VIII.

History

A.

Early Inhabitants

The first human settlement of the area that is now New York probably occurred about 10,500 bc, after glaciers that had covered the region retreated. Archaeological sites from Staten Island to Lake Champlain indicate that the Paleo-Indians, who hunted mammoths and other prehistoric animals, existed until about 8000 bc. They gave way to the Archaic culture, lasting until about 1000 bc, whose people depended on deer, elk, birds and plants from the woodlands they inhabited. After that, the Northeast culture developed, and at some point hunting and gathering was replaced by agriculture as the main source of food.

Sometime after ad 1000, two major Native American language groups emerged in New York, the Algonquian and the Iroquoian. For several centuries the dominant group was the Algonquian-speaking tribes, including the Mahican, Delaware, and Wappinger, who lived in the southeast section of New York and up the Hudson River valley to Lake Champlain. The Algonquian tribes were primarily farmers who raised corn, squash, and beans, but they also caught fish, hunted game, and gathered berries, nuts, and roots.

Historians and archaeologists disagree on whether the Iroquois developed in the New York-Great Lakes region or migrated there from the mid-Mississippi Valley. Five of the tribes—the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca—united in about 1570 to form the Iroquois Confederacy, known as the Five Nations. From their base in central New York the Iroquois extended their domain, and during the 17th century they subdued almost all the tribes in a vast region extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River and from the St. Lawrence River to the Tennessee River. Sometime in the early 1700s, the Tuscarora, an Iroquoian tribe that had migrated to New York from North Carolina, were formally admitted to the confederacy, and the name of the league was changed to the Six Nations.

The Iroquois, like the Algonquian people, had an agricultural economy, based mainly on corn. Families lived together in large bark-covered dwellings called longhouses. Each community was governed by a ruling council and a village chief. The entire confederacy was run by a fairly democratic common council of delegates, elected by members of various tribes. The league as a whole had no single leader, and decisions were usually made by a unanimous vote of the council.

Powerful in their relations with other tribes, the Iroquois began coveting guns, whiskey, and other provisions after they came in contact with Europeans. To gain these goods, the Iroquois traded beaver and other furs, first with the Dutch, then with the English. After the Iroquois wiped out the beaver in their original lands, they looked for new supplies, often attempting to conquer new tribes and territories. In the 18th century, the Iroquois often ceded land to the British and French for provisions or political concessions. The Iroquois Confederacy continued to play a central role in American history until after the American Revolution (1775-1783).

B.

European Exploration

Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian ship captain in the service of France, entered New York Harbor in 1524 but did not really explore the region. In 1603 the northern boundaries of present-day New York were explored by Samuel de Champlain and a party of French fur traders. In 1609 the French explorer discovered what is now Lake Champlain. That same year an Englishman, Henry Hudson, sailed up the river that bears his name as far as the region around present-day Albany. Hudson’s report to his Dutch employers aroused much interest, and several Dutch trading vessels returned to the Hudson Valley for furs.

C.

Dutch Colony

The first settlements in New York were made in 1624, when the Dutch West India Company sent out a boatload of colonists. Most of the settlers established themselves in the northern Hudson Valley, near the future site of Albany, at Fort Orange. Soon more colonists arrived and made their home on the lower tip of Manhattan, at a site that came to be known as New Amsterdam. In 1626 the governor of the colony, Peter Minuit, purchased Manhattan from the local Native Americans for trinkets valued at about $24. The Dutch colony, called New Netherland, grew slowly at first, because the Dutch West India Company neglected the northern outposts in favor of its holdings in the rich West Indies. A handful of traders supplied the Native Americans who brought in furs, the region’s prime resource. In 1629, however, the company offered its members large estates, called patroonships, if they would send settlers to New Netherland. Most of these ventures did not succeed, because few Dutch wanted to leave their homeland.

In 1637 the company appointed Willem Kieft director-general of New Netherland. A dictatorial leader, Kieft drove the colony into war in 1641 with the Algonquian tribes of the area. After a series of disputes arose between settlers and natives over land ownership, Kieft tried to impose a tax on the Native Americans to help pay for fortification of the settlements. When the tribes refused, Kieft caused the massacre of more than 100 native inhabitants. Four years of raids and reprisals by both sides followed, in which more than 1,000 Native Americans and settlers were killed.

Kieft was replaced in 1647 by Peter Stuyvesant. Although honest and efficient, Stuyvesant also used dictatorial methods in governing the colonists, who opposed high taxes on imports and demanded a voice in the government. Meanwhile, English colonists had expelled Dutch settlers from the Connecticut Valley and founded settlements on present-day Long Island. In 1650 Stuyvesant was forced to cede all of Long Island east of Oyster Bay to Connecticut, an English colony.

