 The Intlligencer, a newpaper out of Wheeling, West Virgina, ran a colorful story in the Spring of 1888 (likely printed in many other papers accross the country too)...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
In the afternoon of June 24, 1924, the Egremont Castle, a 9,000-ton capacity oil ship of the Union Castle line was being loaded when the ship’s winch seized while lowering a 100-gallon drum of gasoline causing its load suddenly jerk upwards....
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Visitation Place in Red Hook, Brooklyn, was co-named Nancy Kearse Gooding Way on December 10, 2023. Red Hook in the 1970s was going through tough times. Longshoremen strikes idled many, and industries that depended on shipping then laid off...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Local 1814, International Longshoremen's Association, AFL-CIO commemorated their 20 th anniversary in 1974 with a publication celebrating their accomplishments and with a positive outlook for the future. Higher wages, job security, health...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Pietro "Pete" Panto was an Italian American longshoreman and union activist who was murdered by the mob for speaking out and organizing against corrupt union leadership. The Red Hook WaterStories team has not written an entry about him yet but...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Huge waves crashing down on the deck as hail, steamers burning through their coal just to stay in place against the wind, ships being thrashed by the storm and everything, and everyone, frozen and encrusted in ice. These are the stories that the...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
On Saturday March 14, 1885, workers at Finlay's Stores were told that they hourly rate would be cut to 20 cents an hour, down from twenty-five. They refused to work for less pay and the company replaced them with about fifty Swedes and Norwegians....
