Weeksville
The Hunterfly Road Houses In the heart of the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, is a tribute to one of the largest communities of free African-Americans that existed in the United States prior to the Civil War. Today, the Weeksville Heritage and Cultural Center serves as a historical memorial and current cultural center celebrating the past, present and future of African-American life in New York City. Weeksville Heritage Center In 1838, a year after a major economic crash in the United States, a group of Black families decided to buy land in central Brooklyn. The borough was becoming more industrial, and the old European families were no longer interested in running their large farms. Land was cheap, so the Black families bought large parcels to live on, rent and resell. This created economic freedom, and also political influence, as owning land was a requirement for Black men to qualify to vote in New York at that time. Named after James Weeks, one of ...