The Dock Ward is bounded to the north by Wall Street and Smith Street, the east and south by the River, and the west by Broad Street.
Some of the most prominent families of the city live in the Dock Ward: the Alexanders, the Livingstons, the Wallace's, the Ludlow's, the Clarkstons. Either to enjoy "the good air" of Broad Street. or to huddle near the Exchange at its end, the better to review their accounts, count their money, and transact their business.
The oldest (and only!) synagogue in New York , a small and humble edifice on Mill Street called
Shearith Israel, first synagogue in America built for that purpose, was consecrated in 1730, though the congregation arrived in 1654, Sephardic Jews from the tolerant Dutch city of Amsterdam. Haym Salomon, a Polish immigrant, became a Son of Liberty almost immediately upon arriving in New York in 1775 and setting up his business as an international broker and financier. His contributions to the Glorious Cause, his largesse in the name of freedom, are already legendary.
Across Dock street from the waterfront taverns, brothels, boarding houses and slums, this is the wealthiest section of town after the great houses of lower Broadway. There are many mercantile establishments - most boarded up, with the evacuation of the City inland in anticipation of the arrival of the British armada and Hessian soldiers. The waterfront, once a forest of masts and sails, raucous with the calls of gulls and sailors, is now strangely quiet. Many who could afford to do so have shipped their families and fortunes to safer havens like Philadelphia.
On the waterfront, there is much crime. Murder here is not so much as it is in Charles Town, murder capital of the colonies, which boasts a murder rate twice that of Philadelphia, five times the murder rate in congested and crime-ridden London. Assault is more common still, accounting for 33% of all crimes in New York. Alcohol and testosterone among sailors plays a part in the nightly beatings administered on all sides. The rapes of black women, servants, natives and women of "loose morals" are not often prosecuted, as there is an underlying belief that women are responsible for the sexuality of men, as well as their own. Theft is perhaps the most common crime in New York, with the public advised by the local papers in the face of the threat of robbery to "be on your guard, and carry with you both sword and a well-charged pistol."
Sight - Though many businesses are now boarded up, the taverns are still doing a brisk trade. There is Fraunces Tavern at the corner of Dock and Broad streets, for example, undeterred by the cannonball from the 32 guns broadside of the third rate frigate
HMS Asia that struck its roof when some incautious youths from King's College had the temerity to fire a cannon from the battery at the ship lying serene in the harbor. It is here the Moot Club began to discuss legal questions, now perhaps moot indeed as war draws nigh. People don't malinger in the streets on the eve of war, though plenty of soldiers hasten through the streets, defending the elegant homes of fellows who wouldn't deign to know them during peacetime and have abandoned them to the tides of fate.
Smell - Some soldiers patrolling the waterfront apparently have the manners of country rubes and freely use the streets as latrines. Even on a good day, the waterfront of the East River is known to be "Nautious and Offensive" , a very "Sink of Corruption" for the accumulation of filth that floats on the river or washes down from the more elevated parts of the city and forf "timber, lumber barrels, staves, rubbish and other trash" from ships and warehouses.
Sound - Strangely quiet for a business center. There isn't much activity in the business district. Along the waterfront, however, the ships in port nonetheless discharge sailors aplenty, eager to spend their ill-gotten shillings, pieces of eight, livre and dollars on "Drinking, Tippling, Quarrelling, Fighting, Gaming, and Misbehaving." Noise enough from that quarter! The sailors are often joined by Negroes, for many of New York's slaves illegally patronize taverns which serve them without their masters' permission. Runaways also find it easy to hide among the transient, polyglot mob festering along the waterfront. Many join criminal gangs who engage in feuds so violent the authorities hardly venture there.
Touch - Along the waterfront, the boards creak underfoot as the waves swell and ebb. One must step carefully to avoid the ordure, an occasional corpse making a sad spectacle above the heedless currents of the East River. A river often used to dispose the unwanted evidence of crimes committed.
Taste - There is nothing much to taste here but grit and grain alcohol.
Second Sight - It is not just the stench of the waterfront that is a "Sink of Corruption". If there really is a devil, you think he must visit this part of town betimes, whether in the guise of a rich merchant trafficking in the misery of those less fortunate, a reveler in the taverns enjoying all forms of iniquity, or perhaps a pious churchgoer, head bowed in prayer on Sunday morning service, the same night raping a slave or servant girl with impunity.
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