• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

  • Email
  • RSS
  • Adirondacks & NNY
  • Capital-Saratoga
  • Mohawk Valley
  • Hudson Valley & Catskills
  • NYC & Long Island
  • Western NY
  • History
  • Nature & Environment
  • Arts & Culture
  • Outdoor Recreation
  • Food & Farms
  • Subscribe
  • Support
  • Submit
  • About
  • New Books
  • Events
  • Podcasts

Iroquois

Social and Religious Movements in Central New York

November 17, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Lithograph of a ca 1829 religious camp meeting by Alexander RiderCentral New York communities that flourished with canal-related development and rail connections throughout the 19th century also became hotbeds for religious and social movements of the early 1800s as the area’s population rapidly grew.

Religious freedom granted by the United States Bill of Rights combined with rapid societal and technological changes experienced by Americans living through western expansion fueled an American spiritual movement that was exemplified in the newly opened frontier of New York. [Read more…] about Social and Religious Movements in Central New York

Filed Under: Western NY Tagged With: Abolition, Arcadia, Auburn, Black History, Canandaigua, Canandaigua Lake, Cayuga County, Cayuga Nation, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Elizabeth Cady Stanton House, Elmira, Elmira College, Finger Lakes, Frederick Douglass, Geneva, Great Lakes, Harriet Tubman, Harriet Tubman National Historical Park, Haudenosaunee, Hobart College, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Joslyn Gage Center, Lake Ontario, Liberty Party, Monroe County, Mormonism, Onondaga County, Ontario County, Palmyra, Political History, Quakers, Religious History, Rochester, Second Great Awakening, Seneca County, Seneca Falls, Seward House Museum, Skaneateles, Skaneateles Lake, Sodus Bay, Spiritualism, Suffrage Movement, Syracuse, Town of Huron, Underground Railroad, Wayne County, William Seward, Women's Sufferage, Women’s Rights National Historical Park, womens history

Violent Appetites: Hunger in the Early Northeast

November 8, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Violent Appetites: Hunger in the Early NortheastHunger shaped the early Northeast. As Native peoples fought back against the invasion of British and French colonizers, everyone experienced, used, succumbed to, and survived hunger.

Haudenosaunee and Wabanaki peoples had spent generations honing their subsistence strategies to their environments. Colonizers, by contrast, struggled to adapt to North America and found themselves deeply dependent upon Native American foods.

In response, colonists constructed myths of starving Native people to justify colonialism and spent centuries attacking Native food sovereignty. [Read more…] about Violent Appetites: Hunger in the Early Northeast

Filed Under: Books, Events, Food, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New York City Tagged With: Abenaki, Agricultural History, Colonial History, Connecticut, Culinary History, fishing, Haudenosaunee, hunting, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Maine, Massachusetts, Medical History, New England, New Netherland, Rhode Island, SUNY Albany, Yale University

Tug Hill: A Historical Primer

October 17, 2023 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Salmon River Falls at Tug Hill (photo courtesy Jen Harvill)The Tug Hill region is east of Lake Ontario, north of Oneida Lake, and west of the Adirondack Mountains, from which it is separated by the Black River Valley. It encompasses parts of Jefferson, Lewis, Oneida, and Oswego Counties. [Read more…] about Tug Hill: A Historical Primer

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Western NY Tagged With: Agricultural History, Black River, Black River Canal, Constable Hall, Franklin County, Haudenosaunee, Herkimer COunty, Iroquois, Jefferson, Lake Ontario, Lewis County, Oneida County, Oneida Indian Nation, Oneida Lake, Onondaga Nation, Oswego, Salmon River, St Lawrence County, Tug Hill Plateau

French Attacks On Old Saratoga During King George’s War (1744-1748)

September 17, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Map of British and French fortifications during King George's War (Hartgen, 2004)During King George’s War (1744-1748), the primary military encounters in the Saratoga area were focused on the Schuyler estate and associated settlements and Fort Saratoga/Fort Clinton.

