This story launches Part 2 of an ongoing journalistic initiative to rally the community and the country around a critical, but endangered, historical site: Sandy Ground, the nation’s oldest free Black settlement still inhabited by descendants of its pioneers.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Long before Staten Island was connected to the rest of New York City via the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, there was a close-knit, self-sustaining community tucked away on the South Shore where neighbors built their own churches, farmed their own land, taught their children to read, and looked after one another.
This might sound commonplace for a community founded in 1828, but Sandy Ground was different. It was started by free Black gardeners, and later inhabited by Black oystermen and their families from Snow Hill, Maryland who were attracted to the rich oyster beds in the Raritan Bay. While segregation was a prevalent scourge across the country at the time, Sandy Ground thrived. Its residents owned their land at a time when most Black Americans were denied that opportunity. The community is also believed to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad…