The New-York Historical Society Unveils Plans for New York Divided: Slavery 
and the Civil War—the final Chapter in a groundbreaking series opens 
November 17

Exhibition traces importance of slavery in the evolution of New York’s rise 
to global economic power from 1827 through 1865

NEW YORK, NY – September 20, 2006 – The New-York Historical Society (N-YHS) 
will open New York Divided: Slavery and the Civil War, the final exhibition 
in its groundbreaking series on slavery and its impact on the people, 
landscape, institutions and economy of New York on November 17, 2006. The 
exhibition runs through September 3, 2007. 

New York Divided provides a bold look at one of the most challenging 
periods in our City's history, when it was torn by the violence of the 1863 
draft riots, produced some of the most significant figures in the 
Abolitionist movement, and became the economic engine of the country," says 
Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of the New-York Historical Society. "The 
ideas and stories that are part of our American history have the power to 
challenge conventional wisdom and provoke new thought and action. Thousands 
of visitors to the groundbreaking Slavery in New York exhibition left video 
testimony that they learned something new from their visit and made 
important connections between the past and their present-day lives. The 
important historical lessons to be presented in New York Divided will 
introduce a critical chapter in American history that is largely unknown to 
the general public."

New York Divided traces the evolution of New York's rise to national and 
global economic power and its relationship to the nation's confrontation 
with issues of slavery and racial inequality against the backdrop of the 
Civil War. Far more than any other Northern city, New York was tied to the 
economy of the south, and especially to cotton.  New York did not grow 
cotton, or process it, or make it into goods, but the city inserted itself 
into the business of cotton, by far the world's most important commodity in 
the nineteenth century.  

For further information about New York Divided and other exhibits at The 
New-York Historical Society visit www.nyhistory.org.