This coming August 27 marks the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn, the first shots of which were fired near the present-day 36th Street subway station. George Washington and his Continental Army quickly retreated across the East River, and within three weeks, British forces controlled Manhattan.
Loyalists to the crown poured into the city, seizing property vacated by fleeing Patriots and moving into the homes of the roughly 5,000 people who stayed behind. Several thousand enslaved Blacks journeyed to the city in order to fight for England, which promised emancipation in return. In Wallabout Bay (near the current Brooklyn Navy Yard), thousands of Patriots held as prisoners of war starved to death on gruesome prison ships.
The seven-year period in which British troops held sway is the ostensible focus of “The Occupied City: New York and the American Revolution,” a new exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY). Organized in partnership with the Gotham Center for New York History, the show offers plenty of good insights and exciting artifacts about the periods before and after the anticolonial uprising. But despite its title, the exhibit’s presentation of the British occupation is surprisingly brief.
The curtain opens in 1763, when the French and Indian War ends with the British seizing control of eastern Canada. Although victorious, the crown was deeply in debt—and thus slapped its North American colonies with a wide range of taxes in the Stamp Act of 1765. The show’s carefully re-created tavern and equally well-decorated coffeehouse bring to life the settings in which New Yorkers voiced their objections to the crown’s impositions.
One of the MCNY show’s many strengths is the brief stories of some lesser-known figures from the revolutionary era it provides, via audio narration by actors. The tale of Isaac Sears (aka “King Sears”)—a wealthy seaman, merchant, and Patriot rabble-rouser—packs a wallop. Sears’ many targets included James Rivington, publisher of Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer, a Loyalist rag.
Museumgoers of all ages will likely enjoy the opportunity to pull down a simulated statue of King George III. The process requires tugging on two ropes, with a surprising amount of effort needed to make the computer-generated image tip over. The experience was all the more galvanizing for yours truly because King Charles and Queen Camilla had just rolled through town on a red carpet. “No Kings” is a timeless rallying cry.
The actual “Occupied City” section of the exhibit is far less stimulating. It proceeds along a dimly lit corridor near MCNY’s third-floor elevators. Although the brutality of the prison ships is highlighted, viewers never learn that the total number of Patriot captives tortured to death in Wallabout Bay—over 11,000—exceeded the number of Washington’s troops that died in the entire war. Nor is there any mention of how the brutality influenced subsequent local support for the 8th Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
“The house was full of men plundering everything they saw,” reads a large banner, quoting Helen Kortright Brasher, a Patriot who fled the city when the British rolled in. Although her home was in Paramus, NJ, Brasher’s experience was common throughout the region. Yet the exhibit makes no reference to the impact of British troops’ wanton thievery on the 3rd Amendment’s provision against quartering, which remains a rather uncontroversial component of the Bill of Rights.
The post-revolution section of the exhibit again picks up steam, showcasing the American version of the Book of Negroes, an impressively well-preserved artifact (on loan from the National Archives). The oversized volume recorded the plight of 3,000 slaves who fought for the British. Throughout 1783, the crown’s Brigadier General Samuel Birch presided over the so-called “Birch Trials” at the Fraunces Tavern, ultimately helping Black Loyalists gain safe passage to Nova Scotia, London and the West Indies.
As the show explains, in the wake of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, it was the anti-Federalists, led by Gov. George Clinton, who demanded inclusion of the Bill of Rights in exchange for supporting ratification of the Constitution. Alexander Hamilton and many fellow local Federalists opposed such additions, calling them “unnecessary.” In the words of an exhibit banner, the anti-Federalists may not have been champions of “popular democracy”—but we nonetheless can appreciate their fight for civil liberties.
Occupied City closes with a provocative large-screen video compilation (by Tim Gersten) that shows many pivotal Revolutionary War sites in New York City today. The projections patiently capture tranquil moments in the current surroundings, from the Fraunces Tavern to a Loyalist fort manned by Black soldiers in the Bronx. The late 18th-century really does not seem like the distant past.
“Occupied City: New York and the American Revolution” is on view at the Museum of the City of New York through April 2027.
Ted Hamm’s Meet Mayor Mamdani: The Spectacular Victory of a Democratic Socialist in New York City is now available from OR Books.
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