Local Histories: The Deep Roots of Racial Definition in the US, NY State, Hudson Valley, Dutchess County, Poughkeepsie & Arlington
Local Histories
Dutch East India Company British Empire Province of New York United States State of New York
The Deep Roots of Racial De nition Hudson Valley Poughkeepsie
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Arlington
“ In v i s ibl e pe opl e…unto ld s t o r ie s ”
Fact
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Fiction
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Folklore
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“Invisible people… …untold stories” How Black (or anyone’s) history can get corrupted
Passively Ignored Actively Erased Rewritten / Adapted Caricature / Stereotype
Ignored Erased Rewritten
Ignored Erased Rewritten
COMMEMORATING HISTORICAL FACT IN NEW YORK STATE
INDIAN BURIAL GROUND CHIEF CROW AND OTHER MOHICAN SHACOMECOS OF MORAVIAN FAITH BURIED HERE
Ignored Erased Rewritten
“without doubt”
Ignored Erased Rewritten Caricature / Stereotype
SECURING DEFENDING HARNESSING
E Q U AL I T Y
WESTERN US
CROSSROADS NORTH/SOUTH & EAST/WEST
ATLANTIC GLOBAL TRADE ROUTES
7,0 00 Y E ARS
1609 Image: Chief Konkapot
2023
By Norman Rockwell
1750s 5000 — 4000— 3000 — 1000 — 1000 — 0000 — 1000 — 2000
Mohican
Schaghticoke “Mingling of waters…”
Esopus Wappinger DELAWARE LENAPE
Albany
Dutch English Ulster County
Enslaved Africans New York City
Albany
Dutch New England
English Ulster County
Enslaved Africans New York City
Quakers Nantucket
Long Island
Oblong Meeting House Built 1763 at Quaker Hill, Pawling 1766 - Banning of slave ownership 1769: Nathan Birdsall, Sr. & Nathan Birdsall, Jr. charged
AMERICA’S FIRST CENTURY 1 8 2 7 N YS A B OLI TI ON
“She took with her an infant female nine months old, named Diana…”
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September 21, 1775 “Bill of Sale” Francis Brett to George & Theodorus Brett: “Pomp” “Moly” “Su ya” “Tom” (young boy) “…boy named Tom as also all of my horses, cattle, sheep, hogs and household furniture…”
Dr. A. J. WILLIAMS-MEYERS Image courtesy TMI, Medium
Free Africans with their landholdings in rural areas … carved out that social space for themselves and family… They created caring, nurturing, and religious communities up and down the Hudson Valley...many of them were mixed communities of African, European, and Native American descent. Because they were caring communities, free of racial strife, interracial couples were attracted to them. In the Hudson Valley [there were] such communities [as] Freemanville and Baxtertown in southern Dutchess County… They were steadfast in weakening the molding of a materially dispossessed and dependent African by nurturing a materially affluent African.”
MA
She eld, MA: New Guinea
Rhinebeck: Oak Street Hyde Park: New Guinea
Washington: Brown Brothers Washington: CT Bolin
Pok: Mechanic/Liberty Streets
Ann Wing’s Estate
Pok: Boicetown Pawling: Freemanville
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Fishkill: Baxtertown
1835 Poughkeepsie Total population: 8,529 Entitled to vote: 1,667 Persons of color: Total: 294 Entitled to vote: 1 1835 County Total population: 50,704 Entitled to vote: 10,611 Persons of color: Total: 3,000 entitled to vote: 37
Men Women Total
Main 1,929 Perry 73 Union 517 Clover 158 Mill 520 Lafayette 43 Jefferson 206 Market 478 Noxon 33 Cannon 314 Mechanic 57 Liberty 19 Church 113 Jay 86 61 82 60 142 218 327 293 182 171 115 52
100 Total Population: 6,343
#POC % POC
2% 48 7
9% 3% 2% 9% 2% 3% 6% 20% 2% 11%
16 10% 16% 1% 1% 1% 3% 1% 3%
Men Women Total
Main 1,929 Perry 73 Union 517 Clover 158 Mill 520 Lafayette 43 Jefferson 206 Market 478 Noxon 33 Cannon 314 Mechanic 57 Liberty 19 Church 113 Jay 86 61 82 60 142 218 327 293 182 171 115 52
100 Total Population: 6,343
#POC % POC
2% 48 7
9% 3% 2% 9% 2% 3% 6% 20% 2% 11%
16 10% 16% 1% 1% 1% 3% 1% 3%
1872
BOLIN Abram & Anne
1925: A CENTURY AGO P O S T- W W 1
July 18, 1918
July 18, 1918
July 18, 1918
Evening Enterprise January 4, 1907
Evening Enterprise January 7, 1907
September 6, 1922
September 15, 1922
BOLIN Jane
“A lot of African Americans left the farm after the proclamation, a lot of African Americans just left the farm and came to Poughkeepsie like my grandfather, Jasper Jackson.” Walter M. Patrice Poughkeepsie 2018
Walter M. Patrice
IMPACTS OF RACISM
? 2025
1925