New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Peter Slocum

A 1912 Adirondack Scarlet Fever Outbreak Echoes Today

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Keene Valley NY ca 1903 postcardScarlet fever is something we don’t have to think about any more. One hundred years ago however, this childhood killer struck fear into the hearts of parents everywhere, including the little town of Keene, NY, in the Adirondacks.

On March 4th, 1912, in the face of a frightening scarlet fever outbreak, the Keene Town Board of Health took emergency action. The Board ordered “that the church, school houses, library, neighborhood house and Keene Valley Club House shall be closed until further notice.”

Today, in the midst of our Covid-19 turmoil, the disputes over vaccines, masks, and other government and scientific recommendations, it is hard to imagine a citizen board of health exercising that kind of power — to declare the church and the schools and the library closed. Boom. “Mo(tion) carried,” says the official one-page document, hand-written in pencil. [Read more…] about A 1912 Adirondack Scarlet Fever Outbreak Echoes Today

NY’s Voter Suppression History & John Brown’s Farm

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John Brown Farm courtesy John Brown LivesThis year we are celebrating New York State’s acquisition of John Brown Farm 125 years ago. And it’s good that we are.

But let us also recall a 200th anniversary linked to the John Brown Farm – a connection that has particular importance this year as we witness a voter suppression spree around our country. Two hundred years ago, that was us – our New York ancestors – enacting explicit rules to keep blacks from voting.

John Brown and his family moved to the Adirondacks as part of an effort to counteract New York State-sponsored suppression of voting rights for black men.

We are now seeing a wave of voter suppression efforts in states controlled by Republican legislators fearful of losing their majority power. Well, guess what? That’s exactly what was going on here in good old New York back in the early 1800s. We New Yorkers apparently were leaders in voter suppression. We even put it into the state constitution! That’s more than the states are doing today. [Read more…] about NY’s Voter Suppression History & John Brown’s Farm

New Underground RR Book Offers 1st Person Accounts

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Secret Lives of the Underground RailroadThe new book, Secret Lives of the Underground Railroad in New York City (McFarland, 2015), offers first person accounts of the clandestine efforts to help escaping slaves. Drawing on never-before-published Record of Fugitives kept by newspaper editor and abolitionist Sydney Howard Gay, the book provides vivid detail of the lives of Underground Railroad agents, and the harrowing journey that African-Americans undertook to free themselves from slavery.

The co-authors are steeped in this history. Don Papson was founding president of the North Star Underground Railroad Museum in Ausable Chasm, responsible for much of the research that brought the Champlain Line of the freedom trail to light. Tom Calarco is author of three other books on the topic, including The Underground Railroad in the Adirondack Region. [Read more…] about New Underground RR Book Offers 1st Person Accounts

Cuomo Eulogy Echoes Lincoln, Seward

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Mario Cuomo in 2009 (courtesy New York State Writers Institute)Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s eloquent eulogy last week for his father, Mario M. Cuomo, echoed both Abraham Lincoln and former New York Gov. William Seward, one of the leading abolitionists in political life.

“Mario Cuomo was the keynote speaker for our better angels,” Andrew Cuomo said at the funeral on Wednesday, invoking the memory of his father’s famous San Francisco Democratic National Convention speech and, at the same time, recalling the historic closing lines of Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address. [Read more…] about Cuomo Eulogy Echoes Lincoln, Seward

Statewide Underground Railroad Group Forming

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NY-UNderground-Railroad-RoutesMeeting in the same Central New York church that hosted the state’s first Anti-Slavery convention in 1835, a group of Underground Railroad-related organizations (museums, churches, and associations) assembled on November 13th to formalize a statewide network to better promote this key part of New York’s heritage.

Twenty different vetted organizations were represented, from Long Island to Jamestown, and Elmira to the northern shores of Lake Champlain.  Hosted by Dot Willsey, president of the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum, located in the Peterboro church were the NYS Anti-Slavery Society met 179 years ago, this month’s conference resolved on the need for a statewide consortium to share programs and projects, enhance efforts to publicize resources available around the state, and communicate with educators, public officials and the traveling public. [Read more…] about Statewide Underground Railroad Group Forming

Gerrit Smith’s 1845 Abolition North Country Tour

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Gerrit Smith in the 1840sLate spring of 1845 found , a leader of the Liberty Party, touring the North Country in search of disaffected “Whigs and Democrats, whose intelligence and Christian integrity will not permit them to remain longer in their pro-slavery connections.”

Smith, from Peterboro, in Madison County, traveled from Saratoga Springs, through Glens Falls and then into Essex and Clinton counties on his quest to build a credible third party, a devoted anti-slavery party. His report, printed in the Albany Patriot in late June, details the villages his visited, the people he met, and the difficulties he faced. [Read more…] about Gerrit Smith’s 1845 Abolition North Country Tour

Abolitionist ‘Law Breakers’ Being Honored in Champlain

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Moore SignThis year’s August 17th Champlain Day  festivities will honor two local “law breakers”  — Noadiah and Caroline Mattocks Moore.  They were key participants in the Champlain Line of the Underground Railroad, an illegal network of safe places which sheltered hundreds of fugitives from slavery as they made their way from the Southern slave states to freedom in Canada before the Civil War. [Read more…] about Abolitionist ‘Law Breakers’ Being Honored in Champlain

Abolitionist History Season Getting An Early Start

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John Brown DayThe Abolitionist History season is starting early this year.

First, the North Star Underground Railroad Museum at Ausabale Chasm opens Saturday, May 4, nearly a month earlier than usual, and sponsors its first tour of Underground Railroad sites in local towns. With the weather as warm as it is, and demand growing in each of the museum’s first two years, the early opening made sense.

Second, just one week later, John Brown Lives! celebrates John Brown Day on May 11 with a special appearance by activist and one-time Presidental candidate Dick Gregory. He’ll be the keynote speaker at 2 p.m. at the John Brown State Historic Site, followed by Kate C. Larson, biographer of the legendary underground conductor Harriet Tubman. [Read more…] about Abolitionist History Season Getting An Early Start

Black History Progams at Adirondack Prison

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In the 1850's, black families came to the Adirondacks to farm.The Adirondack Correctional Facility at Raybrook is hosting a series of special Black History Month programs for inmates that focus on 19th Century stories of African-Americans in the North Country.

“Dreaming of Timbuctoo,” the display put together by John Brown Lives! back in 2001, reveals the story of families that came to the Lake Placid area in the years before the Civil War, to establish farms and gain voting rights. [Read more…] about Black History Progams at Adirondack Prison

Preservation Fight At Manhattan Underground RR Site

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Abigail Hopper GibbonsManhattanites are agitating on behalf of the home of one of the city’s leading 19th Century agitators–Abigail Hopper Gibbons. She and her husband James S. Gibbons ran a strongly documented Underground Railroad site in Manhattan, at what is now 339 West 29th St., near 8th Avenue.

A hearing is scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 12, at the Bureau of Standards and Appeals, over a developer’s decision to add fifth floor to the four-story building, in violation of historic preservation rules.
[Read more…] about Preservation Fight At Manhattan Underground RR Site