History, Natural History & the Arts
Artist Mark Priest’s work centers on the intersection of narrative painting, historical inquiry, and figurative representation.
Over the past two decades, Priest has conducted extensive research into the Underground Railroad, slavery, and the lives of Black American freedom seekers, including Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Charles Nalle, and William Still. [Read more…] about Artist Mark Priest Features Struggles of Slavery & the Underground Railroad
Many New Yorkers before the Civil War contributed to the abolition of slavery, and the dangerous work of helping enslaved African-Americans flee their captors. Take Calvin Fairbank, a New York Methodist pastor born 1816, who spent 17 years in prison for his missions to help enslaved people escape.
Seth Concklin, a New Yorker whose name and sacrifice were more familiar in the 19th century, died tragically in 1851 while trying to help a mother and her three children escape from slavery. [Read more…] about Seth Concklin: A Daring, Dedicated New York Abolitionist
Although not authorized to do so by a strict constructionist reading of the Constitution’s fugitive slave clause, Congress enacted the first Fugitive Slave Act in 1793. Northern states blocked effective enforcement of the federal law, leading to a southern outcry for more stringent legislation.
The sectional crisis precipitated by the California Statehood Act in 1850 provided the opportunity for passage of a harsher Fugitive Slave Act, which became part of the Compromise of 1850. [Read more…] about Fugitive Slaves, Kidnapping & State Government Response
Born between 1812 and 1815 Leonard Andrew Grimes undertook a life of direct action as an operative on the Underground Railroad. He assisted at least four hundred freedom seekers in escaping bondage. In 1840, Grimes was imprisoned in Virginia for two years for helping an enslaved mother and her six children escape to freedom in the North. In prison he began preaching to guards and prisoners, and after his release became a licensed Baptist minister. [Read more…] about Leonard Andrew Grimes Inducted to Abolition Hall of Fame
Following his political successes in the disputed Election of 1824, Thurlow Weed was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1825 and again in 1830.
In the 1820s, like many in Upstate New York with populist, anti-elite feelings, Weed strongly believed the Masons were trying to control government using secret means. He felt that political affairs should be conducted publicly and particularly opposed the fraternal secrecy of Freemasonry. An alleged conspiracy by Masons to murder William Morgan in Western New York in September, 1826 sparked the anti-Freemasonry movement. Weed began publishing the Anti-Masonic Enquirer in Rochester, NY in February, 1828.
Soon Weed was hired as editor of the newly formed Anti-Masonic Albany Evening Journal, which began publication on March 22, 1830. The move to Albany made him a statewide leader of the fledgling Anti-Masonic Party. [Read more…] about The End of the Whigs: Thurlow Weed & The Birth of the Republican Party
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