Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook: Black History

The Dutchess County Historical Society PO Box 88 Poughkeepsie, NY 12602 www.DCHSNY.org In any republication, please cite The Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook 2022

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Front cover, clockwise starting from top left: The ag or “colors” under which many of Dutchess County’s men of color fought in the Civil War in segregated troops.

Unidenti ed woman in the family photo album of Walter Patrice.

Jane Bolin, the rst Black woman judge in the United States.

Unidenti ed man at the train station in World War One, 1918.

Walter Patrice, served in Europe in WW2 as a Lieutenant in the Army

Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook Encore Edition Writings from past issues on

Black History

No matter how you measure it (six linear feet, 12,000 pages, 7 million words, thousands of illustrations) the value of DCHS Yearbooks is found not in its scale, but in the thinking behind each word.

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Through DCHS Yearbook Encore Editions we republish articles from the past issues exactly as they were published at the time.

As a result you will nd outdated language and concepts, all of which o er opportunities to learn.

Click on any title to be taken to the article Table of Contents A “Joyful Noise Unto the Lord,” Black Gospel Music in Dutchess County 1945 to 1970.

By Myra Young Armstead & Ceista Little-Quinn, 2021.

1

More Than Names on a Muster Role: Dutchess County African-Americans in the Great War.

By Pete Bedrossian, 2021.

17

Dutchess County’s African-American Experience During the Great War, 1917 to 1919…and beyond.

By Bill Jeffway & Melodye Moore, 2019.

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The Amenia Conference: The Dutchess County Connection to the Development and Growth of the NAACP.

By Julia Hotton, 2017.

39 How Poughkeepsie Contributed to the Enlistment of Blacks in the Union Army.

By Julia Hotton, 2014.

45

Wise Voices, Plain Speaking: Twentieth Century Griots

By Lorraine M. Roberts & Eileen M. Hayden, 2010.

53

The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.

By Arun Banerjee, 1994.

69

Invisible People, Untold Stories: A Historical Overview of the Black Community in Poughkeepsie.

By Lawrence H. Mamiya and Lorraine Roberts, 1987.

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Slaveholding on Livingston Manor & Clermont, 1686 to 1800.

By Roberta Singer, 1984.

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Click on any title to be taken to the article

Table of Contents (continued)

The Fading Veneer of Equality: The Afro-American Experience in Poughkeepsie Between 1840 and1860

By Joshua Gordon Hinerfeld, 1983.

123

Ante-bellum Dutchess County’s Struggle Against Slavery.

By Susan J. Crane, 1980.

141

Separate Black Education in Dutchess County: Black Elementary Schools and a Proposed Black College.

By Carlton Mabee, 1980.

161

The Old Plantation

By Burton Coon, 1979 Yearbook (from 1925).

169

Uncle Tom

By Burton Coon, 1979 Yearbook (from 1925).

171

Dutchess County Quakers and Slavery, 1750 to 1830.

By Dell Upton, 1970.

173

The Negro in Dutchess County in the Eighteenth Century

By Helen Wilkinson Reynolds, 1941.

183

A Dutchess County Gardener’s Diary

By Joel Spingarn, 1937.

191

John A. Bolding, Fugitive Slave

By Helen Wilkinson Reynolds, 1935.

195

A “Joyful Noise Unto the Lord” 125

A “Joyful Noise Unto the Lord” Black Gospel Music in Dutchess County 1945 to 1970

by Myra Young Armstead and Ceista Little-Quinn Demographics and the music scene of Dutchess County underwent a transformation in the postwar years of the twentieth century. The Black population swelled with an influx of southerners carrying a distinctly new form of church music that gained a local following and mirrored national trends. The new sounds ushered in a Golden Age of Gospel. The postwar music gave way to even newer Black church musical styles after 1970, but the earlier tradition is preserved among the new old-time singers into the present century.

I. The Great Migration Starting during World War I around 1915 until 1970, nearly 8 million African Americans from the southern states of this country migrated north in search of better jobs, housing, education, and race relations than they had known in the racially segregated South—a region of overt anti-Black prejudice and discrimination. This migration occurred in two phases. The second phase after World War II was the largest and included 5 million African Americans who fled the South.