D.

English Colony

In 1664 King Charles II of England decided to take over the entire region, basing his claim on the explorations made for England by explorer John Cabot in 1497 and 1498. Charles granted to his brother James, Duke of York and Albany, all the land between the Connecticut and Delaware rivers. To enforce the English claim, Colonel Richard Nicolls sailed into New York Harbor with four ships and 400 soldiers. Stuyvesant wanted to fight, but the citizens of New Amsterdam were unwilling to resist. New Netherland and New Amsterdam were renamed New York. Beverwyck, the settlement that grew up around Fort Orange, became known as Albany.

In 1665 Nicolls, the first English governor of the colony, called a meeting of the representatives of settlers living on Long Island and in what is now Westchester County. He refused their request for an assembly, but he gave them some degree of local self-government. A document, called the Duke’s Laws, provided for the election of town boards and constables and guaranteed freedom of worship. Later these rights were granted to the rest of the province.

In 1682 Thomas Dongan was made governor. He called a representative assembly, which in 1683 adopted the Charter of Liberties and Privileges. This charter called for an elected legislature to levy taxes and make laws, and it guaranteed trial by jury and freedom of worship. Dongan gave New York and Albany charters providing for limited home rule and trading rights. He also cultivated the goodwill of the Iroquois, who were a buffer between New York and the French colony in Canada.

The guarantees of the charter never went into effect. In 1685 the Duke of York and Albany became king as James II, and he included New York within the Dominion of New England, a colony that incorporated most of New England under the close control of a royal governor. New Yorkers were infuriated when James dismissed Dongan and placed them under Sir Edmund Andros, the dominion’s governor, who ruled from Boston.

D.1.

Land Grants

The English governors of New York gave huge tracts of land to their friends, which resulted in only a small number of landowners. Many of these landlords were more interested in land speculation than in settlement, so the colony’s population grew slowly outside the major towns. Of special importance in New York’s history were the manors, large land holdings whose owners had almost unlimited power over them. Six such manors covered more than half of present-day Westchester County. The only successful Dutch patroonship, Rensselaerswyck, became a manor under the English. Located near Albany, it consisted of more than 280,000 hectares (700,000 acres). The Manor of Saint George, on Long Island, was more than 80 km (50 miles) long and covered the central part of the island from shore to shore.

The landholding aristocracy and the wealthy merchants of New York City controlled colonial affairs. Among the most prominent and influential families were the Livingstons, Schuylers, De Lanceys, and Van Cortlandts. Most of New York’s small farmers were located on Long Island and along the Hudson River in what is now Ulster County.

D.2.

Leisler’s Rebellion

In 1689 news arrived in New York that James II had been overthrown in England’s Glorious Revolution and that Andros, governor of the Dominion of New England, had been captured by Boston rebels. A group of armed New Yorkers called on Jacob Leisler, a German-born merchant, to take command of the colony. Leisler was stubborn and ill-tempered, but he championed the people’s rebellion against the local aristocracy of landlords and merchants. He won control over the whole colony and established an assembly.

In 1691 King William III, who had replaced James II, sent Colonel Henry Sloughter to take charge of New York. Sloughter listened to the charges of Leisler’s enemies and immediately set up a special court that convicted Leisler of treason. Leisler was executed, and for 20 years the colony remained split into two camps with hostile interests.

D.3.

Anglo-French Wars

New York’s location made it important in a series of wars fought between the English and French after 1689 for domination of the North American colonies. The side that controlled lakes Champlain, Ontario, and Erie and the Mohawk and Hudson rivers had a commanding position in North America. The Iroquois, situated near many of these waterways, occupied a strategic position between the two antagonists, and both sides sought their aid. In the first wars, the Iroquois Confederacy usually remained neutral, although respected frontier trading agents, such as Sir William Johnson, sometimes secured their aid for the English. In the last war, the French and Indian War (1754-1763), some Iroquois were persuaded to side with the British, while other tribes were allied with the French. With the Iroquois’s help, Britain won the war in 1763, expelling France from North America.

However, with the threat of war gone, land speculators and settlers entered much of the Iroquois territory, provoking clashes with the Native Americans. Under the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768, the Iroquois ceded to New York all lands east of a line drawn southward from present-day Rome, New York.

E.

American Revolution

To repay its heavy debts from the wars with the French and to meet the costs of keeping British troops in frontier forts, Great Britain passed a series of laws restricting trade and imposing higher taxes in the colonies (see Navigation Acts, Sugar and Molasses Acts, Stamp Act, Townshend Acts). These measures led to violent protests by colonists, and many New York merchants and professional men formed patriotic groups.

