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Political History

Dr. John Swinburne’s Life in Crime, War & Politics

March 26, 2023 by Peter Hess 1 Comment

John SwinburneJohn Swinburne was born May 30, 1820 in Denmark, Lewis County, New York. He attended school in the communities of Lowville and Denmark, and in Fairfield, Herkimer County, all in New York. He was an excellent student and upon completion of his studies, he took a job as a teacher.

In 1841, at the age of 21, he began the study of medicine and in 1843 entered Albany Medical College where he was a student under the tutelage of Dr. James H. Armsby, a founder of the college. He eventually went to work for Dr. Armsby and upon his graduation in 1846, started his own practice. [Read more…] about Dr. John Swinburne’s Life in Crime, War & Politics

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Western NY Tagged With: 1870 Franco-Prussian War, Albany, Albany Med, Civil War, Crime and Justice, Denmark, French History, Legal History, Lewis County, Medical History, Military History, Political History, Science History

Iroquois and the Invention of the Empire State

March 22, 2023 by Editorial Staff 2 Comments

“The Amazing Iroquois” and the Invention of the Empire StateFrom the Iroquois confederacy serving as a model for the US Constitution, to the connections between the matrilineal Iroquois and the woman suffrage movement, to the living legacy of the famous “Sky Walkers,” the steelworkers who built the Empire State Building and the George Washington Bridge, the Iroquois are viewed as an exceptional people who helped make the state’s history unique and forward-looking. [Read more…] about Iroquois and the Invention of the Empire State

Filed Under: Arts, Books, Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley, Western NY Tagged With: Cultural History, Haudenosaunee, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Political History

Sojourner Truth: How An Enslaved Dutch Speaker Became A Black Liberation Icon

March 20, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Map of the Mid-Hudson ValleyOn March 31st, 1817 the New York State Legislature decided that enslavement within its borders had to come to an end. Final emancipation would occur on July 4th, 1827. Coincidentally, the date of choice was almost exactly two centuries after the Dutch West India Company’s yacht Bruynvisch arrived at Manhattan on August 29th, 1627. [Read more…] about Sojourner Truth: How An Enslaved Dutch Speaker Became A Black Liberation Icon

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Abolition, Black History, Civil Rights, Civil War, Dutch History, Hurley, Legal History, New Netherland, Political History, Slavery, Sojouner Truth, Suffrage Movement, Ulster County, womens history

Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765-1795

March 20, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

american inheritanceLeaders of the founding of the United States who called for American liberty are scrutinized for enslaving Black people themselves: George Washington consistently refused to recognize the freedom of those who escaped his Mount Vernon plantation. And we have long needed a history of the founding that fully includes Black Americans in the Revolutionary protests, the war, and the debates over slavery and freedom that followed. [Read more…] about Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765-1795

Filed Under: Books, History, New York City Tagged With: Abolition, American Revolution, Atlantic World, Black History, George Washington, Political History, Slavery

Madison’s Militia: The Hidden History of the Second Amendment

March 9, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Madison's MilitiaThe new book Madison’s Militia: The Hidden History of the Second Amendment (Oxford Univ. Press, 2023) by Carl Bogus is an engaging history overturning the conventional wisdom about the Second Amendment – showing that the right to bear arms was not about protecting liberty but about preserving slavery. [Read more…] about Madison’s Militia: The Hidden History of the Second Amendment

Filed Under: Books, History Tagged With: American Revolution, Bill of Rights, James Madison, Legal History, Political History, Slavery, Virginia History

James Forten and the Making of the United States

March 8, 2023 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

ben franklins world podcastIn this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, Matthew Skic, a Curator of Exhibitions at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, joins Liz to explore the life and deeds of James Forten, with details from the museum’s new exhibit, Black Founders: The Forten Family of Philadelphia. [Read more…] about James Forten and the Making of the United States

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Abolition, American Revolution, Black History, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Podcasts, Political History

A Catskills Copperhead Strikes Against Lincoln & Abolition

March 5, 2023 by John Conway 1 Comment

Sullivan County Copperhead James Eldridge QuinlanOne of Sullivan County, NY’s first historians and most noted newspaper publishers, James Eldridge Quinlan, was a Copperhead, a pro-slavery Southern sympathizer, during the Civil War.

Anyone with any doubts about Quinlan’s leanings on the subjects of slavery, the abolitionists, and Abraham Lincoln need only peruse the pages of the Republican Watchman newspaper during the years leading up to the Civil War and during the war itself, to be convinced. [Read more…] about A Catskills Copperhead Strikes Against Lincoln & Abolition

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Abe Lincoln, Catskills, Civil War, Monticello, Newspapers, Political History, Publishing, Sullivan County

Henry Cabot Lodge’s Bronze Hot Dog

February 27, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Henry Cabot Lodge Bronze Hot Dog (Massachusetts Historical Society)In the mid-20th century, Americans had a great enthusiasm for all manner of keepsakes and mementos cast in bronze. On October 17, 1960, the National Hot Dog Council presented a life-size hot dog cast in bronze on a marble base to Republican vice-presidential candidate Henry Cabot Lodge Jr (1902-1985).

In the blur of events during the hard-fought presidential campaign, Lodge came to mistakenly believe that he had received the unusual gift during a visit to Nathan’s, the famous hot dog emporium in New York City. [Read more…] about Henry Cabot Lodge’s Bronze Hot Dog

Filed Under: Arts, Food, History, New York City Tagged With: Coney Island, Culinary History, John F. Kennedy, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Historical Society, Material Culture, New York City, Political History, Richard Nixon, sculpture

First Vote: A Letter from MANY’s Erika Sanger

February 26, 2023 by Erika Sanger Leave a Comment

Eleanor Roosevelt voting in 1936I don’t remember who was on the ballot the first time I voted, but I remember the challenge of finding my polling place – a community meeting room in the basement of an apartment building – on a rainy night in New York City.

The room was lit with flickering fluorescent bulbs and the floor was covered with gray linoleum tile. It took the poll volunteer who sat on a metal folding chair behind a metal folding table a long time to find me in a very large register. [Read more…] about First Vote: A Letter from MANY’s Erika Sanger

Filed Under: History, New Exhibits Tagged With: Advocacy, America's 250th Anniversary, Museum Association of New York, Museums, Political History, Smithsonian, Voting Rights

Wealth and Slavery in New Netherland

February 22, 2023 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

ben franklins world podcastIn this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, Nicole Maskiell, an associate professor of History at the University of South Carolina and the author of Bound By Bondage: Slavery and the Creation of the Northern Gentry (Cornell Univ. Press, 2022) joins Liz Covart to investigate the practice of slavery in Dutch New Netherland and how the colony’s elite families built their wealth and power on the labor, skills, and bodies of enslaved Africans and African Americans. [Read more…] about Wealth and Slavery in New Netherland

Filed Under: Books, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New York City Tagged With: Albany, Black History, Labor History, Livingston Manor, New Amsterdam, New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant, Philip Schuyler, Podcasts, Political History, Slavery, Van Rensselaers

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