Poughkeepsie, NY and Dutchess County were among their destinations between 1950 and 1970, the latter half of this Great Migration. In 1950, 5,521 non-whites lived in Dutchess County as a whole. In 1960, the number had jumped to 9,917.1 By 1970, the African American population in Poughkeepsie alone reached 5,876—more than the 3,601 people it had encompassed in 1960 and more than the size of the Black population in the entire county twenty years earlier. Recruitment to jobs with IBM helped to swell these numbers of Black, southern newcomers to the Queen City as well.2 New arrivals from the South joined established Black churches in the area and also formed new ones. Newcomers after World War II found several 1

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existing Black options for worship. Poughkeepsie’s Smith Street African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church, founded in 1837; Beacon’s St. James AME Zion Church, founded in 1844; Poughkeepsie’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, founded in 1891; Beacon’s Star of Bethlehem Church, founded in 1900; Green Haven’s Mt. Zion Baptist Church, founded in 1902; Salt Point’s Central Baptist Church, founded in 1919; Wappingers Falls’ Beulah Baptist Church, founded in 1928; Poughkeepsie’s Beulah Baptist Church in 1933; and Poughkeepsie’s Church of the Living God United in 1943 were all standing congregations. It is noteworthy that four of the aforenamed churches first opened their doors during the first half of the Great Migration—in other words, due to the increase of Black migrants transporting their distinct worship preferences. But after World War II, southern newcomers helped to found several more new Black churches in Dutchess County as well: Poughkeepsie’s Second Baptist Church in 1946; Beacon’s Springfield Baptist Church in 1946; Poughkeepsie’s Holy Light Pentecostal Church in 1952; Poughkeepsie’s Green Chapel Overcoming Church of God in 1960; Beacon’s Church of God in Christ in 1961; Poughkeepsie’s Trinity Temple Adventist Church in 1964; Wappingers Falls’ Beulah Missionary Baptist Church in 1966; and Poughkeepsie’s Church of God in Christ in 1966.3

II. Bringing the Music Black Southerners settling in the North after World War II brought their music to their new churches. In fact, the 1950s and 1960s have been called the “Golden Age” of Black gospel music nationally. Gospel singing groups, soloists, and composers achieved a heightened level of popularity through new independent record labels like Savoy, television shows like Sid Ordower’s Jubilee Showcase, folk festivals, and radio. Traditional Black gospel music before World War II drew from a combination of spirituals and blues, and emphasized tight harmonies and call-and-response.

In the postwar era, this style of singing was transformed by a proliferation of ensembles—mostly quartets, quintets, and sextets which were all

Figure 1. Sid Ordower’s Jubliee Showcase. Photo, http://www.jubileeshowcase.com 2

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advertised as “quartets” regardless of actual size—as well as choirs which placed greater emphasis on soloists who brought more drama to the music.

This heightened form of gospel featured ad libs, melisma, falsettos, “hard singing” (raspy-ness, gruff sounds, shouts, squeals), showmanship, and general emotion in the music’s vocals—all without sacrificing evenly blended harmonies. Featured instruments generally were electric guitar, organ, and piano. The Hammond organ, first introduced as an alternative to the far more expensive pipe organ, provided especially good accompaniment because of its vibrant range of tones that a skilled player utilized to bring extra dynamism to the music.4 Star soloists included Ira Tucker, Sam Cooke, and Shirley Caesar.

This special era of Black gospel music coincided with the postwar Civil Rights Movement. Lyrics supplied the spiritual inspiration for the real-world Black freedom struggle and commented on racial injustices.5 For instance, the tune “Stretch Out” reminds listeners, “When troubles come and storms begin to rise, Hold on and learn to stretch out on God’s word”—the promises in the Bible of deliverance from oppression. In “Open Our Eyes,” the soloist pleads with God to have mercy on a humanity that doesn’t appreciate divine bounty (“level plains,” “food and clothing,” “shelter from the storm and rain”) and instead chooses “fighting and hurting one another”; the singer pleads for enlightenment and by implication, racial harmony. The song “God Specializes” informs the audience that “God specializes in things that seem impossible, and He will do what no other power can do” (including ending racial segregation).

