The Peoples of Red Hook
PortSide NewYork acknowledges that we are on land and waterways that is Lenape territory, Lenapehoking.
This is an intro to the people story of Red Hook, to the changing ethnic groups that lived and/or worked here roughly in the order of their arrival.
Native American Lenape people use and enjoy Red Hook in its more watery incarnation as site of summer fishing, hunting and farming.
Dutch colonists arrive in the early 1600s and bring diverse nationalities, religions and races - including enslaved Blacks. The Dutch begin the forced displacement of the Lenape. The Dutch then (and now) are masters of water management, and the build tide mill ponds and cut a canal through northern Red Hook so farmers can more readily take their wares to market in Manhattan (they don't have to go all the way around the peninsula).
Until port developments in the mid 1800s, Red Hook had no street grid and is largely farm land with mill ponds. With the construction of Atlantic Basin (aka Atalntic Dock) Red Hook is rapidly built up and industrialized and becomes an internationally significant maritime center, until the 1960s, making Red Hook a major port of call to ships from all over the world. The ships bring a changing rainbow of people who live and work here.
We will explore this topic more in future updates and select individual people to research in depth. This Red Hook WaterStories 1.0 illuminates major trends, forces and issues in the demographic changes that define this neighborhood. Reseearch is ongoing.