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Voting Rights

Boston’s Black Workers in the Civil War Era

January 8, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Struggles of Boston's Black Workers in the Civil War EraIn her book No Right to an Honest Living (Basic Books, 2023), Jacqueline Jones reveals how Boston was the United States writ small: a place where the soaring rhetoric of egalitarianism was easy, but justice in the workplace was elusive.

Before, during, and after the Civil War, white abolitionists and Republicans refused to secure equal employment opportunity for Black Bostonians, condemning many of them to poverty. [Read more…] about Boston’s Black Workers in the Civil War Era

Filed Under: Books, Events, History Tagged With: Black History, Boston, Civil War, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Historical Society, Political History, Voting Rights

Women and the Constitutional Moment of 1787

October 5, 2022 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

ben franklins world podcastIn this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, Mary Sarah Bilder, an award-winning historian and the Founders Professor of Law at Boston College Law School, joins Liz to investigate the context of the United States Constitution’s creation with details from her book, Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution (UVA Press, 2022).

[Read more…] about Women and the Constitutional Moment of 1787

Filed Under: History Tagged With: American Revolution, Legal History, Podcasts, Political History, Voting Rights, womens history

Dear Museums: Host A Polling Site

September 13, 2022 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Ticketing area in the Great Hall equipped with hand sanitizer stations and social distancing markers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at Fifth Avenue.This open letter to the museum community was written by New York State Assembly Member Danny O’Donnell, Chair of the NYS Assembly Committee on Tourism, Parks, Arts, and Sports Development and shared by the Museum Association of New York (MANY).

Across New York, museums serve as anchors as well as reflections of your communities. Your missions to connect individuals to culture, history, and information is deeply needed and commendable. [Read more…] about Dear Museums: Host A Polling Site

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, Nature, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: covid, Museum Association of New York, Museums, politics, Voting Rights

Stephen Myers of Albany: Abolitionist Writer, Advocate & Underground Railroad Activist

August 30, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Stephen Myers portraitStephen Myers was a Black activist in connection with the Underground Railroad and African American rights in general. He was born and enslaved in Hoosick, Rensselaer County, New York State and raised when it was a slave state working on progressive abolition. He was the principal agent and a key writer for the Northern Star and Freeman’s Advocate, he was also the editor of The Elevator and The Telegraph and Temperance Journal.

As early as 1831 he was assisting fugitives from enslavement making their way to Canada. He was also active in 1827 with a group of little-known significance called the Clarkson Anti-slavery Society. As time went on he was involved in organizing and serving as a delegate to many of the Colored Men’s Conventions of the 1830s to the 1860s, to secure African American rights. He was involved in voting rights campaigns through the NYS Suffrage Association, was involved in organizing a school, and sued Albany Schools over segregation. [Read more…] about Stephen Myers of Albany: Abolitionist Writer, Advocate & Underground Railroad Activist

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Western NY Tagged With: Abolition, Albany, Albany County, Black History, Hoosick, Journalism, Labor History, National Abolition Hall of Fame, Oneida County, Onondaga County, Political History, Publishing, Rensselaer County, Slavery, Stephen Meyers, Syracuse, Troy, Underground Railroad, Underground Railroad Education Center, US Colored Troops, Voting Rights

Schenectady Black History & Barber John Wendell

June 14, 2022 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

black barber shaves the face of a lounging white man in a barber shopIn the early 19th century, Schenectady played host to a distinctly American process through which hundreds of Black people gained their freedom. Although Schenectady County had a small enclave of free African Americans into the late colonial period, the overwhelming majority of Black Schenectadians were enslaved.

As New York State legislation gradually abolished the institution of slavery by 1827, many Black Schenectadians had to confront a new reality in which they were legally independent, but by no means legally equal.

One of these people was John Wendell [Jr.] whose birth remains shrouded in mystery. [Read more…] about Schenectady Black History & Barber John Wendell

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Abolition, Albany, Albany County, Black History, Civil Rights, Labor History, Schenectady, Schenectady County, Schenectady County Historical Society, Social History, Voting Rights

Black History in Upstate New York Series Concluding

August 20, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

black history in upstate new yorkThe final programs of the Black History in Upstate New York series created by Colgate University graduate and Upstate Institute Fellow Victoria Basulto will be posted online from August 23rd through 26th.

These short online programs highlight individuals, events, and places in Upstate New York central to movements like abolitionism, civil rights, and women’s suffrage movement. [Read more…] about Black History in Upstate New York Series Concluding

Filed Under: Events, History, Western NY Tagged With: Abolition, Black History, Civil Rights, Gender History, National Abolition Hall of Fame, Political History, Suffrage Movement, Voting Rights, womens history

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

July 15, 2021 by Peter Slocum Leave a Comment

John Brown Farm courtesy John Brown LivesThis 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

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondacks, Black History, Essex County, Gerrit Smith Estate, John Brown, John Brown SHS, Lake Placid, North Elba, Political History, Timbuctoo, Voting Rights

Elections in Early America: The Electoral College (Podcast)

November 2, 2020 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

ben_franklins_worldFor four months during the summer of 1787, delegates from the thirteen states met in Philadelphia to craft a revised Constitution that would define the government of the United States. It took them nearly the entire time to settle on the method for selecting the President, the Chief Executive. What they came up with is a system of indirect election where the states would select electors who would then cast votes for President and Vice President. Today we call these electors the Electoral College.

In this final episode of the Ben Franklin’s World series on Elections in Early America, we explore the origins and early development of the Electoral College and how it shaped presidential elections in the first decades of the United States with Alexander Keyssar and Frank Cogliano.

[Read more…] about Elections in Early America: The Electoral College (Podcast)

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Podcasts, Political History, Voting Rights

Elections in Early America: Native Sovereignty

October 28, 2020 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

ben_franklins_worldWho is American democracy for and who could participate in early American democracy?

Women and African Americans were often barred from voting in colonial and early republic elections. But what about Native Americans? Could Native Americans participate in early American democracy?

[Read more…] about Elections in Early America: Native Sovereignty

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Indigenous History, Native American History, Podcasts, Political History, Voting Rights

Elections in Early America: Elections & Voting in the Early Republic

October 21, 2020 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

ben_franklins_worldIndependence from Great Britain provided the former British American colonists the opportunity to create a new, more democratic government than they had lived under before the American Revolution.

What did this new American government look like? Who could participate in this new American democracy? And what was it like to participate in this new democracy?

[Read more…] about Elections in Early America: Elections & Voting in the Early Republic

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Podcasts, Political History, Voting Rights

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