Weeksville Heritage Center - History of Weeksville

History of Weeksville

In 1838, James Weeks, an African-American, bought a plot of land from Henry C. Thompson (another free African-American) in the Ninth Ward of central Brooklyn just 11 years after the abolition of slavery in New York State.

A 1906 article in the New York Age recalling the earlier period said that James Weeks, a stevedore and a respected member of the community, "owned a handsome dwelling at Schenectady and Atlantic Avenues." Weeksville, named after James Weeks, was home to ministers, teachers and other professionals, including the first female African-American physician in New York state, and the first African-American police officer in New York City. Weeksville had its own churches, a school, an orphanage, a cemetery, an old age home, an African-American benevolent society and one of the first African-American newspapers, the Freedman's Torchlight. During the violent New York Draft Riots of 1863, the community served as a refuge for many African-Americans who fled from Manhattan.