1850 Census figures also indicate that blacks comprised 2% of Westchester's total population. Typical occupations, according to the census, included work as farmers, laborers, and gardners. Even more typically, no occupation is listed at all.

In the years before the Civil War, the largest concentrations of African Americans in Westchester were in New Rochelle, Ossining, Rye, Yonkers, and particularly in Harrison, in a community known as The Hills.

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