We're now twenty weeks into the project, NYC Decade by Decade. Here's an abbreviated recap, highly compressed and distilled, of the second century.
1700-1709--Lord Cornbury, a fierce Anglican and possible drag queen, governs New York and is reviled...and recalled.
1710-1719--The city expands its slave trade by opening a municipal slave market and soon suffers the first of two major slave revolts.
1720-1729--Nothing much seems to happen. This is possibly the least news-worthy decade in the city's history. Ironically, this is also the decade when William Bradford begins publishing New York's first newspaper.
1730-1739--The famous Zenger trial takes place on Wall Street, a benchmark in the history of both the freedom of the press and of the sanctity of juries.
1740-1749--This is the decade of the city's second major slave uprising. Today, most historians believe there was no slave uprising and that this was a case of hysteria--New York's very own Salem Witch Trial.
1750-1759--Thanks to the French and Indian War, New York becomes richer and a true gentry begins to form.
1760-1769--Thanks to the French and Indian War, New Yorkers and other colonists are threatened with taxation. The Stamp Act Congress meets in New York, there are protests, and the Stamp Act is repealed.
1770-1779--The Crown still presses for compensation and the colonies revolt. Washington tries to save New York but it falls to the British and to a massive conflagaration in 1776.
1780-1789--The British evacuate and Washington returns triumphant. New York becomes the capital of both the state and federal governments.
1790-1799--New York loses both the state and federal governments, but retains its status as the financial capital. The Buttonwood Agreement is signed and what will become the New York Stock Exchange is born.
FOR GREATER DETAIL, SEE THE PROPER ENTRY...POSTED EVERY THURSDAY
COMING THIS THURSDAY: THE NINETEENTH CENTURY BEGINS...1800-1809
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