About half of New York’s 186,000 inhabitants in 1771 were of British descent, and many of them remained loyal to the British crown. These Loyalists, or Tories, gained control of the assembly, where they opposed the revolutionary mood within the colony. They rejected the embargo on British goods imposed by the First Continental Congress in 1774. The next year the rebel elements in New York formed a provincial congress in defiance of the assembly and sent delegates to the Second Continental Congress. After receiving news of the battles of Lexington and Concord, which began the American Revolution in April 1775, rebellious New Yorkers took up arms to support the Massachusetts militia (see Lexington, Battle of and Concord, Battle of). In October Governor William Tryon fled New York, followed by many Tories, and the provincial congress took steps to set up a provisional government.

In July 1776 the New York congress ratified the Declaration of Independence and changed its own name to the Convention of Representatives of the State of New York. The next year, New York’s first constitution was drafted, and the first legislature met in Kingston. George Clinton, who had served as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, was elected the state’s first governor.

Almost one-third of the military engagements in the American Revolution (1775-1783) took place in New York state. In the early stages of the fighting, the Americans captured Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point, on Lake Champlain. In September 1776, after the battles of Long Island and Harlem Heights, the British occupied New York City and held it until the war ended. The American victory at Saratoga in October 1777 was a turning point in the war, thwarting the British plan to occupy Albany, control the Hudson River and cut off New England from the other colonies.

When the revolution broke out, the powerful Iroquois Confederacy could not agree on whether to side with the Americans or the British, or to remain neutral. But some of the individual tribes joined the British, and Mohawk chief Joseph Brant led bands of his people and Tories in raids on unprotected frontier settlements in New York. In the summer of 1779, American generals James Clinton and John Sullivan marched against Native American villages near the Finger Lakes and present-day Elmira and decisively defeated a combined force of Tories and Native Americans.

Clinton took harsh measures against the Tories. By the end of the revolution more than 30,000 British sympathizers, including more than half of New York’s landholding aristocracy, had fled to Canada. The state seized their estates and sold the land to speculators and farmers. Most of the Iroquois who had sided with the British also settled in Canada. Those who remained signed treaties that confined them to reservations, and by 1800 they had signed away most of their land.

F.

Ratification of the Constitution

After the revolution ended, many New Yorkers opposed establishing a strong national government, preferring to retain the weaker structure created under the Articles of Confederation. The proposed national constitution prohibited states from taxing interstate commerce, a provision that would end New York’s power to collect customs duties on goods entering from New England and New Jersey. When the Constitution of the United States was drawn up in 1787, Alexander Hamilton was the only New York delegate at the constitutional convention to sign the final draft.

In 1788 New York elected a convention to consider ratification of the Constitution. The forces who opposed ratification were led by Governor Clinton and included 46 delegates. Supporters of the Constitution numbered only 19. But they were led by two major statesmen of the time: Hamilton, a prominent lawyer and leading advocate of a strong central government, and John Jay, former chief justice of the state and the nation’s secretary for foreign affairs. Hamilton and Jay conducted a skillful campaign for ratification, publishing their arguments in a series of articles known as The Federalist.

While the New York convention was meeting, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution, in June 1788, which put it into effect. New York faced isolation if it did not join the Union, and prominent men in New York City hinted at secession from the state if the convention did not ratify. On July 26, 1788, the convention ratified the Constitution, making New York the 11th state.

From 1785 to 1790 New York City served as the temporary national capital. At the city’s Federal Hall, George Washington was inaugurated as the nation’s first president on April 30, 1789.

G.

Early Political Conflicts

Two political parties vied for power in early New York state. The Federalist Party, led by Hamilton, favored a strong federal government that would be controlled mostly by wealthy commercial interests. The Federalists held power in New York from 1795 to 1800, while John Jay served as governor. Then their power dwindled, and by 1815 they were no longer a major party.

After 1800 leadership of the state passed to the quarreling factions of the Anti-Federalists. They considered themselves followers of Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic-Republican Party, which advocated states’ and individual rights and appealed to the nation’s farmers. They were led by four men who each had a popular following and high ambitions: George Clinton, his nephew De Witt Clinton, Daniel D. Tompkins, and Aaron Burr. Of the four, all but Burr served terms as governor, and George Clinton, Tompkins, and Burr all served as vice presidents of the United States.

