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
The institution of race-based slavery in what is now New York dates to 1627 when 22 enslaved Africans were brought to New Amsterdam (now New York City) by the Dutch West Indies Company. From that day forward some Americans opposed slavery and sought its abolition.
The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Madison County, NY, has announced four abolitionists will be inducted this fall: Black Americans William Wells Brown and Samuel Ringgold Ward, and also William and John Jay II – descendants of American Patriot John Jay. [Read more…] about Four New Yorkers Being Inducted into Abolition Hall of Fame
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
As America marks its 250th anniversary, the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor is launching Revolutionary Experiences, road trips along New York’s historic waterways.
These self-guided itineraries invite participants to explore the people, places, and ideas that helped shape the nation. [Read more…] about Erie Canalway Launches “Revolutionary Experiences” Tours
Underground Railroad Education Center (UREC) in Albany, New York asserts in a lawsuit Friday that the Trump administration through the National Endowment for the Humanities unlawfully terminated its federal grant on the racially motivated bias, pointing to President Donald Trump‘s efforts to
dismantle diversity-focused initiatives.
The lawsuit alleges that the National Endowment for the Humanities’ cancellation of a $250,000 grant amounted to viewpoint and racial discrimination, violating the First and Fifth Amendments, respectively. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of New York and calls for the funds to be reinstated. [Read more…] about Albany’s Underground Railroad Education Center Sues Trump Regime
The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum, located in Peterboro, in Madison County, NY, has announced their 2026 Black History Matters video series, which this year focuses on Abolition.
Beginning February 1st, ten videos will address the Abolition movement in the United States and globally, including the role of women, the development of the Underground Railroad, the role of religion in Abolition, and the afterlives of slavery that exist today. [Read more…] about The Black History Matters Video Series for 2026
After the arrival of the first enslaved people in 1627, New York State became the leading state in the North in relying on enslaved labor to drive its growth, wealth and influence.
The movement to end enslavement was a long one, and two-hundred years separated the arrival of those first enslaved people and New York State’s legal abolition of the practice, which took effect on July 4th, 1827. [Read more…] about Freedom 2027: Commemorating New York’s Abolition Bicentennial
In this episode of the ADK Talks podcast, we step inside the fascinating North Star Underground Railroad Museum near Ausable Chasm, with President Jacqueline “Jackie” Madison of the North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association. [Read more…] about North Star Underground Railroad Museum Profile
The following excerpt is from A Narrative of the Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper, from American Slavery published in 1838. Moses Roper (ca. 1815 – 1891) was an African American abolitionist, author and orator. He gave thousands of lectures in Great Britain and Ireland to inform the European public about the brutality of American slavery. [Read more…] about Moses Roper’s Escape from American Slavery
The National Parks Service (NPS), under orders to remove diverse, equitable and inclusive language from its websites by the Trump regime, has taken a portrait of Harriet Tubman off their website about the Underground Railroad and changed the website’s language to remove the term ‘freedom seekers.’
Tubman, whose birth name was Araminta Ross (1822 – 1913), was an activist abolitionist who lived much of her life in New York State, where she is buried. Tubman made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, including her family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known collectively as the Underground Railroad. [Read more…] about Harriett Tubman Removed from NPS Underground Railroad Page
Corn Hill’s name is wrapped in mystery, but its spirit is undeniable. While no one knows for sure how it came to be, three ideas stand out:
One theory suggests that Native Americans cultivated corn on the elevated land above the Genesee River, and as travelers headed north, they saw the “hill of corn” stretching out before them. [Read more…] about Corn Hill: Rochester’s Heartbeat of History, Culture, and Diversity
The Gilder Lehrman Institute in New York City has announced the 2025 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize will be awarded to Edda L. Fields-Black for her book Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War (Oxford University Press, 2024).
The book tells the story of the Combahee River Raid, one of Harriet Tubman‘s most extraordinary accomplishments, based on original documents and written by a descendant of one of the participants. [Read more…] about Book About Daring Harriet Tubman Raid Wins Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize
The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 was a monumental achievement. Linking the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, it transformed the city of New York into a hub of international trade, drove the rise of industrial cities in once sparsely populated areas, and accelerated the westward expansion of the United States.
Yet few of the laborers who toiled along the canal shared in the prosperity it brought. [Read more…] about Life and Labor Along the Erie Canal
In the 1820s, few Americans could imagine a viable future for black children. Even abolitionists saw just two options for African American youth: permanent subjection or exile.
Dr. Anna Mae Duane’s book Educated for Freedom: The Incredible Story of Two Fugitive Schoolboys Who Grew Up to Change a Nation (NYU Press, 2020) tells the story of James McCune Smith (1813-1865) and Henry Highland Garnet (1815-1882), two black children who came of age and into freedom as their country struggled to grow from a slave nation into a free country. [Read more…] about Educated for Freedom: Henry Highland Garnet and James McCune Smith
Jan Van Hoesen House on Route 66, north of the City of Hudson, NY and just east of Claverack Creek in Columbia County, is a rare surviving house characteristic of the Upper Hudson Valley in the first half of the 1700s.
As both a site of enslavement and a site of freedom, the house is arguably one of the most significant historic sites in Columbia County.
[Read more…] about Slavery & Abolition Activism at the Jan Van Hoesen House
Governor Kathy Hochul recently signed legislation S1480-A/A6583-A to establish November 26th as Sojourner Truth Day in the State of New York, named in honor of the legendary abolitionist and women’s rights advocate who was born in Ulster County.
Sojourner Truth was born in the Hudson Valley in 1797 and was enslaved in New York until she escaped in 1826. [Read more…] about Sojourner Truth Day Declared in New York State
The University of Chicago Press recently published a unique account of an escape from enslavement in North Carolina decades before the Civil War. The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots (2024) by John Swanson Jacobs tells of his escape from enslavement by North Carolina plantation owner and Congressional Representative Samuel Sawyer in 1838 while he and the slaveholder were in transit through the City of New York. [Read more…] about Governed by Despots: John Swanson Jacobs Chronicles Enslavement and Resistance
An Oneida County historic landmark has received a big boost to its status nationally, and students and staff at played a role in making it happen.
The National Park Service recently announced that the Florence Settlement of 1848 is one of 14 new landmarks added to their National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program. The program is a list of over 800 historical sites, facilities, and programs integral to preserving the legacy of the Underground Railroad and the many individuals who bravely escaped slavery in pursuit of freedom. [Read more…] about Florence Settlement Added to National Underground Railroad Network
The Hopper-Gibbons House at 339 West 29th Street was built in 1846-47, and is one of the last extant documented Underground Railroad site in Manhattan. Abigail Hopper Gibbons (1801-1893) and James Sloan Gibbons (1810-1892) purchased the house in 1852.
James was a cousin of Horace Greeley and the writer of the lyrics to the Civil War call to arms, “Three Hundred Thousand More.” A financial editor for the New York Evening Post he later served briefly as an editor of the Anti-Slavery Standard. Abigail was the daughter of noted abolitionist and prison reform advocate Isaac Hooper (1771-1852; his home still stands in the East Village), who directly confronted slave kidnappers. [Read more…] about Hopper-Gibbons House: A Relic of Manhattan’s Underground Railroad
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
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