I don't think anyone is saying that NY was made up of nikka walking around straight from the South with straw in their mouth and bare feet in overalls. Its more of your roots. You've got to naive to believe that with the VAST majority of Blacks in this country through the Transatlantic slave trade era being concentrated in the South, that it would be an origin point for most everywhere else with a Black footprint. Sure there were freed Blacks, maroons, etc that had little connection to the South but as a starting point for Black populations, the South is it.