• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Adirondacks & NNY
  • Capital-Saratoga
  • Mohawk Valley
  • Hudson Valley & Catskills
  • NYC & Long Island
  • Western NY
  • History
  • Nature & Environment
  • Arts & Culture
  • Outdoor Recreation
  • Food & Farms
  • Subscribe
  • Support
  • Submit
  • About
  • New Books
  • Events
  • Podcasts

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

Mother A. M. E. Zion Church Historical marker 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

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Abolition, Black History, Civil Rights, Fourth of July, Manhattan, Political History, Slavery

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

January 15, 2020 by Deirdre Sinnott 4 Comments

NY Hospital 1640Sometime 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

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: African American History, Black History, Medical History, New York City, Oneida County, Slavery, Utica

Primary Sidebar

Help Us Reach Our Fundraising Goal

Subscribe to New York Almanack

Subscribe! Follow the New York Almanack each day via E-mail, RSS, Twitter or Facebook updates.

Recent Comments

  • Laurie on Catskills Resorts: The Beginning of the End
  • Norma Coney on Coyotes Prepare for Winter
  • Charles H. Clackett on Culper Spies: Curse of the Black Letter
  • Bob Meyer on The Science of Lunar Lunacy
  • Bob Meyer on Ed Zahniser: Woodpecker Wake-up Calls
  • Jim Sefcik on George Washington & Slavery at Mount Vernon
  • M W Wykoff on George Washington & Slavery at Mount Vernon
  • Jim Sefcik on George Washington & Slavery at Mount Vernon
  • Louis deGonzague on WWI Vet, Belgian Painter Edward Buyck in NY
  • Chris Traskos on Frances Perkins, One of America’s Most Influential Women, Remains Unrecognized

Recent New York Books

An Unfinished Revolution
The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret
Historic Crimes of Long Island
Its a Helluva Town
The Long Crisis
rebuilding the republic
The 20th Century Civil Rights Movement
first principles
An American Marriage
too long ago

Secondary Sidebar

New York State Historic Markers