Thomas Commeraw

[3] The later misspelling “Commereau,” found copied in the museum records of Winterthur and numerous other institutions, likely stems from an 1800 census that listed “Commeraw /a Black/” living in New York's Seventh Ward.

[7][8][9] In the new colony, Commeraw was a leader, writing letters back to the Society to report on the state of the project.

They forced Commeraw and his comrades to move in 1821, believing that the British government may attempt to take the previous site, consisting of valuable farmland, away from the vulnerable colonists.

In that year, Commeraw wrote another letter to the Society, in which he despaired of the project and feared for his children's moral state.

[15] In 2023, Commeraw will be the subject of Crafting Freedom at the New-York Historical Society, the first single-artist show to be dedicated to him.

Johan Willem Crolius came to New York from a small town near Westerwald, the center of eighteenth-century German stoneware production.

Johannes Remmey came from the same region, and they married sisters, forming an interconnected family of potters that dominated the stoneware production in New York for decades.

Enslaved individuals trained in a crucial business function were often more valuable than their untrained counterparts, and were not traded and sold as frequently.