Civil Rights Movement leaders regularly sang spirituals and gospel music during marches and protests, so it was in keeping with this pattern that “How I Got Over” was sung at the March on Washington in 1963. The words convey the singer’s amazement and gratitude for progress along a climb “over hills and mountains” enabled by God. The fact that gospel music traveled with migrants from their southern origins can be seen in the fact that Chicago was the transplanted home of Mahalia Jackson (originally from New Orleans), Sam Cooke (born in Mississippi), the Staple Singers (whose patriarch was born in Mississippi), and Albertina Walker (whose mother was born in Georgia). Orange and Newark, New Jersey were the transplanted homes of the Gospel Clefs whose founder’s mother was from Alabama and the Drinkard Singers whose patriarch hailed from Georgia. (The Drinkards included Cissy Houston and Dionne Warwick of later pop star fame.) Detroit’s Flying Clouds, Mid-South Singers, Cumberland River Singers, and Jewell Jubilee 3

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Figure 2. The Staple Singers. While the family surname is Staples, the group used the singular form for its name, resulting in the group's name being The Staple Singers. Photo, http://www. jubileeshowcase.com/featured_gospel_artists.html

Singers had members born in Alabama.6 This pattern was repeated throughout the country in northern cities.

Some of the more famous male ensembles included the Pilgrim Travelers, the Soul Stirrers, Sensational Nightingales, the Dixie Hummingbirds, the Swan Silvertones, and the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi. Among the female groups, the Clara Ward Singers, the Roberta Martin Singers, the Dorothy Norwood Singers, and Albertina Walker and the Caravans were most popular. Soloists like Mahalia Jackson and Sister Rosetta Tharpe were unusual as stand-alone soloists, unattached to background singers.

They enjoyed a heyday during this golden age.

Gospel choirs proliferated in new form as mass choirs and community choirs were born. Some were specific to particular congregations or denominations while others were regional or national. Dr. Mattie Moss Clark, for instance, headed the Southwest Michigan State Choir of the Church of God in Christ, first established in 1959. The tunes of the spirited, Brooklyn-based Institutional Radio Choir, known for the speed of many of their numbers (as was true of other urban Black choirs), were a favorite, and the compositions of choirmaster James Cleveland circulated widely.7 In 1967, Cleveland famously launched the Gospel Music Workshop of America (GMWA), “to perpetuate, promote and advance the Christian ideal through the medium of music by joining together gospel choirs, choruses, singers [and] songwriters throughout the US”—an organization that still exists. Importantly, unlike the styled artfulness required of lead gospel singers and small vocal ensembles, the large gospel choirs welcomed more ordinary, humble voices of everyday church goers who loved to sing; in fact, the GMWA’s motto, is “where everybody is 4

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somebody.” The democratic ethos of GMWA extended the reach of gospel music performance beyond the trained musician and vocalist to the church member who was an unstudied shower singer. In addition to piano and organ, instrumental accompaniment for the choirs included more explicit percussive elements—tambourines, drums—and increasingly, bass guitar.

III. Poughkeepsie’s “Golden Age” Gospel Groups It is not surprising that African American, southern migrants to Dutchess County brought their brand of gospel music-making with them as they joined the area’s churches. The local impresario of the new Black gospel sound was a transplanted southerner from Blythewood, South Carolina.

Willie B. Hutson (1915-1987) relocated to Poughkeepsie as a young man, probably in the early 1940s. In 1962, he initiated the Willie Hutson Gospel Train, an hour and a half Sunday evening gospel show, that aired on Poughkeepsie’s WEOK station.8 Ten years later, the show reportedly was “the most listened to blacks [sic] program in the Mid Hudson Valley.”9 Regular listeners recall the theme song at the start of each show—“Bedside of a Neighbor,” first recorded by the Dixie Hummingbirds in 1962, and taken up by several local quartets.

From 1963 through the 1970s, the Talent Tent or the Dance Tent of the annual Dutchess County Fair featured the Willie Hutson Gospel Train, often on a Sunday designated “Fireman’s Day.” The gospel groups commanded the fair’s stage for four hours each year.10 As a member of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Hutson organized the gospel choir there and countless “programs”—concerts featuring several gospel quartets and choirs. One, for example, was held at Second Baptist Church in the fall of 1965.11 The Poughkeepsie Journal announced, “At 8 p.m., the Golden Trumpets

Figure 3. The Jubilaires Gospel Quartet.

Begun c. 1942 in Poughkeepsie, New York. https://blackmusicscholar.com/ the-jubalaires/ 5