In 1798 Burr gained control of the patriotic and charitable organization called the Tammany Society, organizing it as a personal political machine that helped elect Jefferson president and Burr vice president in 1800. But Burr failed to win renomination as vice president in 1804 and also failed to win the governorship because of forceful opposition by Hamilton, his bitter rival. Burr’s political career came to an end in 1804, when he challenged and killed Hamilton in a duel.

While the other Anti-Federalist leaders served in national offices, De Witt Clinton became the most important man in state politics. From 1803 to 1815, except for two years, he was mayor of New York City. In 1812 he ran unsuccessfully for president, although he carried many Northern states. From 1817 to 1828, except for one term, he was governor of the state and won fame for promoting construction of the Erie Canal.

H.

War of 1812

Much of the War of 1812 (1812-1815) between the United States and Britain was fought along New York’s frontiers with Canada. During the war, which was fought over the maritime rights of neutral nations, the British navy blockaded U.S. ports. Many New York merchants opposed the war because the blockade interfered with trade.

Attempts by the United States to invade British territory in Canada were unsuccessful, and in 1814 the British launched an offensive against Niagara and Lake Champlain. In a decisive naval battle, Americans under Captain Thomas Macdonough defeated the British near Plattsburgh, on Lake Champlain, thwarting the British invasion of the northern United States.

I.

Growth of the State

In the last years of the 18th century large tracts of land in central and western New York had been opened for settlement. An area extending from just below Ithaca to Lake Ontario, called the Military Tract, was reserved for veterans of the American Revolution. Lands west of Seneca Lake that had formerly been owned by Massachusetts were turned over to New York and sold to business leaders and speculators. After the revolution, New England’s farmers, discouraged by stony soil and high taxes, moved west into New York. In 1820 half the state’s inhabitants were New Englanders or their descendants. Central and western New York were quickly settled, but the north country remained a sparsely populated wilderness for many years.

From the 1820s to 1860, New York state and especially New York City were transformed by a flood of immigrants and unprecedented urban growth. The United States experienced a wave of immigration from Europe, starting in 1820 and reaching a peak in 1845. For most immigrants, their point of entry was New York City, and huge numbers of them stayed there. By 1860 New York was the nation’s largest city, with a population of 1 million, and nearly half of those residents were foreign-born. New York state’s population also exploded during this period, from 340,120 people in 1790 to more than 3.8 million in 1860. Nearly one-fifth of those residents were foreign-born. In contrast to colonial times, when most New Yorkers lived on farms, by 1860 about half of them lived in cities and towns.

The largest group of immigrants was the Irish, especially after a devastating potato famine struck their homeland in the 1840s. Many settled in New York City, while German immigrants tended to settle upstate, especially in Buffalo and Rochester. This influx of people included skilled European craftsmen and a huge pool of low-wage laborers that enabled New York to develop diverse industries. But low wages, long hours, and harsh working conditions made life difficult for many industrial workers. To try to improve their conditions, many skilled artisans and factory workers, who were mostly women and children, joined labor unions. With such rapid population growth, New York City and other urban areas faced problems of inadequate water supplies, sanitation and housing.

By 1830 New York ranked first among the states in population, manufacturing, trade, commerce, and transportation. New York City emerged as the primary center for textile manufacturing and ready-made clothing, banking, imports, insurance, and the stock exchange. From 1825 to the late 1850s the Genesee Valley was a national center for growing wheat. Other important products included livestock, corn, barley, oats, and hops. When the Midwest became the major source of grain, New York’s farmers turned to dairy products, fruits and vegetables. They supplied great quantities of milk, butter, cheese, and other perishable goods to the growing cities.

J.

Growth of Transportation

Inexpensive transportation and a strategic location were vital elements in New York’s growth. Canals, railroads and new types of ships were developed, enabling the state’s manufactured products to reach a vast market throughout the nation. All trade from New England to the West and South had to pass through New York state, and the Mohawk Valley was the best route for westward migration.

Before 1860 the state’s system of natural waterways, with outlets to the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes, was the most important means of transporting goods and passengers. Soon after inventor Robert Fulton successfully tested the first efficient steamboat on the Hudson River in 1807, steamboats were operating on lakes Champlain, Ontario, and Erie; on Long Island Sound; and on the Hudson River. Shipbuilders on the East River in New York City built clipper ships that carried goods to the West Coast of the continent and to Asia. New York City was the center of all trade between Europe and the United States; even cotton from the South passed through the city on its way to England.