The most significant event was the November 1745 First Battle of Saratoga in which a force of French and Indian allies from Fort St. Frederic (at Crown Point) attacked the village, burning 30 houses, several mills, and the fort as well as killing, scalping, and capturing soldiers and residents. (You can read about that here.) [Read more…] about French Attacks On Old Saratoga During King George’s War (1744-1748)

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Abenaki, Crown Point, Fort Clinton, Fort Saratoga, Haudenosaunee, Hudson River, Indigenous History, Iroquois, King George’s War, Military History, Mohawk, New France, Peter Schuyler, Saratoga, Saratoga County, Schuyler House, Schuylerville

The American Revolution in the Finger Lakes

September 10, 2023 by Guest Contributor 3 Comments

Early illustration of the Iroquois Confederacy, by a EuropeanInitially, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois) claimed neutrality during the conflict between Britain and the colonists, seeing the disagreement as a civil war and valuing loyalty to their families and to their lands above all else. When the political discontent erupted into the American Revolutionary War, the member nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy split their support between the British and newly formed American forces. [Read more…] about The American Revolution in the Finger Lakes

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: American Revolution, Battle of Newtown, Canandaigua Lake, Cayuga Nation, Chemung County, Finger Lakes, Haudenosaunee, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Lenape - Munsee - Delaware, Livingston County, Loyalism, Military History, Oneida Indian Nation, Onondaga Nation, Seneca Lake, Seneca Nation, Sullivan_Clinton Expedition, Tioga County, Tuscarora

1745: The First Battle of Saratoga

September 7, 2023 by Guest Contributor 2 Comments

Johannes Scuyler and his wife Elizabeth Staats Wendell Schuyler (New-York Historical Society)The First Battle of Saratoga took place during King George’s War (1744-1748) in November 1745. A force of French and Native allies set out from Fort St. Frederic at Crown Point to attack English colonies in either New England or Albany.

When deep snow made travel into New England impractical, they turned toward Old Saratoga, now known as Schuylerville in Saratoga County, NY (near where the 1777 Battles of Saratoga would later take place during the American Revolution). [Read more…] about 1745: The First Battle of Saratoga

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Abenaki, Canada, Crown Point, First Battle of Saratoga, Fort Burnet, Fort Saratoga, Fort St. Frederic, Haudenosaunee, Hudson River, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Military History, Mohawk, New France, Philip Schuyler, Quebec, Saratoga County, Schaghticoke, Schuyler House, Warren County, Washington County

New Netherlanders’ Views of Indigenous People

September 5, 2023 by Peter Hess 3 Comments

First Dutch Church at Albany as it appears in several of the works of James EightsBy 1642, the number of inhabitants of Rensselaerwyck (spelled Rensselaerswijck in Dutch), at the time basically what is now Albany and Rensselaer Counties, had grown and Patroon Kiliaen Van Rensselaer willingly complied with a requirement of the Dutch West India Company to secure a clergyman for a Dutch Church to conduct services for the settlers. [Read more…] about New Netherlanders’ Views of Indigenous People

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Algonquin, Arendt Van Curler, Beverwyck, Cultural History, Dutch History, Fort Nassau, Fort Orange, French History, Haudenosaunee, Hudson River, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Issac Jogues, Mohawk, Mohawk River, Mohican, New Amsterdam, New France, New Netherland, Religious History, Rensselaer County, Rensselaerswijck, Watervliet

Euro-American Expansion Into The Finger Lakes Region

August 27, 2023 by Guest Contributor 7 Comments

Map of the State of New York (1802) by Simeon DeWitt, (Library of Congress, Geography & Map Division)The Treaty of Paris of 1783 officially ended hostilities between the British and Americans; however, the treaty did not include the allied Indian Nations, leaving their legacy treaties with the Europeans unresolved and their future to be resolved through separate treaties with the new American government. [Read more…] about Euro-American Expansion Into The Finger Lakes Region

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: American Revolution, Auburn, Auburn Prison, Canandaigua, Cayuga County, Cayuga Lake, Cayuga Nation, Finger Lakes, Genesee River, Geneva, Haudenosaunee, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Ithaca, Keuka Lake, Livingston County, Monroe County, Onondaga County, Onondaga Nation, Ontario County, Religious History, Rochester, Schuyler County, Seneca Nation, Seneca River, Skaneateles Lake, Social History, Steuben County, Syracuse, Tompkins County, Transportation History, Treaty of Canandaigua, Waterloo, Wayne County, Yates County

Early Inhabitants of the Finger Lakes Region

August 14, 2023 by Guest Contributor 2 Comments

Lamoka Site diorama at the New York State MuseumAccording to archeological records, groups of nomadic Paleo-Indians traveled through the Finger Lakes region approximately 8,000 to 9,000 years ago. Small bands of these hunters and gatherers followed large game during the last stages of the Ice Age when the glaciers that formed the area’s notable lakes were receding.

