DCHS DC CAS 1776 to 1876 African American Journeys to America's Elusive Promise

1776 to 1876: The Long Journey of African Americans & the Elusive Promise of Equality through the eyes of Dutchess County Men, Women & Children

of Color

1799 to 1865: A State Promise Emerges. A House Divided Can Not Stand. 1865 to 1876: A Federal Promise Emerges. As Do Cracks.

11 111 1 1776 to 1799:Choosing Sides. Seeking the Promise.

Toward a more complete or whole history

“Nothing is more serious than the need to constantly rewrite history. Each new day enables…a truer perspective. New information, new voices, new ways of studying”.

“Go to the source!”

Honors local historians who are an exemplar of the necessary and accurate search for historical truth as practiced by Helen Wilkinson Reynolds.

Sojourner Truth

HUDSON MAHICANTUCK

MUNSEE

MOHICAN

LENAPE DELAWARE

WAPPINGER SCHAGHTICOKE

“Big Bang”

Wealthiest Enslavers Poorest

Dispossessed Whites

Enslaved Blacks

Between 1710 and 1717

Population: 437 persons, 29 enslaved. Influx of around 1,189 impoverished Palatines.

Total population of 1,626 was 75% impoverished.

Annexed to Albany County in 1717.

Abolitionists

Indigenous Justice Balanced Gender Roles

Abolitionists Indigenous Justice Balanced Gender Roles

1799 to 1865: A State Promise Emerges. A House Divided Can Not Stand. 1865 to 1876: A Federal Promise Emerges.

11 111 1 1776 to 1799:Choosing Sides. Seeking the Promise.

As Do Cracks

1,397 186 (12%)

Rhinebeck

Hyde Park/Clinton

RIVER TOWNS

50 Enslaved Persons

50 Free Persons of Color

358 208 (37%)

Choosing sides

Why did vs. Patriots? 3 as many Blacks support Loyalist X

“And I do hereby farther declare all indented servants, Negroes, or others (appertaining to rebels) free, that are able and willing to bear arms, they joining his Majesty’s troops as soon as may be…”

Lord Dunmore

November 7, 1775

“His Majesty’s good and faithful subjects’ …property is rendered insecure…” “All Negro or other slaves, conspiring to rebel … shall suffer death…”

Edmund Pendleton

December 14, 1775

Imagined Portraits

Jack vs. Jack:

Rhinebeck: Enslaved Jack the “Tory”

Rhinebeck: Enslaved Jack the “Patriot” Reflect split in country & county

Patriot Jack risks went undercover

Testified “Committee to Detect Conspiracies”

Imagined Portrait

Eype Shouten:

1781 enslaved by Garret Storm, Fishkill

Saved Smith by death by Tories Newspaper report

1930s published stories

Imagined Portrait

Rachel

Enslaved by Ebenezer Husted, Stanford

Seven Husted family members served in Revolutionary War

June 1781 Rachel self-emancipated to New York City

Returned briefly to burn Husted house

Source: Groth, New York Packet newspaper notices

Francis Griffin:

Enslaved by Jacob

Duryea

Duryea & Griffin traveled to British occupied NYC Griffen fled but Duryea wanted his “property” back Griffin was protected by the British at trial

Went to Canada

Imagined Portrait

“BOOK OF NEGROES” Canadian ship logs

Phillip Field: 1732 Quaker Field family settles, Oblong, Southeast, enslavers from Flushing, Queens County 1776 (Feb) Samuel Field Manumitted Phillip Field eff. 1780 (May) 1777 (April 15) Philip enlisted at West Point 2nd New York Regiment, promise of land bounty 1777—1778 winter at Valley Forge 1778 (Jan) hospitalized Remains Hospitalized until his death September 1778

Imagined Portrait

Prince George: Third Connecticut Regiment Drummer, enlisted age 13 1777 (Feb) to 1783 (June)

Pay more than a Private

Died impoverished at Freemanville in Beekman

Imagined Portraits

May 21, 1777

May 23

May 24 midnight 2:00 am

Imagined Portraits

Jacob Lyle:

Monmouth New Jersey

1776 fifer

1778 “I was a guard to protect the public stores and ammunition…”

1779 “Runner of bullets…”

1780 Militia forage master 1780, 1781, 1782 armed guard

1821 Jacob and Betsy buy 1 acre Milan for $50 (requirement to vote for Blacks is $250)

Anthony “Tone” Warring:

Imagined Portraits

1776: Escaped as British occupied Smithtown , Long Island

Enlisted on condition of freedom Sapper & Miner Siege at Yorktown in the autumn of 1781.

