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A panoramic view of the harbor
Discover the forgotten history of New York's early Africans.
 SUMMER RANGER-GUIDED TOURS! 
Tours run through September.
Space is limited.
 Self-guided tours 
Download the self-guided tour package
with audio narration and a one-page map.
Save the 56 mb zip file in its entirety before opening. Open and transfer the audio files to your portable audio player, then print the pdf.
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Walking Tour

This Hallowed Ground: Slavery in New York

Learn the story of New York's early Africans, enslaved and free, their struggle for survival in a new world and their resilience in fashioning an existence that belied their varied origins and bondage.

Take this seasonal National Park Service Ranger-guided tour, led on a group headset system and hear audio commentary from noted experts including; Chris Moore, historian at New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Mike Wallace, author of Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. To explore on your own, download our self-guided audio tour, written and narrated by New York Times reporter Sam Roberts. On your tour you will:

  • Traverse streets built by enslaved and free African labor.
  • See the corner where Africans were traded as commodities.
  • Visit the site where the first U.S. Congress met to ensure freedoms for all citizens, except Africans.
  • Reflect on the lives of these ancestors at the African Burial Ground memorial.

ROUTE
Begins at Federal Hall; concludes at the African Burial Ground. About 90 minutes long.

African Burial Ground Visitor Center Reenactment
EXPLORE the new exhibit inside 290 Broadway to cap your tour.

TICKETS
Ranger-guided tours of This Hallowed Ground

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Tours run 2-3:30pm on Saturdays except where noted. Price $12.
Click a date to buy tickets.

July   3 • 17 • 31         All sales are final. However, the tour may be cancelled in the event of severe weather conditions. Should that occur a refund will be issued within 5 business days of the scheduled tour. For information on weather related cancellations on the day of your tour, call (212) 825-6990 and ask to speak with a ranger.
August 14 • 21 • 28
September      4 •   9 (Thursday)

PARTNERS: This is an official Gateway to America Tour created by the Harbor Conservancy and the National Park Service in collaboration with The New York Times Community Affairs Department. Gateway to America tours begin downtown and on New York Harbor -- the place that has shaped our heritage from the time of the first explorers, to successive waves of immigrants, shipmasters and pleasure-boaters propelling the city's growth into the nation's most populous and most vibrant.

SPONSORS: The Tiffany & Co. Foundation is among the founding sponsors of the Harbor Conservancy. Their generous grant was matched, in part, by federal funds to produce this tour. The tour is also made possible through the generosity of American Express.