The Erie Canal, built between 1817 and 1825, was the state’s most important water route. The 584-km (363-mi) canal linked the Great Lakes with the Hudson River, making New York City the marketing outlet for agricultural and industrial products from upstate New York and the Great Lakes regions. It also carried immigrants from New York City to settle on the newly opened farmland of the Midwest. By 1857 nearly 1,450 km (900 mi) of secondary canals linked such places as Binghamton and Oswego with the Erie Canal. The Champlain Canal connected Lake Champlain to the Hudson River and was an important factor in spurring the development of the lumber industry in the Adirondack region.

In 1831 New York’s first railroad began operations between Albany and Schenectady. Within ten years, lines were running from Albany to Buffalo. In 1851 the Erie Railroad was completed, connecting the counties of southern New York with Lake Erie and the Hudson River. It was an important factor in the economic development of the region.

The state also chartered many turnpike companies to build toll roads between important points. By 1825 more than 6,400 km (4,000 mi) of turnpike roads were in use. Although these early roads were crude, they greatly helped farmers move their produce to market. It was not until the development of the automobile that roads became as important to New York as water and rails.

K.

Politics (1820-1860)

From 1820 to 1860, a growing number of Americans participated in government affairs, as many states extended the right to vote and established more direct elections for governor and president. In 1821 New York gave almost all white men of legal age the right to vote, eliminating a requirement that voters be property owners. A property requirement continued to apply to free blacks until 1874, limiting the number who could vote. During this period a new two-party political system emerged in the United States. The parties became important forces in organizing voters to support candidates and issues. New York played a crucial part in this process.

The ruling Democratic-Republican Party in New York state had two factions. The Clintonians, led by Governor De Witt Clinton, tended to advocate a strong government led by wealthy commercial interests and favored internal improvements to aid the growth of business. Opposing the Clintonians was the Albany Regency, led by lawyer and legislator Martin Van Buren. It favored states’ rights and had the general support of the farmers, mechanics, and small business owners. The regency supported the presidential campaign of war hero Andrew Jackson, who claimed to be the champion of the common people. In elections in 1828, Van Buren won the New York governor’s race and Jackson was elected president. Their party, known from that point as the Democratic Party, pioneered the use of many political techniques: massive rallies and parades, campaign workers to get out the vote, newspaper publicity, and buttons and hats with the candidate’s name and face on them. Van Buren became vice president under Jackson in 1832 and in 1836 was the first New Yorker to be elected president of the United States.

In New York City, the regency had the support of the Tammany Society, the local political machine. The society, founded as a charitable and patriotic group, gained more and more influence as immigrants settled in the city. Tammany Society politicians helped the newcomers adjust to American life, become naturalized citizens, and often get city jobs. In return, Tammany received their loyalty and their votes.

New York also gave rise to the Anti-Masonic Party, which formed to oppose the influence of Freemasons, a fraternal group, in politics. It claimed the Freemasons, whose members took an oath of secrecy and practiced mysterious rituals, were antidemocratic. Opposition to the Freemasons began after William Morgan, a Freemason who was about to reveal the secrets of the order, disappeared in 1826 in western New York and was widely believed to have been kidnapped and murdered by fellow Freemasons. The party developed a national following but dissolved about 1834 to become part of the Whig Party, a conservative, business-oriented group. Whigs in New York, under the leadership of Thurlow Weed, held many state offices in the 1840s.

By 1850 both the Whigs and the Democrats had split into factions over the issue of slavery. Two former Whig leaders, New York City newspaper editor Horace Greeley and former New York Governor William Seward, played roles in organizing the national Republican Party, a coalition of groups that opposed slavery.

Another change in the political makeup of New York occurred in the 1840s with the end of the manorial system, one of the last remnants of colonial New York. In 1839 the Antirent War broke out when farmers on the Van Rensselaer estate in the Albany region refused to pay back rent. The rebellion spread to farmers on neighboring estates and won the support of many politicians. As a result, in 1846 the state constitution was amended to break up the holdings of the landed aristocracy, and small farmers were able to own their own farms.

L.

Civil War

The 1860 presidential election divided the generally antislavery Northern states from the proslavery Southern states. New York gave its 35 electoral votes to Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party in this crucial election. However, not all New Yorkers favored Lincoln’s efforts to save the Union. Mayor Fernando Wood of New York City and many merchants, caring little about slavery, wanted the city to remain neutral so it could maintain its commercial ties with the Southern states, as well as with the North. Poor immigrants also opposed Lincoln’s policies, especially his stand against slavery. They feared free blacks would compete with them for jobs and bring them economic ruin.

