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Black History

Flee North! Thomas Smallwood & The Early Underground Railroad

September 29, 2023 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

Flee North Thomas Smallwood Early Underground RailroadBorn enslaved, by the 1840s Thomas Smallwood (1801–1883) had purchased his freedom, was self-educated, and working as a shoemaker a short walk from the U.S. Capitol.

Working alongside prominent abolitionist Charles Turner Torrey, the two men encouraged those enslaved to flee north and helped create what is believed to be the first organized line of the Underground Railroad. [Read more…] about Flee North! Thomas Smallwood & The Early Underground Railroad

Filed Under: Books, Capital-Saratoga, History, New York City Tagged With: Abolition, Albany, Albany County, Black History, Celadon Books, Charles Turner Torrey, Journalism, Newspapers, Slavery, Thomas Smallwood, Underground Railroad, Washington D.C.

Making Long Island: A History of Growth and the American Dream

September 29, 2023 by Chris Kretz Leave a Comment

Making Long IslandLarry Samuel is an author and historian whose book Making Long Island: A History of Growth and the American Dream (History Press, 2023) looks at the development of Long Island throughout the 20th Century. [Read more…] about Making Long Island: A History of Growth and the American Dream

Filed Under: Books, History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, development, Environmental History, History Press, Housing, Long Island, Nassau County, Podcasts, Robert Moses, Suffolk County

New York Steamboats & The Mississippi River

September 25, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Mississippi Riverboats at Memphis, Tennessee (1906)This article is excerpted from “The  Keelboats and Flatboats of the Early Days — Discouragements Overcome by Fulton and his Associates,” originally reprinted from the New Orleans Times-Picayune in The New York Times on August 14, 1891. It was transcribed by Hudson River Maritime Museum volunteer Carl Mayer and slightly edited for clarity and annotated by John Warren.

Of the various persons who have disputed Robert Fulton’s laurels as the inventor of the first perfect steamboat, Edward West’s claims are the strongest. West, father of the noted painter William West [William Edward West, 1788–1859, provided numerous illustrations for the books of Washington Irving]. [Read more…] about New York Steamboats & The Mississippi River

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Agricultural History, Black History, Industrial History, Louisiana, Maritime History, Mississippi River, New Orleans, Nicholas Roosevelt, Ohio River Valley, Pennsylvania, Robert Fulton, Robert Livingston, Slavery, Steamboating, Transportation History

American Culture and 1920s Netherlands

September 22, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

The interior of dancing Pschorr, Coolsingel, Rotterdam ca. 1928-1932 (Stadsarchief Rotterdam, collection topography Rotterdam)During the 1920s, the Netherlands excelled in dullness, it is said. But Kees Wouters shows how the cobwebs of pillarized society were blown away by a new musical wind from the West: Jazz! Exalted by many, vilified by others, Dutch musicians playing American jazz conquered music halls and radio waves alike and even made the Dutch dance.

According to Dutch historian Hermann von der Dunk, writing in the early 1980s, life in the Netherlands after World War I was as exciting as in a girls’ boarding school. Nothing much happened. Despite the presence of about a million destitute Belgian refugees, the horrors of the war had largely passed the Netherlands by. [Read more…] about American Culture and 1920s Netherlands

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Catholicism, Cultural History, Dance, Dutch History, Film History, Jazz, Musical History, Netherlands, Performing Arts, Religious History, Theatre, Vice, World War One, World War Two

Anna Elizabeth Dickinson: ‘America’s Civil War Joan of Arc’

September 21, 2023 by Helen Allen Nerska 1 Comment

Mathew Brady photo of Anna Elizabeth Dickinson, taken between 1855 and 1865On a cold, snowy January evening in 1874, Anna Elizabeth Dickinson became one of the first women of national prominence to speak on women’s suffrage in Clinton County, NY. Those gathering to hear her at the Palmer Hall, located upstairs at 60 Margaret Street in downtown Plattsburgh, were described as the most intellectual and cultivated in the community.

