A People's History of Wall Street
Tour Guide: Rebecca Manski · Start Location: Bowling Green · 2 Hours
Still wondering how Wall Street became the world capital of capitalism? Or how New York City became the place in America where the most money and the most inequity converge to this day? How about all the ways that people fought back? A couple of answers can be found at the foot of the wall erected by the very first corporation in Manhattan, the Dutch West India Company. Still more answers can be found at the dockside where abducted Africans first touched foot on Wall Street. And others can be found on the steps of Federal Hall, our first center of government, ironically constructed right across the street from the New York Stock Exchange. But the best response of all can be found in the resistance movements that converged on Wall Street to fight back every step of the way.
Occupy Wall Street may have been the first social movement in half a century to focus on “economic inequality”, but it was far from the first uprising at the heart of the capital of capitalism. Join a historian and member of the Occupy Wall Street Press Team as we undo the mystique of this infamous marketplace. We’ll be looking at New York's financial district from all angles, but especially from the ground, up. Together, let’s dig into the foundations of American capitalism from the People's point of view.
Themes Covered: Lenape, Colonial Manhattan, Slave Uprisings, Formation of American Capitalist & Democratic Institutions, Tammany Hall, Resistance Movements
Still wondering how Wall Street became the world capital of capitalism? Or how New York City became the place in America where the most money and the most inequity converge to this day? How about all the ways that people fought back? A couple of answers can be found at the foot of the wall erected by the very first corporation in Manhattan, the Dutch West India Company. Still more answers can be found at the dockside where abducted Africans first touched foot on Wall Street. And others can be found on the steps of Federal Hall, our first center of government, ironically constructed right across the street from the New York Stock Exchange. But the best response of all can be found in the resistance movements that converged on Wall Street to fight back every step of the way.
Occupy Wall Street may have been the first social movement in half a century to focus on “economic inequality”, but it was far from the first uprising at the heart of the capital of capitalism. Join a historian and member of the Occupy Wall Street Press Team as we undo the mystique of this infamous marketplace. We’ll be looking at New York's financial district from all angles, but especially from the ground, up. Together, let’s dig into the foundations of American capitalism from the People's point of view.
Themes Covered: Lenape, Colonial Manhattan, Slave Uprisings, Formation of American Capitalist & Democratic Institutions, Tammany Hall, Resistance Movements