CAS DCHS Equitable Future

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

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2025

1925