However, most citizens rallied to the Union cause in the American Civil War (1861-1865), which began a month after Lincoln was inaugurated and Southern states had started to secede. One-third of the casualties of the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861 were soldiers from New York. But as the war dragged on, enthusiasm declined. In 1863 Congress passed the first military draft law, but allowed exemptions for men who could pay $300 or hire substitutes. This provision, called the “Rich Man’s Exemption,” caused widespread anger among the poor workingmen of New York City, especially Irish immigrants. When the law took effect in July 1863, a mob burned the draft headquarters, then rampaged through the city, lynching blacks, burning neighborhoods, and looting. Federal troops had to be pulled off the battlefield to end the Draft Riots, in which more than 1,000 people were killed and about $2 million in property was damaged.

The Civil War strongly affected New York’s development. Although some industries boomed, the rate of industrial growth slowed down. Factories making war goods ran extra shifts, but cotton mills cut back to half time. Factory workers suffered a cut in buying power because prices rose faster than wages. On the other hand, rural New York prospered because of rising farm prices. This boom was offset in the long run, however, because the countryside lost thousands of young men to the Army and, after the war, to the cities. The war also brought with it a considerable amount of corruption and illegal profit making. The war did little to improve the conditions for the free blacks of New York. Discrimination kept them in the lowest-paying jobs and poorest neighborhoods, and politicians paid little attention to their plight.

M.

Immigration and Labor

A second major period of immigration, which began after the Civil War and peaked in the first two decades of the 20th century brought about 30 million people into the United States. While the earlier immigrants had come mostly from northern Europe, many of the immigrants in this period were Russians, Italians, Poles, and others from eastern and southern Europe, including many Jews. The majority of immigrants first set foot in America on Ellis Island, in New York Harbor. As before, many remained in New York City or settled in cities upstate. From 1890 to 1920 the population of New York state grew from 6 million to 10.4 million. From its pre-Civil War population of 1.2 million, New York City grew to nearly 5 million by 1910.

The new immigrants provided a steady supply of workers for the state’s growing industries: the steel and heavy metal manufacturing plants around Buffalo, the new photography industry that inventor George Eastman established in Rochester, the electric and locomotive plants in Schenectady, and the garment industry in New York City. The population shift from the farms to the cities, begun before the Civil War, continued at a faster rate. This meant laborers were also needed to build city streets, apartment buildings, subways, and electric trolley and railway lines. Free public education, established throughout the state in 1867, helped the immigrants adjust to their new country.

But life for many foreign-born Americans was difficult. They lived in overcrowded slum tenements—many without heat, lighting, or sanitation—for which they often paid high rents. In factories and garment sweatshops, they worked long hours for low wages, often in unsafe or unhealthful conditions. As workers tried to improve their lives, the labor movement grew and national unions were founded, such as the American Federation of Labor (AFL) led by Samuel Gompers. Two unions in the garment industry, the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) (see UNITE HERE: International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union) and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union, had a strong influence on New York state. As pioneers in welfare unionism, they built apartment houses and provided health clinics, concerts, and summer camps for their members.

The grim working conditions for garment workers were dramatically demonstrated in 1911, when a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City killed 146 women trapped in the factory. Reform efforts after the fire led New York to adopt some of the most progressive labor laws in the nation, including laws regulating sweatshops, factory safety, and the employment of women and children.

N.

Corruption and the Progressives

The corruption that was characteristic of the United States in the years after the Civil War flourished in New York. In New York City, William M. Tweed became an important figure in the Tammany Society, the Democratic political machine, and formed the Tweed Ring with other politicians. The ring openly bought votes, encouraged judicial corruption, and controlled New York City politics, costing the city an estimated $30 million to $200 million. Tammany Hall, the society’s headquarters, became a synonym for a corrupt political machine.

Upstate politicians and legislators from both parties matched “Boss Tweed” in their enthusiasm for graft but lacked his success. The two major parties were dominated by bosses who cared mostly about patronage, the practice of giving out jobs for political advantage. Tammany Hall, even after Tweed’s downfall in 1872, remained a power in Democratic politics. The Republicans were ruled by men like U.S. Senator Roscoe Conkling and Thomas C. Platt, experts in using the spoils system, under which they bestowed jobs and political offices on their friends and supporters rather than appointing the most qualified candidates.

Periodically, reformers succeeded in restoring honest government to New York State. Samuel J. Tilden, a New York City lawyer, led the exposé of the Tweed Ring and in 1874 was elected governor of New York. Corruption was so widespread throughout the country that in 1876 Tilden’s reputation for honesty formed a basis for him to run for president on the Democratic ticket. Although Tilden won more popular votes than his Republican opponent, Rutherford B. Hayes, the electoral vote was contested in several states and an electoral commission declared Hayes the winner. In 1882 Grover Cleveland was elected governor on a reform ticket and was elected to the presidency in 1884 and 1892.

