Essay On Harlem

The original settlers of Harlem were the Wecksquageek Indians who raised corn tobacco and called their land Quinnahung or planting neck. Harlem is known internationally as the Black Mecca of the world. Harlem was originally settled by the Dutch in 1658 but was largely farmland and undeveloped territory for approximately 200 years. As New York’s population grew, residential expansions moved northward and development of the Harlem territory was evitable. Many people didn’t know Philip A. Payton but Harlem heritage tours consider him to be “Father Harlem.” The house he lived in with his wife Maggie still stands on 131st street. Philip A. was a vice president and was also a manager of Afro-American realty company New York. Before the …show more content…
Harlem got its name by a neighborhood with a rich artistic and cultural history, the origins of its name are muted. Harlem is a modification of the name Haarlem a city in the Netherlands. In 1658 Peter Stuyvesant the director general of the Dutch colony of New Netherland (Niew Nederland) founded the settlement of new Haarlem in the northern part of Manhattan Island as an outpost of New Amsterdam at the southern tip of the island. With layoffs and foreclosure, increased economic tensions between the black community and the white shop owners of Harlem, this led to the Harlem Race Riot of1935. On March 19, 1935 a 16 year old black Puerto Rican boy named Lino Rivera stole a 10 cent penknife from the Kress five and ten store on 125th street. Both the assistant manager and store owner saw Rivera steal the knife and managed to capture him before he was able to run