on the south shore of staten island lies a little known but historically significant community called sandy ground. founded in the early 19th century by freed black men from new york, sandy ground is the oldest community established by free slaves in North America.

 

the freed slaves that first settled here formed a farming community, which grew as free black oyster fishermen from maryland and delaware settled the region as well. sandy ground also served as an important stop on the underground railroad. descendents of the original settlers still live around sandy ground.

 

i first learned about sandy ground from this passage in joseph mitchell's collection of stories written for the new yorker called 'up in the old hotel' and have wanted to visit it ever since -- i got this from the great 'forgotten ny' website:

 

"...the book has an article called "Mr. Hunter's Grave" in which the caretaker of nearby St. Lukes' Cemetery tells him about Sandy Ground --

 

"It's a relic of the old Staten Island oyster-planting business. It was founded back before the Civil War by some free Negroes (sic) who came up here from the Eastern Shore of Maryland to work on the Staten Island oyster beds, and it used to be a flourishing community, a garden spot. Most of the people who live here now are decendants of the original free-Negro families, and most of them are related to each other by blood or marriage. Quite a few live in houses that were built by their grandfathers or great-grandfathers. On the outskirts of Sandy Ground, there's a dirt lane running off Bloomingdale Road that's called Crabtree Avenue, and down near the end of this lane is an old cemetery. It covers an acre and a half, maybe two acres, and it's owned by the African Methodist Church in Sandy Ground, and the Sandy Ground families have been burying in it for a hundred years ... they haven't cleaned it off for years and years, and it's choked with weeds and scrub. Most of the gravestones are hidden. It's surrounded by woods and old fields, and you can't always tell where the cemetery ends and the woods and fields begin..."

 

In the many years since that article was written, that cemetery has been restored, and today is well-kept."

 

so with that -- first up is creeping suburbia on crabtree road. i have to show ya that because its part of the story here too:

 

 

here we are at the sandy ground cemetery

 

there are approximately a dozen or so sandy ground families

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the mayor of sandy ground

 

next door are some of the old sg homes, they were all destroyed

in a pre-suburbanization brush fire in 1963

 

 

 

more new housing surrounds sandy ground

 

doubles with side driveways and sunken garages?

 

next to this new burb row off woodrow road we come to the last stop

the sg historical society

 

 

an informative map of south staten island related to sandy ground

 

below and on the right of the painting is a lineage of sg property owned

by these free black families that goes back to the late 1700's.

 

sandy ground was aka harrisville and little africa

 

nyc and nearby nj oystering was stopped in 1909 due to pollution --

needless to say this wrecked the traditional sandy ground way of life

 

one of the sg women is active in attempting to revive the oysters in the arthur kill.

they have grown thousands and put the shells in the water to seed the oyster beds -

but you cant eat them yet.

 

 

joe bishop was best known as the last oysterfisherman's blacksmith

 

 

 

 

 

 

well as you can see its a great history and mini-museum, certainly something

we dont learn in all those cracka written history books! eh, sorry. otoh, come to

think of it i don't think sg is mentioned in 'the peoples history of the usa' either.

something to think about folks.

 

names of the dozen sg families are up around the historical society

 

links:

http://www.statenislandusa.com/pages/sandy_ground.html

http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/SI%20back%20roads/backroad.html

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780738545455&itm=15

 

*** i hope you enjoyed your visit to historic sandy ground staten island, more si to come ***

 

 

Interesting...

Pretty neat - a historic community holding onto its identity.

I have a friend here in college who lives in Sandy Ground.  Her house actually has that sunken garage deal as well.

 

Great pics.

I think its funny the way the museum is in what looks like a modern duplex!

 

Otherwise, this is interesting in that someone is caring enought to save the history of this place, which would ordinarily be just forgotten and bulldozed over, or just left to forgetting (mute cemetary and house foundations to puzzle over).

 

 

very unique area