In addition to politicians, New York business leaders also practiced gross corruption, especially during the unprecedented industrial growth that occurred from 1877 to 1893. Because New York was the financial, commercial, and industrial center of the nation, financial misdeeds there were more spectacular than in other areas of the country. Through widespread bribery, the major corporations all but controlled the New York legislature. Stock manipulation and legislative bribery helped create fortunes for railroad barons such as Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Daniel Drew, and James Fisk.

By the end of the 19th century a progressive movement developed to combat corruption, regulate trusts, expand democracy, and reform the worst abuses of urban industrial life. Theodore Roosevelt was elected in 1898 as New York’s first important progressive governor. Because of his reform efforts and his independence from the Republican Party machine, the party boss, Thomas Platt, arranged to get him out of state politics by having him made the party’s vice presidential nominee in 1900. This led Roosevelt to the presidency after the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901.

Even more successful than Roosevelt in passing progressive measures was Charles Evans Hughes, an independent Republican, who was New York governor from 1907 to 1910. Hughes brought the public utilities and the railroads under stricter government control, sponsored legislation to tighten state regulation of banking and finance companies, passed a law to compensate workers injured on the job, and championed measures to improve social welfare and public health. He also instituted important administrative reforms.

Hughes resigned as governor in 1910 to become an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. During the next four years, while the Democratic Party controlled the governor’s office, laws were passed to regulate the Wall Street securities industry, create direct primary elections, revise and strengthen workers’ compensation, and advance social welfare programs.

O.

Black Migration

Beginning in World War I (1914-1918), large numbers of Southern blacks began migrating to the state to escape prejudice and poverty. Settling mostly in New York City, blacks were subjected to less discrimination in New York than in the South but were regarded by many people as second-class citizens. The New York City neighborhood of Harlem became the center of black cultural life, attracting many writers and artists.

A similar migration of blacks from the South occurred during and after World War II (1939-1945), as New York became an important producer of military supplies for the defense industry. Large numbers of Puerto Ricans also arrived in the 1950s and 1960s seeking jobs, and most settled in New York City.

P.

Liberal Political Tradition

During the 1920s New York became known for its progressive government. Under Democratic Governor Alfred E. Smith (1919-1921 and 1923-1929), state government was reorganized and consolidated, the power of the governor was increased, the state park system was expanded, and cities were given wider power to govern themselves. Far-reaching social legislation was enacted, including an eight-hour workday and state aid for health and education.

In 1928 Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected governor. The Great Depression, the economic hard times that began in 1929, prevented Roosevelt from continuing Smith’s reform policies. But as governor, Roosevelt was able to experiment with many programs that became part of the New Deal, his economic strategy for battling the Depression, after he became president in 1933.

Roosevelt was succeeded as governor by Herbert H. Lehman, a wealthy banker with strong liberal convictions. While maintaining a balanced budget, he worked to alleviate mass unemployment and cooperate with Roosevelt’s social programs. New Deal public works projects hired many of New York’s unemployed.

In 1936 the small but influential American Labor Party was founded, largely by leaders of the two major garment workers unions. Ten years later, the party split and one faction formed the Liberal Party. Working usually with the Democrats but sometimes with the Republicans, the Liberals helped nominate progressive candidates for political office. The Liberal Party would remain the third party on the state ballot until it was replaced by the Conservative Party in the 1960s.

In 1942 Thomas E. Dewey, a crime-fighting district attorney, was elected governor, the first Republican to hold that office in 20 years. Dewey continued the social programs of his Democratic predecessors. In 1945 he supported passage of the Ives-Quinn Act, the nation’s first state law to outlaw discrimination in employment. Dewey also began the construction of the New York Thruway, which in 1964 was renamed the Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway.

In 1954 Democrat William Averell Harriman was elected governor. In the same year, work was begun on the St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project. Completed in 1959, it enabled oceangoing vessels to reach New York ports on the Great Lakes by way of the St. Lawrence River. Hydroelectric projects greatly expanded power-generating capacity.

In 1958 Republican Nelson A. Rockefeller defeated Harriman in the election for governor. Rockefeller, who served until 1973, governed in the liberal tradition established by his predecessors. He increased many of the state’s social services, especially aid to education. The state university system, founded in 1948, expanded rapidly, and the state also aided private colleges. It encouraged the construction of sewage disposal plants and enrolled in Medicaid. To finance such spending, taxes were raised, a state lottery was adopted, and the government borrowed heavily.

