New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Harriet Tubman

Black History in Upstate New York Programs Begin August 16th

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Black History Upstate Poster Basulto j 7-21-21The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum (NAHOF) will present Black History in Upstate New York programs, created by Colgate University graduate Victoria Basulto, beginning August 16th.

The daily programs will provide a combination of bite-sized informational videos and longer presentations by scholars on historical figures and places that emphasize the crucial role Black Americans have played in the history of Upstate New York. The events will be available on the Hall of Fame’s YouTube channel. [Read more…] about Black History in Upstate New York Programs Begin August 16th

Touring Harriet Tubman Statue on Crossroads of Rockland History

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crossroads of rockland historyOn the April 2021 episode of “Crossroads of Rockland History,” the topic was the nationally-touring sculpture: Harriet Tubman – Journey to Freedom by Wesley Woffard.

The sculpture will be placed in the Haverstraw African American Memorial Park for seven weeks beginning April 20th, 2021. Clare Sheridan’s guest was Virginia “Ginny” Norleet, founder of the Haverstraw African American Connection (HAAC). Ginny spoke about how the HAAC arranged for this sculpture to be in Haverstraw, and the auxiliary programs planned for each Saturday while the sculpture is in Haverstraw. [Read more…] about Touring Harriet Tubman Statue on Crossroads of Rockland History

Harriet the Movie and the Harriet Tubman of History

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young Harriet Tubman, who served as a spy and scout during the Civil WarI like the movie Harriet, especially the singing, but again, I also liked Wonder Woman, Black Panther, Wolverine, and Dr. Strange (but not Thor, Aquaman, or the Avengers series). Harriet the movie is about a super-hero whose superpower is that God gives her specific directions about what to do (turn left at the river).

Harriet in the movie is based on an important historical figure, but in the end, she is a movie character, not the historic Harriet Tubman. As a movie, two-thumbs up; as history, too many rotten tomatoes. [Read more…] about Harriet the Movie and the Harriet Tubman of History

Harriet Tubman: The Long Road To The $20 Bill

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harriet tubman on the 20In April, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced that Harriet Tubman will be featured on the front of new $20 bills. Tubman is the first woman to appear on modern U.S. currency. She displaces former president Andrew Jackson, whose image will move to the back of the bill.

Lew’s decision came after a year’s discussion, including soliciting public input, on images for redesigned currency. [Read more…] about Harriet Tubman: The Long Road To The $20 Bill

Harboring Runaway Slaves in Antebellum New York

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Runaway_slaveResidents of antebellum New York State assumed a large responsibility for sheltering slaves fleeing to Canada. It’s rare that we hear how families dealt with the challenge of concealing a fugitive, a crime for which they could pay high fines or even jail terms. The following account of Martha and David Wright’s experience reveals some of the complications involved when a family with young children offered lodging to runaways.

Martha and David Wright offered their Auburn, New York home as a station on the Underground Railroad from its early years. In letters to her sister, Lucretia Mott, Martha described the stories and challenges that boarding fugitive slaves presented to her and her family. One of those stories happened in January, 1843. [Read more…] about Harboring Runaway Slaves in Antebellum New York

Votes for Women Trail: Federal Legislation Needed Now

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Appeal to Santa for a women's trailWhen we visited the national park in Seneca Falls, NY this year we asked Noemi “Ami” Ghazala, superintendent of the Women’s Rights National Historical Park, about the significance of the feds reaching the “stakeholder” phase in the Votes for Women trail process. “We really don’t know what it means,” she said. “The criteria may sit there for a short time or remain there for years.”

This was alarming enough. Then we checked into the statistical probability of Congressional approval for funding the Votes for Women federal trail in the Finger Lakes region. We consulted the tracking web site for Congress and stumbled on the prediction that we might find coal in our stockings this year if we’re expecting a reauthorization of a bill that includes a Votes for Women federal trail. This is complicated by the fact that federal funding must be delivered separately. [Read more…] about Votes for Women Trail: Federal Legislation Needed Now

Harriet Tubman and the Projected National Park

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Tubman HospitalEach week day there’s a consistent flow of visitors at the Harriet Tubman Home, with people anxious to find out more about Tubman, her life story, and see for themselves where Tubman lived and operated a haven for the aged at 180 South Street in Auburn.

Visitors pull into the parking lot to visit the property, museum exhibit, and take advantage of guided tours from the moment the doors open in the morning until closing at the end of the day. License plates on the travelers’ vehicles are from New York State and beyond. [Read more…] about Harriet Tubman and the Projected National Park

The Politics of Harriet Tubman and Barack Obama

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Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn, NYIt’s the centennial year of abolitionist and suffragist Harriet Tubman’s death in 1913. Her Auburn, NY house, the home for the aged she founded on the property, and the museum attract considerable attention in upstate New York. We visited the Tubman historic site on the fifth day of our fall 2013 blogging tour of the “Cradle of the women’s rights movement in the US.” [Read more…] about The Politics of Harriet Tubman and Barack Obama

The Rescue of Fugitive Slave Charles Nalle

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Freeing Charles Nalle Rescue BookOn April 27, 1860, a few months after John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, a group of blacks and whites, including Harriet Tubman, came together to free fugitive slave Charles Nalle from slave catchers bent on returning him to his owner in Culpepper, Virginia.

The book Freeing Charles: The Struggle to Free a Slave on the Eve of the Civil War (2010) by the late Scott Christianson tells the tale of Nalle, a man whose skin was so fair he could have passed for white but didn’t, and relates the of racial inequality, rule of law, civil disobedience and violent resistance to slavery that circulated in the abolitionist movement during the antebellum period in Troy, NY. [Read more…] about The Rescue of Fugitive Slave Charles Nalle