DCHS Yearbook 2021

singing group from Baltimore, Md. and the Baltimore Southern Mission group will conduct a musical program. Willie Hutson is in charge.”12 Hutson was so central to the postwar gospel music scene in Poughkeepsie that “seven well known area gospel singing groups” honored him at the Bardavon Opera House in 1977 for “service to the community for 15 years through his radio program ‘Gospel Train.” The event was called “An Appreciation Day for Willie Hutson.” As befitting a recognition for Hutson, the evening’s program featured performances by several gospel ensembles—the Revelators, the True-tones, the Traveling Echoes, the Mid-Hudson Gospel Singers, the Community Youth Ensemble, the Jubilaires, and Gretchen Reed and the Deliverance Singers.13 Perhaps the premiere gospel group in Poughkeepsie during these years was the Dixie Jubilaires. Started during World War II, approximately in 1942, it consisted of Alexander Watkins, John Williams, Thomas Lawrence, and Willie Hutson, with Hutson also serving unsurprisingly as the group’s manager. Watkins, a native of rural Bullock County, Georgia, recalled why he left the South: “It was tough down there.” He grew up on a hardscrabble farm. In the middle of the Great Depression, Watkins left home in 1938 at the age of 20 “looking for a better living.” Following a brotherin-law who had departed for Poughkeepsie, he arrived in the Queen City carrying memories of the church singing of his youth.14 “Well before I came here I was singing gospel,” he revealed. “We had a quartet down south . . .Me and my brother and some more brothers. We sang together.

We sang gospel.” He found others with similar backgrounds and memories in the newly formed churches. Watkins recalled, “John Williams.

He was from Beulah Baptist.” Watkins himself belonged to one of the newer Black churches with a majority of southern migrants as well— Church of the Living God. Both of these churches were planted in Poughkeepsie during the Great Migration. In fact, the Dixie Jubilaires were birthed at Watkins’ church, as he recounted: “[W]e started out singing from 40 South Bridge Street. That’s where we launched our beginning.

Pentecostal church. Yeah, it was my church. . . [T]hat’s where we held our first program.”15 On Sunday evenings at 7:00 P.M., the group broadcast its sound from WKIP, a radio station located in the garage of one of Poughkeepsie’s main hotels in the 1940s, the Nelson House. Watkins recalled the group’s good relationship with John Kuhn, the station’s programming director in the 1950s.16 The style reflected postwar national trends in the evolution of gospel during its prime. Watkins explained the innovations of his group’s music.

First, there was the contrast with much of the established Black church 6

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Figure 4. Smith Street AME Zion Church, 124 Smith St, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601. https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/2017/02/21/dateline-smith-metropolitan-ame-zion-church-local-history/98202746/

singing in Poughkeepsie: “They’d sing sheet music,” Watkins recounted.

“There was one group called the Mays Singers. You know, they, the pastor of the Smith Street AME Zion Church. His wife was a musician. And she had some kids…The pastor was named Reverend Mays. They named the group after him…They…[sang] like, regular songs.” By this, Watkins meant relatively sedate hymns and classical sacred music. But the Dixie Jubilaires started out singing a capella with no written music. He continued, “[W]e sang by ear…They sang, you know, professional. Different. They sang from the sheet…[W]e made up ours as we went along.” There was also a difference in the lively tempo of the new gospel sound when compared to pre-war gospel spirituals. It was faster. Watkins continued, “No more of that slow stuff . . .Like the old-old—like I used to hear my mother and father and them sing them old slow songs. We didn’t sing that way.

We had a beat…We didn’t have it in the beginning, but pretty soon we got it. Then, we got out of that slow motion singing. We went with the beat.”17 There were other local vocalists performing the new gospel music when the Dixie Jubilaires entered the public arena. As stated, Willie Hutson had inaugurated a gospel choir at Ebenezer Baptist Church. There was also an a capella quintet called the Bridge City Quartet, drawing from members of Ebenezer Baptist Church, two sets of brothers—“two Thurston boys and three Douglas boys.” The Thurstons were from Virginia while the Douglas brothers were Mississippi natives. They aired on Friday evenings at 7:00 P.M. on Poughkeepsie’s WKIP radio station during the 1940s.18 7

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Watkins admired them: “They had a fine beat, you know. They’d clap…

Like, patting your feet and slapping your hands.”19 A major postwar innovation for the Dixie Jubilaires was the addition of music instrumental accompaniment. Watkins said the group admired the Jackson Southernaires, a Chicago-based quartet of transplanted Mississippians who first hit the national scene in the 1940s. After World War II, the Jubilaires were able to include a guitarist like the Southernaires and other gospel quartets. When Moses Hutson, Willie’s brother, returned from the army, “he had a guitar,” Watkins said. “He played guitar for us…

