Deirdre Sinnott

Deirdre Sinnott is a member of the Oneida County Freedom Trail Commission and a historical consultant on the Ft. Stanwix Underground Railroad Project — funded by the National Parks Service. She has written and spoken about Oneida County’s tumultuous history of slavery and abolition for a decade. Her novel, The Third Mrs. Galway, set in Utica in 1835 will be released in 2021.

July 4th, 1827: Freedom Day

July 3, 2020 by Deirdre Sinnott 8 Comments

As the last enslaved people living in New York State were officially freed on July 4th, 1827, celebrations reigned.

According to the New-York Spectator, people packed the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church on the corner of Church and Leonard Streets in Manhattan. The major societies for the support and liberation of African American people were there. Banners and flags festooned the church. “Several hymns written for the occasion were sung.”

Portraits of John Jay, a founder of the Manumission Society who had himself owned five people until 1800, and Matthew Clarkson, who introduced a bill for the gradual end of slavery to the New York State Legislature, were hung near a bust of Daniel D. Tompkins, who as Governor of New York had proposed this date as the day for emancipation. [Read more…] about July 4th, 1827: Freedom Day

Frank Johnson’s Story: An Enslaved Man’s Experiences

January 15, 2020 by Deirdre Sinnott 4 Comments

Sometime around 1797, a baby boy of African descent was born in Oneida County. He didn’t live a very long life, yet his experiences reveal much about the institution of slavery in New York State.

All we know for certain about Frank Johnson’s birthdate is that it preceded the passage of the 1799 Gradual Emancipation Act, thereby making him a “slave for life,” as he was called by the man who owned him according to the law. That man, Alexander Bryan Johnson, born in England in 1786, followed his father to Utica, New York arriving in 1801. There he became an important man, involved with the merchandising business, banking, writing, and gaining recognition as a public intellectual. There is still a park named after him in Utica. [Read more…] about Frank Johnson’s Story: An Enslaved Man’s Experiences