Long Island: Our Story / Chapters 1-5
Two decades ago, Newsday began publishing the first pages of “Long Island: Our Story,” our celebrated 273-part series that told the history of this island we call home, from the Ice Age to the Space Age. Now, 20 years later, we’re proud to once again share this remarkable story with a new generation of Long Islanders.
Content from chapters 6-8 of Long Island: Our Story can be found here.
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Chapter 1: The birth of Long Island
Chapter 1 of “Long Island: Our Story” is available here.
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In the belly of the earth
Water tunnel offers rock-hard and ages-old clues about the formation of LI.
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The evolution of Long Island Sound
Once a river, a valley, a lake, and recently the body of water we know today.
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Long Island - Not really an island?
A decision was rendered by the Supreme Court in 1985.
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Washed to the sea
Despite humanity's best efforts, erosion poses a relentless threat.
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More floods in the future?
If sea levels keep rising, many LI communities can expect wet changes.
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When the island was new
Before people arrived, a pristine land of wildlife and sweet vegetation.
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Chapter 2: The first Long Islanders
Chapter 2 of “Long Island: Our Story” is available here.
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Untangling a myth
Europeans apparently mistook Indian place names for tribal labels.
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Masters of agriculture
Indian communities grew corn, beans, squash and tobacco in Long Island soil.
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Gods of the Indians
Old Dutch writings relate to some of what original Long Islanders believed of life and the afterlife.
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The first Long Islanders
A dying language once heard on Long Island is spoken by a few on a Canadian reserve.
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Jefferson’s lost legacy
A robbery foils his work to save some of the Island's Algonquian language.
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Indian names were his fame
William Wallace Tooker's quest to recover lost words.
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Chapter 3: The Dutch and English settle colonial LI
Part one of Chapter 3 of “Long Island: Our Story” is available here.
Part two of Chapter 3 of "Long Island: Our Story" is available here.
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Dutch settlers left their mark
Influences of the Netherlands live on centuries later in roads, buildings and names.
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Blood flows, war threatens
Violence escalates as a Dutch craftsman is murdered and Indians are massacred.
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Learn the legend behind an LI town's name
The tale of Smithtown's borders may be apocryphal, but it makes for a good story.
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The Dutch welcome the English
A settlement is born in Hempstead, and its founders become wealthy.
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The rise of slavery
New York has the most slaves in the North, almost half of them on Long Island.
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Before Salem, LI held its own witch trials
A Long Island farmer's wife is accused of witchcraft three decades before the trials in Salem.
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Chapter 4: Christopher Vail's revolution
Part one of Chapter 4 of “Long Island: Our Story” is available here.
Part two of Chapter 4 of “Long Island: Our Story” is available here.
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The plot to kidnap George Washington
One of the general's own guards joins the king's Loyalists in a wide conspiracy.
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A hero’s last words
'God save us all,' Nathaniel Woodhull told his attackers... Or did he?
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Huntington takes on the king
By 1774, the town emerges as an energetic proponent of revolution.
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Revolution's unseen rebels
Blacks fought on both sides in the War of Independence, but gained little.
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They signed for independence
William Floyd and Francis Lewis, the two Long Islanders who took a stand for freedom.
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America celebrates its new freedom
Defeated British and Loyalists board ships to leave the U.S.
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Chapter 5: A Long Island victory tour
Part one of Chapter 5 of “Long Island: Our Story” is available here.
Part two of Chapter 5 of “Long Island: Our Story” is available here.
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In search of whales
The last whale hunted off Long Island was killed Feb. 22, 1907, by a group of aging East Hampton whalers.
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Slavery died a slow death on LI
Slavery was allowed to die a slow death in New York.
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The coming of the iron horse
The idea may have seemed simple, but it took 10 years to achieve.
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The Paumanok Poet
Walt Whitman's early years on Long Island inspired the creative genius of an American literary giant.
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LI marches off to battle
A Roslyn attorney formed Company H and coaxed 104 men who lived in and around Hempstead to join together.
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Keeping the Civil War alive
On Long Island, re-enactors remember the soldiers and fight the battles of the 1860s.