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Significant Events Through the Years

1626: Slavery was introduced in New York, then called the colony of New Netherlands, as 11 blacks were brought in for enforced work.

1706: New York colonial law prohibited slaves from testifying for or against a free man in civil or criminal cases.

1712: Slave revolt in New York City ended with nine whites killed and 21 blacks executed.

1741: Thirteen blacks were burned at the stake; 17 blacks and four whites were hanged after New York mistakenly charged slaves with plotting an insurrection.

1761: Black poet Jupiter Hammon of Lloyd Neck published his poem, ``Salvation by Christ With Penetential Cries.''

1799: New York passed the first in a series of gradual emancipation laws. Children born to slaves after July 4 were free but had to continue working for their parents' owners for a specified number of years.

1811: The congregation of the Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church in Flushing was formed. In the next few years, congregations were formed in Amityville, Port Washington, Roslyn and Setauket.

1827: Slavery ended in New York State.

1839: Slaves on the Spanish ship Amistad revolted. Ship was seized off of Montauk. The Africans aboard eventually won their freedom in a case taken to the U.S. Supreme Court.

1843: Sojourner Truth left Manhattan to begin a trek to Huntington, preaching about God and abolition along the way.

1861: Beginning of the Civil War. Blacks from Long Island served in the 20th, 22nd, 26th and 26th U.S. Colored Troops. Among them was George Lyons of Amityville, who served as a drummer boy, and Joachim Pease, a gunner on the USS Kearsarge who won a Medal of Honor.

1867: African and Indian community near what now is Lake Success built a school with $267 raised at the local church fair.

1885: First black professional baseball team in the country was founded in Babylon.

1895: Desegregation of Amityville schools. The community's black school was closed after Charles Brewster, a black parent, complained that his child had been barred from attending a new school built for white children. Five years later, state legislation limited racial segregation in public schools.

1898: Spanish American War. The 10th Calvary trained in Yaphank and, on returning from Cuba, landed in Montauk.

1906: First black fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, was established at Cornell University in upstate Ithaca.

1909: The NAACP was founded in New York City.

1920: Marcus Garvey's national convention of the Universal Negro Improvement Association met in New York City.

1917: Outbreak of World War I. Many black soldiers, assigned to segregated units, trained in Yaphank.

1922: The Harlem Renaissance, a golden age of black literature and art in the United States, began, lasting until 1929.