The crowd that night would have known her reputation. [Read more…] about Anna Elizabeth Dickinson: ‘America’s Civil War Joan of Arc’

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Abolition, Black History, Civil War, Clinton County, Goshen, Intellectual History, Journalism, LGBTQ, Orange County, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Plattsburgh, Political History, Quakers, Religious History, Slavery, Suffrage Movement, Voting Rights, womens history, Writing

Jay Heritage Center Property Management Agreement Renewed

September 19, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Aerial of Jay Heritage Center in 2023 (courtesy Jay Heritage Center)New York State Parks and Westchester County Parks have approved the renewal of the Jay Heritage Center’s (JHC) stewardship of the 21.5-acre Jay Property for another 10-year period. Westchester County Executive George Latimer personally sponsored Westchester County’s ACT 2023-312 in July to reaffirm the public-private partnership among the County, New York State Parks, and JHC. [Read more…] about Jay Heritage Center Property Management Agreement Renewed

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Nature, New York City Tagged With: African American Heritage Trail, Black History, Boston Post Road Historic District, Jay Heritage Center, John Jay, Museums, Public History, Rye, State Parks, Westchester County, Westchester County Parks

Jehudi Ashmun: A Founder & Historian of Liberia

September 14, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Map of Liberia Colony in the 1830s, created by the ACS, and also showing Mississippi Colony and other state-sponsored coloniesBorn and raised in the town of Champlain, Clinton County, NY, Jehudi Ashmun (1794 – 1828) was a religious leader and social reformer who helped lead efforts by the American Colonization Society to “repatriate” African Americans to a colony in West Africa.

The organization, formed in 1816 by Quakers and slaveholders, founded the colony of Liberia as a place to resettle free people of color from the United States, believing in part that Black people would face better chances for freedom and prosperity in Africa than in the United States. [Read more…] about Jehudi Ashmun: A Founder & Historian of Liberia

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Events, History Tagged With: American Colonization Society, Black History, Champlain, Clinton County, Clinton County Historical Association, Connecticut, Liberia, Maine, Middlebury College, Political History, Quakers, Religious History, Slavery, University of Vermont, Vermont

The Great Depression in New York City: A Primer

September 11, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Crowd in front of the New York Stock Exchange, October 1929As the 1920s advanced, the economy soared. But with that dramatic expansion came irrational exuberance and unchecked speculation: stock prices reached levels that had no basis in reality; margin purchases were rampant; banks handed out loans lavishly and imprudently; and giddy product production resulted in a vast oversupply of goods.

On Tuesday, October 29, 1929, it all came crashing down. This is the story of the Great Depression in New York City. [Read more…] about The Great Depression in New York City: A Primer

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Brooklyn, Economic History, Education, Financial History, Fiorello La Guardia, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Great Depression, Harlem, Herbert Hoover, Hispanic History, Housing, Jimmy Walker, Labor History, Manhattan, New Deal, New York City, New York Stock Exchange, poverty, Public Health, Queens, Staten Island, Wall Street, WPA

Ceremony To Celebrate Renaming Adirondack Stream in Honor of Black Settler

September 11, 2023 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

John Thomas Brook, formerly known as Negro Brook in Franklin County, NYOn Saturday, September 16th at noon there will be a public unveiling of a historic roadside marker to celebrate the recent naming of John Thomas Brook. The new name pays homage to 19th-century Black settler John Thomas.

Thomas escaped enslavement in Maryland and established a successful farm near the small stream in Vermontville that was formerly known pejoratively as “N***** Brook,” then as “Negro Brook.” Thomas, his wife Mary, and their son, Richard, are buried in Union Cemetery in Vermontville, in Franklin County, NY. [Read more…] about Ceremony To Celebrate Renaming Adirondack Stream in Honor of Black Settler

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Events, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Diversity Initiative, Adirondacks, Black History, Franklin, Franklin County, John Brown Lives, Paul Smith's College, Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center

New Digital Resources for Underground Railroad History Research

September 10, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

voices on the underground railroadRecently retired Cornell University Professor Gerard Aching will present on his research and coordination of the Underground Railroad Research Project, which highlights the extensive roots of the network in Central New York, Western New York, and the Finger Lakes Region. [Read more…] about New Digital Resources for Underground Railroad History Research

Filed Under: Events, History, Western NY Tagged With: Abolition, Auburn, Auburn Museum, Black History, Cornell University, Equal Rights Heritage Center, Finger Lakes, Genealogy, Ithaca, Online Resources, Oral History, Seward House Museum, Slavery, Underground Railroad

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