New York

State: New York

Lat/Long: 43.0000, -75.0000

One of the original thirteen colonies, New York ratified the U.S. Constitution on July 26, 1788, becoming the eleventh state in the Union. The state capital moved several times before permanently settling in Albany in 1797. New York instituted gradual emancipation in 1799 and abolished slavery for all permanent residents in 1827, becoming a free state that remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War. The national capital was also located in the state, at New York City, until 1790.

Thomas H. Johnson, Oxford Companion to American History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966), 206; J. H. French, Historical and Statistical Gazetteer of New York State (Syracuse, NY: R. Pearsall Smith, 1860), 26; Paul Finkelman, "Slave Transit," Encyclopedia of New York State, ed. by Peter Eisenstadt and Laura Eve-Moss (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2006), 1422; Rohit T. Aggarwala, "New York City as National Capital," Encyclopedia of New York State, 1079; Hans L. Trefousse, "Civil War," Encyclopedia of New York State, 335-37.