Downtown Connections

Near this site were four plots owned by Albro Lyons, Peter Guignon, and Rebecca Marshall, Guignon’s wife. Related by marriage, the Lyons and Guignon families were part of a small, tight-knit group of African Americans who prospered in New York City before the Civil War. Despite numerous obstacles, they became community leaders committed to racial uplift and made notable contributions to the city’s cultural, economic, and political life. The Lyons and the Guignons did not actually live in Seneca Village, and many African Americans who owned property there lived downtown. Buying property in Seneca Village was an investment for the future, and many were also likely motivated to buy property as a path to suffrage. In 1821, New York State passed a law requiring African-American men to own property valued at $250 or more in order to vote. The connection between Seneca Village and these families and other downtown residents shows that despite the settlement’s geographical remoteness, it remained linked to the city’s larger African-American community.

New York, New York · United States