But before we [were] singing, just slap, patting, that’s all.”20 The frequent invitations they received to perform indexed the Jubilaires’ popularity. They sang for mid-Hudson Valley churches on both sides of the river. “Yeah, we went everywhere. Poughkeepsie, Newburgh, Kingston, New York City, Brooklyn.” One especially proud moment for them was a performance in Beacon, NY on behalf of Averill Harriman on one of his two bids for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in the 1950s. Watkins gloated a bit, “[W]hen he ran for president he came to Beacon to make a speech and we went down, and sang for him.”21 Roosevelt Stafford (1935-2004) was a major participant in Poughkeepsie gospel’s golden age as well. He was a founding member of the Goldennaires—another popular, male gospel quartet from 1953 to 1956. Born in Georgia, he migrated to Highland, NY at the age of nine as a migrant farm worker with another family that took him in as a son. When he turned 17 in 1949, he moved across the river into Dutchess County. As a child in the South, Stafford enjoyed hanging around a church gospel guitarist everyone called “Red” who inspired him to pick up the instrument in his late teens and teach himself how to play it. However, during his tenure with the Goldennaires, the group was a capella. “This is the old time way…This is how you could tell the good from the bad groups,” he jokingly recalled. The ensemble emulated the Dixie Hummingbirds. “That was our style of singing,” Stafford declared. “We copied their style…

You couldn’t tell ours from theirs.”22 A founding member of Holy Light Pentecostal Church, he sang lead for a while with another short-lived gospel group, the Holy Lights. Stafford next went on to sing with the Rainbows, initially a mixed (male/female) gospel ensemble in the sixties for whom he played guitar.23 With a wide tri-state appeal, Stafford enjoyed traveling to sing gospel in “Passaic, New Jersey; Patterson, New Jersey,” Harlem’s Rockland Palace, and “in Kingston, Hudson, Newburgh,…Connecticut, and in Wappingers Falls…all around.” For him, singing gospel 8

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was about “communicating with people.” Typically, his groups came prepared with five songs, although they were expected to deliver three. The other two were for encores, which audiences and congregations generally requested. He emphasized, “[I]t was real joyous…really, really uplifting.”24

Figure 5. The Rainbow Singers of Poughkeepsie, NY. Photo: magazine clipping, origin unknown, Collection of Ceista Little-Quinn.

While the Jubilaires led Poughkeepsie’s postwar male gospel ensembles, the Rainbow Singers of Holy Light Pentecostal Church certainly headlined the female groups. In 1957, the McClinton family, whose parents were born in Russellville, South Carolina, relocated to Poughkeepsie so that their father could become the pastor of Holy Light Pentecostal Church. Phyllis Mae McClinton Harris recalls that the big gospel performers of the day—Shirley Caesar, the Five Blind Boys of Alabama—as well as later gospel choirs like The House of Joy Miracle Deliverance Choir—were familiar and influential upon her. In 1966, when she was 14, she and her sisters began traveling with their father whenever he was asked to deliver guest sermons at churches outside of the area; he would present them as the McClinton Sisters—a kind of warm-up singing group before he preached. The group changed its name to the Rainbow Singers as a reminder of the story of Noah and the Flood in the Old Testament book of Genesis in the Bible, wherein God placed a rainbow in the sky as a sign that he would never again destroy the world by water. According to McClinton, the group’s name change was directed by a “prophetee” (a female spiritual seer) who lived with the McClintons at the time.25 It made sense for the group to accept her word since it was congruent with the “good news” that the music is meant to convey.

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The Rainbow Singers’ musical aural aesthetic and evolution fell in line with that of the larger postwar Black gospel world. Harris elaborated, From the beginning it was what they called common meter. It was like you make up your own beat, Make up your own. With only a bass drum that was beat with a stick, we had tambourine and cymbals, but we did not have an organist or piano at the time. Then later on, Roosevelt Stafford, he started playing the guitar, and as years went by, we had a bass player, and we did have an organist. But it started out with lots of foot stomping and clapping of hands! And no mics!26 Like other local gospel groups, the appeal of the Rainbow Singers spread rapidly through the sixties. Knowledge of the group spread word of mouth and through positive reaction to them on radio. McClinton recalled, “We were busy every weekend, always going somewhere to sing! There were church choirs back then. We used to have choir anniversaries, and with special marches that we made up to march in on! The whole program would consist of only gospel music.” A major highlight for the group, according to McClinton, was the opportunity they once had to be on the same program line-up with Shirley Caesar.27 All of the gospel groups had managers responsible for booking these types of engagements. For the Dixie Jubilaires, it was Willie Hutson. For the Goldennaires, originally it was Don Bailey, who was succeeded by George McClinton, assisted by David Rogers. For the Rainbow Singers, it was their father, George McClinton again.28 None of the gospel singers expected pay. They sang voluntarily. Their troubadouring was simultaneously a labor of love, a desire to minister spiritually to listeners, and pure fun for them. Those who dropped out of groups tended to do so at the point that the demands of full-time work and fully supporting their families interfered with the ensembles’ rehearsal and performance schedules.

