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Greenwich Village, particularly its southern portion, has played an important role in New York's African-American history going back to the 1600s when freed slaves were settled there by the Dutch. Local black churches of the neighborhood in the 19th century were the progenitors of some of New York's oldest and most prominent African-American congregations found for the most part today in Harlem. The African Grove Theater gave serious competition to established white theaters by performing Shakespeare plays with an all black cast in the early 1820s. Spring Street Presbyterian Church was one of the most vocal abolitionist churches of the city and was viciously attacked by racist mobs. Join urban planner and preservationist Laurence Frommer as we retrace how African Americans shaped the Village and the Village shaped the city.