Somewhat more recent early archaic archeological sites scattered across Western New York reflect a culture that was highly mobile and left little in terms of an archeological record. [Read more…] about Early Inhabitants of the Finger Lakes Region

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: Algonquin, American Shad, Archaeology, Broome County, Canadice lake, Canandaigua Lake, Cayuga County, Cayuga Lake, Cayuga Nation, ceramics, Chemung County, Conesus Lake, Cortland County, Finger Lakes, French And Indian War, fur trade, Geology, Grass lake, Haudenosaunee, Hemlock Lake, Honeoye Lake, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Ithaca, Keuka Lake, Lamoka, Lenape, Lenape - Munsee - Delaware, Livingston County, Material Culture, Monroe County, New France, New Netherland, Oneida Indian Nation, Oneida Lake, Onondaga County, Onondaga Lake, Onondaga Nation, Ontario County, Otisco Lake, Owasco Lake, Paleontology, Pennsylvania, Rochester, Schuyler County, Seneca County, Seneca Falls, Seneca Lake, Seneca Nation, Seven Years War, Skaneateles Lake, Spencer, Steuben County, Susquehanna River, Syracuse, Tioga County, Tompkins County, Treaty of Fort Stanwix, Tuscarora, Valley Heads Moraine, Waneta-Lamoka WMA, Watkins Glen, Wayne County, William Johnson, Yates County

Schoharie Valley & New York’s Western Frontier, 1687-1702

July 24, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Skohere and the Birth of New York's Western Frontier Volume IIThe Schoharie Valley is one of New York’s three great colonial valleys, its history closely connected to, but overshadowed by, the more famed Hudson and Mohawk Valleys. When the Palatines arrived there in 1712, the world they stepped into was a century in the making. Until now, this formative period of the valley’s history has never been fully told, nor has the true impact these rebellious German refugees had on New York’s western frontier. [Read more…] about Schoharie Valley & New York’s Western Frontier, 1687-1702

Filed Under: Books, Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley Tagged With: Haudenosaunee, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Jacob Leisler, King William, King William’s War, Leisler rebellion, Military History, Mohawk, New England, New France, Palatines, Queen Ann, Queen Anne's War, Religious History, Schoharie County, Schoharie Creek, Schoharie River, Schoharie Valley

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 10
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Help Support The Almanack

PayPal, CashApp $NewYorkAlmanack orVenmo @John-Warren-363
Subscribe to New York Almanack

Recent Comments

  • Helen on Chinatown’s Mosco Street: A Last Remnant of the Five Points
  • Charles Yaple on New York’s Oldest Standing Log Cabin?
  • Ken Sacharin on Bill the Butcher: A Nativist ‘Know Nothing’ Movement Martyr
  • James Arnold on Bill the Butcher: A Nativist ‘Know Nothing’ Movement Martyr
  • Joseph Fratta on Chinatown’s Mosco Street: A Last Remnant of the Five Points
  • Frank Mosco on Chinatown’s Mosco Street: A Last Remnant of the Five Points
  • John DiNuzzo on Benedict Arnold Program Set for Lake George Village
  • Gene Porter on Benedict Arnold Program Set for Lake George Village
  • Gene Porter on The Road to Ticonderoga: The Campaign of 1758 in the Champlain Valley
  • James S. Kaplan on Abraham Lincoln’s First Thanksgivings

Recent New York Books

Whites of Their Eyes
Radicals and Rogues: The Women Who Made New York Modern
Road to Ticonderoga Campaign 1758 Champlain Valley
Birds of Happiness Aren’t Blue
The mayflower Rebecca Fraser
deep history
The Trials of Madame Restell
Made in New York by Frank Vizard
God Save Benedict Arnold by Jack Kelly
By The Shores of Solon Pond

Secondary Sidebar

It's That Time of YearWe Can't Publish Without Your Support

New York Almanack delivers to you each day.

We receive no public funds - we're supported only by readers like you.

If you enjoy reading the Almanack - if you find yourself more informed or entertained, please donate now at

Rally.org, via PayPal, CashApp $NewYorkAlmanack, Venmo @John-Warren-363

Or send a check to:

New York Almanack
7269 State Route 9
Chestertown, NY 12817

*Donations are not tax deductible.

Give Now

Don't Show Me This Message Again.