Later: For many years a broom and basket maker

Imagined Portrait

Andrew Frazier:

Born enslaved at the Manor of Morrisania 1742*

Settles with Morris Graham and Graham family to found today’s Pine Plains Service earns him a pension & recognition

“The ancestor”

* 1712 census: 49 enslaved persons. 8 adults. 11 children.

Andrew Frazier:

Waiter to Col. Morris Graham

Battle of White Plains

Testified journey

Imagined Portrait

Waggoner

Tory hunter

Melting down Tory confiscation

Susan Elizabeth Frazier

1892: "Afro American Women of Mark" “untapped capacity of women & Blacks”

1895: 1st Black woman to teach NYC White students

1917: Founder & President Women’s Auxilliary to the Harlem Hellfighters

1919: Voted best teacher in NYC

1776 to 1799:Choosing Sides.

1799 to 1865: A State Promise Emerges. A House Divided Can Not Stand.

1865 to 1876: A Federal Promise Emerges. As Does a Crack in the Promise.

Dispossessed Property Owner Business Owner Transitionary

Dr. A.J. Williams-Myers

1799 1817 1824 1827 1850 1860

URIAH BOSTON

“QUARTERS”

Hyde Park, Wm. Stoutenberg. “For use of slaves”

Clove Valley, Emigh House. “Slave Quarters”

The Landscape as Historic Evidence: A Review of the Smithfield Valley's Past the 1995/1996 DCHS Yearbook by Neils Larson. Early History of Amenia by Newton Reed, 1875

IMPOVERISHED

Pok: Mechanic/Liberty Streets

Pok: Boicetown

Ann Wing’s Estate

HYDE PARK

Under the Same Roof ENSLAVED

SAME ROOF

SCATTERED FREE

BOLIN Abram & Anne

BOLIN Jane

ISOLATED

“[Peter Jackson of Milan] lived in a hut… set partly in the side of a knoll with a thatched room.” Burton Coon, Milan.

Peter Jackson, Milan

Sol Garnett, Pine Woods

Solomon Garnett lived in a rude stone house, half cellar, in the side of the hill, on the north road.

Braman Journal, Hyde Park

“Thompkins Place,” Dover

Wappinger: Adam Verplanck

“On the Tomkin’s place lived an old slave in a dirt cellar dug in the side of a hill. The cellar was roofed over with logs, holding a sloping roof of earth.”

Thomas Sweet Lossing, Dover.

Tone & Hetta Warring

Dr. A. J. WILLIAMS-MEYERS

Image courtesy TMI, Medium

COMMUNITIES

Free Africans with their landholdings in rural areas … carved out that social space for themselves and family… They created caring, nurturing, and religious communities up and down the Hudson Valley...many of them were mixed communities of African, European, and Native American descent. Because they were caring communities, free of racial strife, interracial couples were attracted to them. In the Hudson Valley [there were] such communities [as] Freemanville and Baxtertown in southern Dutchess County… They were steadfast in weakening the molding of a materially dispossessed and dependent African by nurturing a materially affluent African.”

COMMUNITIES

Property Owner

Rhinebeck: Oak Street

CT

Into the Center

Business Owner

Others largely Poughkeepsie To come

A House Divided Can Not Stand. 1865 to 1876: A Federal Promise Emerges. As Does a Crack in the Promise.

11 111 1 1776 to 1799:Choosing Sides. Seeking the Promise.

Southern enslavers lost their “property”

Northern free Blacks lost their freedom

BARBERS: Jared Gray Uriah Boston

Charles Vermong

d. Sept. 4, 1852

Age 18 yrs.

QUACKENBUSH Quock

August 2, 1858

Abraham

1776 to 1799:Choosing Sides. 1799 to 1865: A State Promise Emerges. A House Divided Can Not Stand. 1865 to 1876: A Federal Promise Emerges. As Do Cracks.

1865: End of Slavery (13th)

1868: Citizenship, Due Process (14th)

1870: Equal Protection Voting Rights (15th)

1875: Civil Rights Act

March, 1876: US Supreme Court US vs. Cruickshank

November, 1876: US Presidential Election

1870

1871 New York State chartered a Black college that would be based in Poughkeepsie. It would be named

Toussaint

College

1873: State law requires equal treatment at hotels, restaurants, and schools \

Free online

1776 to 1876: The Long Journey of African Americans & the Elusive Promise of Equality through the eyes of Dutchess County Men, Women & Children

of Color