In 1964 the United States Supreme Court ruled that state election districts had to be apportioned according to the principle of “one man, one vote.” Reapportionment two years later gave New York’s cities, and especially the suburbs, more representation in the legislature.

In 1971 the bloodiest prison rebellion in U.S. history resulted in the deaths of 43 people at the Attica State Correctional Facility.

Q.

Recent Developments

From 1950 to 1970, New York’s population increased by about 3.4 million to a total of 18.2 million. It was the nation’s most populous state until the 1960s, when California surpassed it. During the 1970s, the population of New York declined by more than 680,000, as residents moved to other regions of the country that offered better economic opportunities. The state’s major cities, including New York City, were hardest hit, as residents moved to the suburbs, a trend that began after World War II (1939-1945). By the early 1980s, suburban New York City was home to more than 25 percent of the state’s population, which by 2000 had rebounded to nearly 19 million.

As the suburbs grew, the urban population became more heavily black and Puerto Rican. Chronically high unemployment and a series of social problems, such as rising crime rates, emerged as major concerns by the 1980s. Federal and state welfare programs became a lifeline for the cities’ poorest residents, but the price was higher taxes as benefits were raised to keep people above the poverty level.

Behind the state’s growing social problems was New York’s economic transformation. Like other Eastern and Midwestern states in the “Rust Belt,” New York saw its old industrial base shrink in the 1970s and 1980s. Between 1972 and 1987, jobs in manufacturing decreased by nearly 500,000. Industries such as steel, clothing, leather, and printing declined dramatically as demand for goods fell and some companies moved to more favorable Sun Belt locations. Expansion in service, retailing, and communications only partially filled the gap, with jobs that usually paid lower wages and did not offer the benefits and security that union organization had won for workers in the older industries. Union membership dropped across the state, and by the early 1980s more public employees belonged to unions than did workers in the private sector. Large corporations laid off many workers, adding to the economic dislocation in New York state.

New York’s political leaders had to grapple with the state’s social and economic problems. Democratic Governor Hugh L. Carey, who succeeded Rockefeller in 1973, faced a financial crisis in state and local government. Only emergency aid from federal and state governments, organized by Carey’s administration, prevented the bankruptcy of New York City, Yonkers, and several state agencies in 1975 and 1976. Carey pursued other policies designed to adjust the tax structure, encourage business investment, and stimulate the state’s economy. At the same time, he kept intact New York’s safety net of programs to help the poor and the unemployed. To combat crime, he sponsored a law in 1978 that increased penalties for violent crimes and provided that older juveniles accused of serious crimes would be tried in adult courts.

Governor Mario Cuomo (1983-1995) continued the Democratic Party’s liberal tradition on social welfare and tried to stabilize and expand the state’s economy. He also supported and won bond issues to maintain and repair New York’s infrastructure. But Cuomo was weakened politically by rising crime rates, increasing welfare costs, taxes that many residents felt were too high, and lagging business investment. A phased-in tax cut could not be completed as scheduled because of growing state deficits. In 1994 Cuomo was defeated in his bid for a fourth term by Republican George Pataki, a fiscal conservative and proponent of smaller government. Pataki immediately announced a program to trim the state’s bureaucracy and regulatory functions, begin tax cuts, and improve New York’s business climate. In 1995 he approved a bill that restored the death penalty for certain crimes, similar to legislation Carey and Cuomo had vetoed repeatedly. Pataki resolved to reduce the share of state financing for public higher education and advocated the reorganization of the State University of New York. By 2001 crime had been dramatically reduced, and the population of the state was again on the rise.

On September 11, 2001, New York City became the site of a devastating terrorist attack (see September 11 Attacks). Two hijacked passenger jets crashed into the 110-story twin towers of the World Trade Center, located in the heart of Manhattan’s financial district. As people evacuated the buildings, both towers collapsed completely, killing thousands. The same morning, another hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon outside of Washington, D.C., and a fourth hijacked plane crashed in Pennsylvania. About 3,000 people were killed in the terrorist attacks, which were the deadliest in United States history. See Terrorism.

Pataki did not seek a fourth term as governor in 2006. Voters elected Democrat Eliot Spitzer, attorney general of New York, as the next governor. Spitzer pledged to fund development projects in an effort to reverse the economic decline of cities in upstate New York, but his administration ended abruptly in March 2008 after he was implicated in a prostitution scandal. It was the first time since 1913 that a New York governor was forced to resign. Spitzer was succeeded by Lieutenant Governor David A. Paterson, who became the state’s first black governor.

The History section of this article was contributed by Robert F. Wesser. The remainder of the article was contributed by Thomas J. Gergel.