Timbuctoo

NY’s Voter Suppression History & John Brown’s Farm

July 15, 2021 by Peter Slocum Leave a Comment

This year we are celebrating New York State’s acquisition of John Brown Farm 125 years ago. And it’s good that we are.

But let us also recall a 200th anniversary linked to the John Brown Farm – a connection that has particular importance this year as we witness a voter suppression spree around our country. Two hundred years ago, that was us – our New York ancestors – enacting explicit rules to keep blacks from voting.

John Brown and his family moved to the Adirondacks as part of an effort to counteract New York State-sponsored suppression of voting rights for black men.

We are now seeing a wave of voter suppression efforts in states controlled by Republican legislators fearful of losing their majority power. Well, guess what? That’s exactly what was going on here in good old New York back in the early 1800s. We New Yorkers apparently were leaders in voter suppression. We even put it into the state constitution! That’s more than the states are doing today. [Read more…] about NY’s Voter Suppression History & John Brown’s Farm

Timbuctoo: An Adirondack African American Settlement

July 2, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

In this episode of the A New York Minute In History podcast, the history of Timbuctoo, an African American settlement founded by philanthropist Gerrit Smith in response to an 1846 law requiring all black men to own $250 worth of property in order to vote in New York State.

To counter this racist policy, Smith decided to give away 120,000 acres of land to 3,000 free, black New Yorkers, hoping to enable them to move out of cities and work the land to its required value. Lyman Epps and other black pioneers relocated to the wilderness near Lake Placid, New York — as did abolitionist John Brown, who based his family in North Elba to assist the black pioneers in their farming. [Read more…] about Timbuctoo: An Adirondack African American Settlement

Adirondack Timbuctoo Exhibit Opens Peterboro Civil War Weekend

June 6, 2017 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The John Brown Lives traveling exhibit Dreaming of Timbuctoo opens Saturday June 10, the first day of the 25th Annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend.

The exhibit explains Gerrit Smith’s 1846 gift of 40 acres of land to each of 3000 black men in order to assure voting rights, describes the persons who moved to the Lake Placid area to work their land, and describes the ongoing archeological work at the site of the 120,000 acres that came to be known as Timbuctoo. [Read more…] about Adirondack Timbuctoo Exhibit Opens Peterboro Civil War Weekend