14 JANUARY 23, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
Queens landmarks on ‘The Path
BY THE OLD TIMER
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Few Queens residents may realize just how important
two landmarks in Flushing were in the eff ort to
secure freedom for slaves during the 19th century.
Our thanks go out this week to Grace Friary, Rob Mac-
Kay (a former Ridgewood Times reporter) and Rosemary
Vietor, who prepared for us the following report on the
Bowne House and the Quaker Meeting House, and their
roles in the Abolitionist Movement:
Last month, the NYC Landmarks Preservation
Commission unveiled “New York City and the Path
to Freedom,” an interactive website that educates
users of all ages about local landmarks that featured
prominently in the Abolitionist Movement and the
Underground Railroad.
Eastman Johnson’s painting “A Ride for Liberty
– The Fugitive Slaves,” on display at the Brooklyn Museum,
depicts how some slaves traveled to freedom via
what was called the Underground Railroad. (Photo via
Wikimedia Commons)
Two Flushing landmarks – the Bowne House and
the Quaker Meeting House – are described along with
16 other properties in other boroughs.
The timing is perfect because recent research in the
Bowne House archives (i.e. diaries, passports, deeds,
correspondence) has uncovered new information
about how residents – mainly the Bownes and the
Parsons – were ardent, active abolitionists. (Many
were Quakers, too.)
First an admission: Bondage was legal in NYC until
1827, and Queens had one of the largest pockets of
slaves in the entire northeast. At the same time, the
borough was also a hotbed of abolitionism through
the Civil War and into Reconstruction, with Flushing
as the center of these activities.
An early Bowne House resident, Robert Bowne
(1744-1818), helped found the Manumission Society of
New York, which lobbied for laws that ended slavery
in the state, provided legal assistance to blacks, and
established the African Free School in 1787 to educate
black children in Manhattan in 1787.
Manumission refers to when an owner frees slaves
voluntarily or in exchange for money or goods. This
diff ers from emancipation or abolition, which involves
freedom due to government action.
Another Bowne House resident, Samuel Parsons
(1771-1841), owned a large arboretum and nursery
in Flushing. According to family lore, the Quaker
minister would travel to southern states to buy and
sell trees and plants – and return with escaped slaves
hiding in his wagon along with the rhododendrons
and azaleas.
These runaways might have gone from the Parsons
Nursery to a mill on the Flushing River, where they
would head north under cover of darkness.
Samuel Parsons was married to Mary Bowne (1784-
1839). One of their sons, Robert Bowne Parsons (1821-
1898), was a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad,
the secret network of routes and safe houses used by
escaped slaves to travel to freedom.
A recently discovered letter in the Bowne House
archives in the papers of a Brooklyn pastor notifi es
him of an imminent arrival of slaves.
In his obituary, Robert’s brother, Samuel Bowne Parsons
(1819-1906), boasted “that he assisted more slaves
to freedom than any other man in Queens County.”
For many years, the Bowne House, a 17th-century,
The Bowne House in Flushing, as shown in December 2019. Photo courtesy of Rob MacKay
wooden-frame English Colonial saltbox at 37-01 Bowne
St. that is now open to the public, was a stop on the Underground
Railroad. Residents frequently warded off
bounty hunters who sought to kidnap blacks (slave
and free) to sell in southern states.
The Quaker Meeting House also played an important
role in the history of abolition. It was also near and
dear to the Bowne and Parsons families.
In addition to being the Bowne House’s namesake,
English immigrant John Bowne (1627-1695) was one of
New York City’s earliest and most committed Quaker
leaders. He helped buy the property at 137-16 Northern
Blvd., where the 1694 meeting house currently
stands.
Many prominent Quaker leaders of the anti-slavery
movement (i.e. William Burling, John Farmer, Matthew
Franklin, Elias Hicks) planned their political activism
at the meeting house. Quakers did not use headstones
until the mid-1820s, so it’s diffi cult to determine all of
the abolitionist leaders who are buried in the graveyard.
Nevertheless, it’s believed to be the fi nal resting
place for Burling, Franklin and John Murray Jr., who
co-founded the Free School Society and The New York
Manumission Society.
It’s not confi rmed, but the grapevine claims that the
immigrant John Bowne is there, too, in an unmarked
grave.
Old Timer’s Note: One could argue that the Bowne
House and Quaker Friends House are not only two of
the most important historic sites in Queens, but also
perhaps two of the most important sites in the fi ght for
freedom in America.
Decades earlier, while under Dutch colonial control,
the Quakers of Flushing (then known as Vlissing) created
in 1657 what came to be known as the Flushing
Remonstrance. It came to be considered a forerunner of
the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, enacted
in 1789, which ensured the freedom of religious worship.
The Flushing Remonstrance was a petition to the
Director-General of New Netherlands, Peter Stuyvesant,
who had instituted an ordinance prohibiting the
practice of any religion except for the Dutch Reformed
Church. This led to acts of persecution, and 30 Quakers
in Flushing signed on to the petition urging Stuyvesant
to recognize people of other faiths.
In the Remonstrance, the Quakers condemned persecution
against any person, noting: “We are commanded
by the Law to do good to all men . . . That which is of God
will stand, and that which is of man will come to nothing
. . . Our only desire is not to off end one of these little ones,
in whatsoever form, name or title he appears . . . There
Eastman Johnson’s painting “A Ride for Liberty –
The Fugitive Slaves,” on display at the Brooklyn
Museum, depicts how some slaves traveled to
freedom via what was called the Underground
Railroad. Photo via Wikimedia Commons
link
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
