The site of a slave market where enslaved Africans and Indians were sold, bought or rented.In 1711, city officials sanctioned the human marketplace at Wall and Pearl Sts., and even collected a sales tax when slaves were sold and bought. The market was closed in 1762, but slaves were not freed in New York until 1841.By 1703, 42% of New York households owned slaves, more than Philadelphia and Boston combined. In terms of cities, only Charleston, South Carolina had more slaves at the time.A Plaque temporarily on Wall St. and Water St. dedicated in 2015 by Mayor Bill de Blasio, acknowledging the sacrifice and contribution of these forced laborers. "Under consecutive Dutch, British and American rule, slave labor was used in New York City homes and industries, including farming and public works," read part of a statement issued when the city placed the plaque at the slave market site.

But back in 1711, it was a marketplace for slaves to be sold, bought or rented. 

A market that auctioned enslaved people of African ancestry was established by a Common Council law on November 30, 1711. This slave market was in use until 1762. Slave owners wanting to hire out their enslaved workers, which included people of Native American ancestry, as day laborers also had to do so at that location. In 1726 the structure was renamed the Meal Market because corn, grain and meal—crucial ingredients to the Colonial diet—were also exclusively traded there.Slavery was introduced to Manhattan in 1626. By the mid-18th century approximately one in five people living in New York City was enslaved and almost half of Manhattan households included at least one slave. Although New York State abolished slavery in 1827, complete abolition came only in 1841 when the State of New York abolished the right of non-residents to have slaves in the state for up to nine months. However, the use of slave labor elsewhere for the production of raw materials such as sugar and cotton was essential to the economy of New York both before and after the Civil War. Slaves also cleared forest land for the construction of Broadway and were among the workers that built the wall that Wall Street is named for and helped to build the first Trinity Church. Within months of the market's construction, New York's first slave uprising occurred a few blocks away on Maiden Lane, led by enslaved people from the Coromantee and Pawpaw peoples of Ghana.

The mob lynching a negro in Clarkson-Street

Slave Market on Wall Street

Common Council established the Slave Market