Cornwall

Cornwall-on-Hudson Historian Colette Fulton Being Honored

January 29, 2023 by Editorial Staff 2 Comments

Former Cornwall-on-Hudson Village Historian Colette C. Fulton has been named the 2023 Martha Washington Woman of History.

This award is given annually by Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site to a woman who has made a contribution to the history of the Hudson Valley through education, promotion, or preservation. The honor was inspired by Martha Washington, who resided in the Hudson Valley with her husband, General George Washington, during the last days of the Revolutionary War. [Read more…] about Cornwall-on-Hudson Historian Colette Fulton Being Honored

Harriet Jacobs in New York State

January 4, 2022 by Paula Tarnapol Whitacre Leave a Comment

“A handsome book of 306 pages, just issued, which is receiving highly commendatory notices from the press.”

So announced the abolitionist Liberator about the 1861 publication of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, a book written by Harriet Jacobs about her life in slavery and seeking freedom. Forgotten for many decades, it is one of the only known books written by an enslaved Black woman. Most of the book takes place in the coastal town of Edenton, North Carolina, where Jacobs was born in 1815.

New York State also plays a large, if lesser-known role in the life of Harriet Jacobs, who escaped to the city of New York in 1842 and lived there at two separate times. She also lived in Rochester and in Cornwall, Orange County, where she spent years writing the powerful book that is read and cherished today. [Read more…] about Harriet Jacobs in New York State