Local gospel choir specialists were important to their audiences. Marva Clark and Gretchen Reed, both trained musicians, came onto the Poughkeepsie gospel choir music scene in the late sixties and the early seventies —during its peak and at the beginning of its two-decade-long ebb. Reed was also a soloist in her own right, often with Clark serving as her piano accompanist. Born in Virginia, Clark received her music education from her Baptist upbringing, Hampton University, and the Boston Conservatory of Music. She came to Poughkeepsie to teach middle school vocal music around 1968, and became director of the Ebenezer Baptist Church gospel choir as well. Additionally, about that time Clark became the director of a 10

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gospel community choir, the Mid-Hudson Community Choir, that regularly performed on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and at other events.29 She spoke of the beauty and challenges of the African American gospel choir tradition of the postwar era: [N]o one was reading music…[I]n the gospel arena…people have an…ear for [the music] because they’ve heard it all their lives…African American [traditional gospel] music is very easy to teach…[T]hat’s the tradition. And people are very cooperative. And those rehearsals are very beautiful…I believe that …musicians should accompany the singers. I don’t—do not want to hear the musicians competing with the singers. I don’t.

That’s offensive to me. And I want diction. I want to be able to understand every word you’re saying…And then we’ve had uniforms—black skirts, white blouses, red blouses, black skirts, whatever. And it was very, very lovely. Very, very nice.30 In 1960, Gretchen Reed, equipped with a music training in voice and piano from Hampton Institute, became the choir director at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Green Haven. Over the course of the next decade and beyond, she was an organizer of gospel concerts; a pianist and member of a female gospel trio, Deliverance, with Barbara Riley Davis and Delores Long; and a much solicited gospel soloist in her own right in Dutchess County. Her programs featured gospel choirs rather than gospel quartets. For example, in 1977 she organized “The Greatest Choir Music Festival Ever” at the Bardavon featuring the Mid-Hudson Community Choir, directed by Marva Clark, and four out-of-town choirs from Newburgh, White Plains, and New Haven.31 Reed was active in a Poughkeepsie area chapter of the GMWA as well. Once asked to comment on gospel music, Reed reflected, “[M]ost gospel training comes from experience. It’s good always to have some [formal] training but I think that gospel music is—soulful.”32 By the early 1970s, an even newer gospel sound began to echo as Black gospel merged with pop music and increasingly became “crossover” in an incubator eventually producing today’s “contemporary Christian music” featuring praise and worship teams leading congregational worship (rather than choirs), more electronic sounds, more technically melodic-sounding backgrounds, invigorated melisma, smoother harmonies, and more jazz chords. This evolution of Black gospel music eventually overtook the postwar sounds in popularity. Yet the torchbearers of the postwar golden age of gospel remain. The Rainbow Singers still appear on programs, although only occasionally due to their age. For instance, Riverview Missionary Baptist Church of Kingston hosted a three-hour concert of the 11

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ensemble in the summer of 2016; promotional postures announced “The Fantastic Rainbow Gospel Singers of Poughkeepsie, NY.” In June of 2018, a concert “honoring the Rainbow Gospel Singers of Poughkeepsie, NY” at Poughkeepsie’s Cuneen-Hackett Arts Center included the New York Fellowship Mass Choir, begun in Brooklyn by the late Reverend Timothy Wright in 1994 as a continuation of the golden age choir tradition.33 Several years after Hutson’s death, the airing of local gospel returned when a local resident, Beverly Faison, began hosting the Willie Hutson Gospel Train on WEOK in 1993 on 1390-AM on Sunday mornings from 6:00 A.M. to 7:30 A.M; roughly ten years later, the show moved to WHVK and was renamed “Be a Blessing.”34 In 1994, the Dutchess County Arts Council began hosting an annual gospel concert, emceed by Faison and showcasing the postwar gospel music style.35 The children of county’s gospel pioneers picked up the mantle as well.

