Thomas Downing

Thomas Downing was born in 1791 on Chincoteague Island, Virginia, the son of parents who had been enslaved. He learned to rake oysters as a child, and after the War of 1812 he moved north, spending about seven years in Philadelphia where he ran an oyster bar.

In 1819, at the age of 28, he moved to New York City and was listed in the census as an oysterman, an occupation many African-American men held. In 1825 he opened his own oyster cellar at 5 Broad Street in the heart of the financial district, placing it close to banks, the Customs House and the Merchants' Exchange.

Downing turned a humble oyster cellar into a landmark. His restaurant was upscale, with chandeliers, carpets and fine tableware, and women could dine there respectably, which was unusual at the time. Stockbrokers, lawyers, politicians and visitors ate there, and he expanded into neighbouring cellars, catered large events such as a banquet welcoming Charles Dickens, and exported oysters internationally. Queen Victoria reportedly sent him a gold chronometer watch as thanks for oysters he shipped to her.

Downing's wealth came from serving the white establishment, but he used it for freedom. In 1836 he helped found the Anti-Slavery Society of the City of New York, financed fights against fugitive slave laws and petitioned for equal voting rights for Black men. His oyster house was a stop on the Underground Railroad, and people fleeing slavery were hidden in its basement from the 1830s until the 1860s.

Thomas Downing died in April 1866, aged about 75, and New York's Chamber of Commerce closed on the day of his funeral. His son George T. Downing, an activist in his own right, ran the oyster house after him.