By Jessica Easthope
For one descendant of Staten Island’s historic Sandy Ground community, preserving the story of the nation’s oldest continuously inhabited free black settlement begins with family.
“My grandmother wrote the Sandy Ground Memories in 2005,” the descendant said. “That’s really where I got a lot of my history to get the full genealogy to the first ancestor that came here, which was Francis Jackson and John Jackson. That’s how I know my history.”
That history stretches back to the early 1800s, when Sandy Ground became home to free black families who built successful lives through the region’s thriving oyster and clamming industries.
“If we go back to the early 1800s, there was this booming waterway industry, booming commercial industry for watermen, oystermen, clammers,” the descendant explained. “We’re seeing that all in the Eastern Shore. That’s where the majority of Sandy Grounders came from.”
The community once teemed with life.
“Turtles. Pheasants. Frogs. Birds. Insects. Trees. Plains. Whatever. Nothing like it was.”
More importantly, Sandy Ground represented a diverse community that offered a vision of what America could become.
“There were indigenous people. There were white people. There were black people. This was a sample set of what America should be now.”
“The ideal of America, where you could be judged on your character, who you are, not what you look like.”
At a time when black Americans faced slavery and widespread oppression, Sandy Ground stood apart.
“This was a resilient community that at a time where black people were being oppressed, enslaved, your ancestors were here owning their own boats, having a lucrative business. They were doing things that were unheard of throughout the country.”
The descendant believes that legacy deserves wider recognition.
“Black history is American history.”
“When you talk about Sandy Ground, I think about liberation, I think about freedom.”
The community’s founders, they said, were never seeking recognition.
“Black people weren’t seen. They were seen as property, less than. I don’t think the original settlers of Sandy Ground were in it for fame or, ‘Oh, look at us.’ It was looking for their part of the American dream.”
“Because if it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t be here.”
For the descendants who continue preserving Sandy Ground’s history today, faith remains inseparable from that mission.
“What’s here that you can’t feel from AI? Love and God and faith.”
“We can’t separate the faith from the existence of the community. And that’s why Rossville AME Zion is such a big deal to us.”
Preserving that legacy requires ongoing work, whether through fundraising, grants, or community support.
“What are we doing? All that we can, using our resources the best way we know how to, whether that’s trying to apply for grants, whether that’s fundraising.”
Despite concerns about the future, the descendant remains hopeful.
“I think my biggest fear is that it becomes, ‘Do you remember Sandy Ground?’ That we die out. That Sandy Ground just becomes like a folk tale.”
But that, they insist, will not happen.
“Sandy Ground is still making history. Rossville AME Zion is still making history. Oh my. We’re going to continue.”
“You don’t give up on God. He don’t give up on you. And he’s given us this. So we’re not giving up.”