Maynard Thurston, son of Cam Thurston (one of the Bridge City Quartet members), began singing with a new a capella gospel quartet in the postwar style. The group was called “The Chosen Ones” and performed at the Hudson River Arts Festival in the 1990s and early 2000s.36 In 2004, the local press commented, “Their style represents the early jubilee style of quartet singing, the later, hard gospel sound melded with rhythm and blues and doo-wop. The Chosen Ones have performed at the Bardavon 1869 Opera House in Poughkeepsie, the Paramount Theater in Middletown, the Clements Center and numerous church, community and cultural events.”37 Additionally, Ray Watkins, Poughkeepsie native and Alexander Watkins’ son, has impeccable gospel credentials as summarized in the following printed profile of him from 2020: [He] was the musician and choir director for the Church of the Living God for 40 years (plus or minus)…Ray later played for St. Mark AME Zion, Second Baptist Church, and Church of God of Prophecy. Additionally, he played keyboard for a choral ensemble based at Ebenezer Baptist Church, The Voices of Faith Community Choir, [and] The Gospel Hi-Notes. [Ray was also a] member of the Poughkeepsie inaugural chapter of The Reverend James Cleveland Gospel Workshop, and Co-Founder and Program Director of Spirit of Unity.38 Music is a repository of cultural, social, and political history. Following the Second World War, Black gospel music filled Black churches; floated on air waves; spoke of trials, perseverance, divine deliverance, 12

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and comfort; and drove listeners to sing and clap along with its message throughout Dutchess County. This was the music of a people in transition—moving away from the miseries of racial oppression with faith in a better future that allowed for their fullest being and expression as humans.

1

U.S. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Census of Population: 1960. Supplementary Reports. Series PC (S1)-52. “Negro Population, by County: 1960 and 1950” (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1960) https://www2. census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1960/pc-s1-supplementary-reports/ pc-s1-52.pdf.

2

Lawrence H. Mamiya and Lorraine M. Roberts, “Invisible People, Untold Stories: A Historical Overview of the Black Community in Poughkeepsie,” Dutchess County Yearbook, Vol. 72 (1987), pp.85, 88, 95.

3

Mamiya and Roberts, “Invisible People,” p. 92.

4

“How the Hammond Organ Sound Laid the Tracks for Gospel’s Hit Train,” NPR Weekend Edition Sunday, January 3, 2016. https://www.nprorg/2016/ 01/03/461818544/how-the-hammond-organ-sound-laid-the-tracks-for-gospelshit-train

5

Ron Eyerman, “Music in Movement: Cultural Politics and Old and New Social Movements,” Qualitative Sociology, Vol. 25, No. 3 (Fall 2002), pp.446-448.

6

Robert M. Marovich, A City Called Heaven: Chicago and the Birth of Gospel Music (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2015), passim; Betty Carter, “Newark’s Gospel History is Glorious,” NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, January 16, 2019, https://www.nj.com/essex/2016/11/newarks_gospel_history_ is_glorious.html; Joyce M. Jackson and James T. Jones, IV, “Good News for the Motor City: Black Gospel Music in Detroit,” https://folklife-media.si.edu/ docs/festival/program-book-articles/FESTBK1987_19.pdf; Joyce M. Jackson, “The Performing Black Sacred Quartet: A Cultural Expression of Values and Aesthetics,” Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1987.

7

Marovich, A City Called Heaven, passim; Jubilee Showcase, http://www.jubileeshowcase.com/about_sid_ordower.html

8

Poughkeepsie Journal, September 28, 1977; Poughkeepsie Journal, June 18, 1987. Hutson came to New York State as a construction worker with a firm contracted to build the Taconic State Parkway, and decided to settle in Poughkeepsie while working on this project. Between 1936 and 1949, the portion of the Taconic spanning Dutchess County was completed, so that it is a reasonable conjecture that he took up residence in Poughkeepsie in the 1940s. On the Taconic’s construction history, see Historic American Engineering Record, 13

DCHS Yearbook 2021 National Park Service, “Taconic State Parkway,” HAER No. NY-316, n.d., p.58. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/master/pnp/habshaer/ny/ny1800/ny1847/data/ ny1847data.pdf 9

Poughkeepsie Journal, April 30, 1972.

10

Poughkeepsie Journal, August 19, 1973; Poughkeepsie Journal, August 18, 1974; Poughkeepsie Journal, August 25, 1976; Kingston Daily Freeman, August 25, 1976; Poughkeepsie Journal, August 28, 1977; Poughkeepsie Journal, August 26, 1979; New York Times, August 23, 1979; Poughkeepsie Journal, August 21, 1983.

11

Poughkeepsie Journal, October 23, 1965.

12

Ibid.

