Plain Sight Project Brings Stories Of East End Enslaved People To Light

Donnamarie Barnes is a co-founder of the Plain Sight Project.

David Rattray is a a co-founder of the Plain Sight Project. RUSSEL BENNETT

Donnamarie Barnes is a co-founder of the Plain Sight Project. CHARITY ROBEY

The Black Lives Matter protest at Hook Mill in East Hampton in June of 2020. BEN PARKER

The Sylvester Manor house built 1737.

The Stone commemorating the Afro-Indigenous Burial Ground at Sylvester Manor where there may be up to 200 persons are buried. The stone reads, "Burying Ground of the Colored People of Sylvester Manor since 1651." The stone was erected by the Horsford family in 1884.

A line from the Manumission Certificate from 1797 for Matilda, a woman enslaved at Sylvester Manor. The certificate is housed at the East Hampton Library.

Peggy is one of only two to have the only known headstones for people who had been enslaved in the Town of East Hampton, out of hundreds who we now know lived here. Courtesy Plain Sight Project

Taking a close look at historical records and documents like these from the East Hampton Library's Long Island Collection has been a key part of the research involved in the Plain Sight Project. The “shoe” books contain the names of enslaved people, as well as their enslaver; this one shows, “John Mulford[’s] negro pomp to a pair of Shoes Sold [soled]” for three shillings in Sept. 1760. Courtesy East Hampton Library Long Island Collection

Ned is one of only two to have the only known headstones for people who had been enslaved in the Town of East Hampton, out of hundreds who we now know lived here. Courtesy Plain Sight Project Courtesy Plain Sight Project

The Stratton Dayton house was in East Hampton, in the present-day Village of East Hampton. The date of this 19th century photograph and the names of the people in it are not known. Courtesy Plain Sight Project

Taking a close look at historical records and documents like these from the East Hampton Library's Long Island Collection has been a key part of the research involved in the Plain Sight Project. The document is part of the manumission record for London Dayton On Jan. 29, 1798, attesting that he could provide for himself and would not end up the responsibility of the Overseers of the Poor. Courtesy East Hampton Library Long Island Collection