The research topic that interests me the most is the small village of African-American land owners living in what we know as Central Park today. There are several reasons I find this topic so interesting and they are: I want to know in what years this community established itself, I want to know what their daily lives were like while living as a community, what kind of work were they doing, what did their homes look like, what did they do for recreation, did they have citizens rights, how was this community viewed by the larger majority (Whites) at that time, and I want to know what happened to these people after their land was taken from them.
What I know so far is that the existence of the village called “Seneca Village” remained unknown to the public during the first 150 years of Central Park’s existence. And that if wasn’t for a group of archaeologists and historians who call themselves the Seneca Village Society pressuring the city to reveal the existence of Seneca Village in the year 2001, we likely wouldnt have known this settlement ever existed. I also know that the land was seized due to prominent white residents of NYC feeling envious of the natural parks in London, and so they brought their concerns to the mayor in year 1854 and the mayor complied. Mayor Ambrose Kingsland used the law of eminent domain to seize the land.
The data on this topic is going to come from the findings of the Seneca Village Society. I am going to do more research on their website as well as attempt to visit them and see what artifacts they dug up.
The research methods I plan to use will be interviewing someone from the SVS, reading any article written by them, or another acceptable source, and possibly going to Central Park and asking one of the employees where could I find out about this topic.
This is a great topic, Channing, and it sounds like you’ve already done some reading about it. You already have a lot of questions, and you’ll need to narrow these down. You note that archaeologists and historians of the Seneca Village Project pressured the city to recognize the site–you could even make the debates around the site your topic, and look at the history and politics of the excavation.
I encourage you to make note of the sources you’ve already consulted, and search them for leads to academic sources you can use in your paper.
I would definitely consult the SVP for articles. Interviewing may be helpful, depending on what you are trying to learn–for example, if they are a descendent of a former Seneca Village resident, or an archaeologist involved in the excavation. Check to see whether the information or analysis you’re seeking has already been published before you decide whether to interview someone from the SVP–in which case, it would not be necessary to conduct an interview for that purpose.