Corner of Jay and High Streets In the early 1800s, Brooklyn’s free black community worshipped with whites and Native Americans at Sands Street Methodist Church. Founded in 1794, it was Brooklyn’s oldest Methodist church. But black Brooklynites left after being charged admission to sit in a segregated rear upper gallery and having to listen to pro–slavery sermons. In 1816, Richard Allen and others founded the independent African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Philadelphia. Two years later, black Brooklynites raised enough money to build their own AME church, which once stood at this location. Walk south on Jay Street to Nassau Street.

Jay and Nassau Streets In 1810, Peter Croger, Benjamin Croger, and Joseph Smith, all leaders of Brooklyn’s free black community, established the Brooklyn African Wool- man Benevolent Society. It was a mutual aid organization that provided its members with financial support, especially for widows and orphans, and was named after John Woolman, a Quaker anti–slavery activist. This was also the site of the 1831 Anti–Colonization meeting, where black abolitionists rallied against efforts to send black communities to Africa, a popular idea in some white anti–slavery circles. Finally, the African School, originally founded at Peter Croger’s home on James Street, later moved to this location. Continue South on Jay Street to Concord Street.

Jay and Concord Streets Robert Cousins’ home originally stood at 201 Jay Street, a bit south of Chapel. Cousins was a prominent member of the AME Church and the Brooklyn African Tompkins Society, a benevolent organization that helped members in need. He also fundraised for fugitives from the South and likely housed several people here on their journey from slavery to freedom. Make a left on Concord Street and walk three blocks to the corner of Concord and Gold Streets.

194 Concord Street This was the approximate location of Concord Baptist Church, Brooklyn’s oldest African American Baptist congregation, founded in 1847. The congregation moved to a larger church building on Duffield Street in 1872. Reverend Sampson White of Abyssinian Baptist Church in Manhattan was Concord’s first minister. A well–known abolitionist, he led the church and congregation in supporting and sheltering fugitive slaves in their journey to freedom. Concord’s second pastor, Reverend Leonard Black, had been previously enslaved. Fear of the Fugitive Slave Law (1850) and the possibility that he might be kidnapped and returned to slavery led him to step down. Walk back to Flatbush Avenue and make a left and your first right in Chapel Street.

Corner of Flatbush Avenue and Chapel Street Henry C. Thompson’s home once stood halfway between Jay and Flatbush Extension, on Chapel Street. In the 1830s, Thompson and other activists spoke out against the American Colonization Society. The organization encouraged free African Americans to settle in the colony of Liberia, in Africa. Thompson, like Sylvanus Smith, was one of the original Weeksville land investors. They conceived Weeksville as a safe community for African Americans and an alternative to colonization. In 1821, an amendment to the New York State Constitution prevented black men from voting unless they owned $250 worth of property. Thompson and Smith owned enough property to vote. Cheap land in Weeksville allowed many residents there to become homeowners with full voting rights. Continue on Chapel to Jay Street.

Corner of Chapel and Jay Streets Pearl Street once ran through what is now the Concord Village Apartments, between Jay Street and Brooklyn Bridge Boulevard. This busy residential street was once home to Sylvanus Smith, a hog driver and a prominent anti–slavery activist. Smith was one of the original land investors in Weeksville, the second largest black community in pre–Civil War America, located in Brooklyn. He also served as a trustee for the African School or Colored School No. 1 in Brooklyn and the Citizen’s Union Cemetery in Weeksville. His daughter, Susan Smith McKinney Steward, was the first female African American doctor in New York State, while her sister, Sarah Smith Tompkins Garnet, was an educator and women’s suffrage activist. Continue in Jay Street to Johnson Street. Make your first right onto Lawrence Street into the MetroTech campus. Walk through the campus to NYU Polytechnic Student Center.

This is one of Brooklyn’s greatest church buildings. Built in 1847 as a Congregationalist church, it was purchased by the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1854, and renamed Bridge Street African Wesleyan Methodist Church. The church assisted newly arrived fugitives from the South, and offered refuge to black New Yorkers fleeing Manhattan’s Draft Riots in 1863. In 1938, the congregation moved to Bedford–Stuyvesant. Today, the building now serves as the Student Center of NYU Polytechnic. Continue on Bridge Street to the corner of Bridge and Myrtle Street extension.

Long before the MetroTech complex was built, busy Myrtle Avenue consisted of shops and homes. The American Freedmen’s Friend Society stood on this block, between Bridge and Duffield Streets. It was the local branch of a multicity organization, led by local residents James and Eliza- beth Gloucester, whose mission was to aid newly emancipated people after the Civil War. Here, people could receive assistance in finding homes, job skills, and employment. Continue on Bridge Street, stopping just after the corner of Willoughby Street.

Just south of Willoughby Avenue on Bridge Street, in the old numbering system, stood 290 Bridge, the home of Reverend James Gloucester, his wife Elizabeth, and their children. James was the founder and pastor of Siloam Presbyterian Church, which stood nearby on Prince Street. Elizabeth was a brilliant businesswoman and the owner of Remsen House, an elegant boarding house in Brooklyn Heights. They were both active abolitionists and close friends of John Brown. Continue to walk east on Willoughby to Duffield Street, turn right, walk down to 227 Duffield Street, between Willoughby and Fulton Mall.

141 Duffield Street (now 227 Duffield) The Truesdells were originally from Providence, Rhode Island, where they were active in abolitionist organizations. Thomas was a founding member of the Rhode Island Anti–Slavery Society. Harriet was treasurer of the Providence Ladies Anti– Slavery Society. The couple moved to Brooklyn some time before 1840 and lived here between 1851 and 1863. They were close friends with Bostonian William Lloyd Garrison, who founded the “Liberator,” an abolitionist newspaper. Garrison stayed with the Truesdells at their Brooklyn home in 1840. Walk back up to Willoughby, turn right, taking care to cross Flatbush Extension carefully. Turn up Flatbush Extension, towards the Manhattan Bridge, about a block to Prince Street, an almost forgotten small street behind the Toren apartment building.

Old address 160 Prince Street Siloam Presbyterian Church once stood on this street. It’s hard to imagine now, but in the mid–1800s, this entire area was mostly residential. The Manhattan Bridge would not be built until the early 20th century. The church was founded by Reverend James Gloucester in 1849 and moved to this location a year later. The congregation provided clothing, food, and shelter to freedom seekers who were formerly enslaved. Like Concord Baptist and the Bridge St. AWME Church, Siloam Presbyterian moved to Bedford–Stuyvesant in the mid–20th century.

The last stop falls outside the boundaries of the Downtown Brooklyn. It is in Fort Greene/ Wallabout. To reach the stop by public transportation, take the G train to Fulton Street, C train to Lafayette Avenue, or B38 Lafayette Avenue bus. Reverend Theodore L. Cuyler was the first pastor of Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, founded in 1857. Little evidence exists that Cuyler was an abolitionist, but he was certainly a temperance advocate. Still, after Lincoln’s death, the pastor eulogized the late president’s commitment to ending slavery. In the 1970s, the church’s culturally diverse and politically conscious congregation actively sought social justice in a number of different areas, including education, housing, jobs, and women’s equality. Today, the adjoining Sunday School building on South Oxford Street is home to the Irondale Ensemble Project, a partner in the In Pursuit of Freedom Project.