13

Poughkeepsie Journal, September 28, 1977.

14

Alexander Watkins, Interview with Jean Crandall, 30 September 2002, Oral History Folk Arts Project, Dutchess County Arts Council.

15

Watkins to Crandall.

16

Ibid; Poughkeepsie Eagle News, February 8, 1940; Joyce C. Ghee and Joan Spence, Poughkeepsie 1898-1998: A Century of Change (Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 1999), pp.107, 124.

17

Watkins to Crandall.

18

Poughkeepsie Eagle News, April 5, 1941.

19

Watkins to Crandall; U.S. Federal Census, 1930; U.S. Federal Census, 1940.

20

Hutson to Crandall.

21

Hutson to Crandall.

22

Roosevelt Stafford, Interview with Jean Crandall, 23 June 2002, Oral History Folk Arts Project, Dutchess County Arts Council.

23

Stafford to Crandall; Poughkeepsie Journal, June 10, 2004.

24

Stafford to Crandall.

25

Phyllis Mae Harris, Interview with Ceista Little-Quinn, January 12, 2021.

26

Harris to Quinn.

27

Ibid.

28

Watkins to Crandall; Stafford to Crandall; Harris to Little-Quinn.

29

Marva Clark, Interview with Jean Crandall, June 15, 2004, Oral History Folk Arts Project, Dutchess County Arts Council.

30

Ibid.

14

a “JoYful noiSe unTo THe lorD” 31

Poughkeepsie Journal, March 30, 1963; Poughkeepsie Journal, May 11, 1969; Poughkeepsie Journal, January 7, 1973; Poughkeepsie Journal, August 11, 1976; Poughkeepsie Journal, October 19, 1976; Poughkeepsie Journal, April 29, 1977; Poughkeepsie Journal, July 13, 1977; Poughkeepsie Journal, December 4, 1977; Poughkeepsie Journal, September 22, 1979; Poughkeepsie Journal, November 10, 1979; Poughkeepsie Journal, October 26, 2020.

32

Poughkeepsie Journal, December 28, 1979.

33

https://www.facebook.com/events/riverview-missionary-baptist-church/thefantastic-rainbow-gospel-singers-of-poughkeepsie-ny-in-concert/ 258070114564002/; https://www.evensi.us/gospel-tribute-concert-davidwright-ny-fellowship-mass-choir-cunneen-hackett-arts-center/258465271

34

Poughkeepsie Journal, March 29, 1998.

35

Poughkeepsie Journal, January 17, 2004.

36

Poughkeepsie Journal, September 12, 1999; Poughkeepsie Journal, August 13, 2004; U.S. Federal Census 1930; Hutson to Crandall.

37

Poughkeepsie Journal, January 17, 2004.

38

Program, “8th Annual Dutchess County Leaders’ Breakfast,” May 5, 2020. https://www.praydcleadership.org/registration-2018

15

16

More Than Names on a Muster Roll 165

More Than Names on a Muster Roll: Dutchess County African Americans in the Great War

by Peter S. Bedrossian The 2018 and 2019 Dutchess County yearbooks brought forward the involvement of African Americans during what was then known as the Great War or the World War. The 2019 yearbook featured some of the local men of color who served during the conflict. This article is an extension of those yearbook articles. The goal is to add dimension and humanity to these men. They varied in many ways: Some were Dutchess natives, others part of the northern migration from the South, some were married and some single, some survived, and some did not. They were all however, part of Dutchess County and part of American history.

The men of color of Dutchess County have served in the nation’s military honorably for more than 150 years. It is well documented that African

Figure 1. Well-wishers at the Poughkeepsie train station platform. July 8, 1918. Photograph by Reuben Van Vlack. Collection of the Dutchess County Historical Society.

C. Fred Close Collection.

17

DCHS Yearbook 2021

Americans from Dutchess County served during the Civil War, in both the 26th United States Colored Troops1 as well as in the more well-known 54th Massachusetts. Five men from the City of Poughkeepsie served in the 54th including one who died during the Assault on Battery Wagner, the battle featured in the film Glory!2 However, the racism that pervaded the nation impacted World War I just as it had during previous conflicts. The military was segregated and nearly all officers were white. Indeed New York State did not permit African Americans to serve in the New York National Guard until 1913.3 The question also was raised: “Can the black man fight?” It is in this environment that the men of Dutchess were called to serve: Either because they chose to serve or because they were drafted.

The service they would render was a reflection of the racism of the day: They were mostly assigned non-combat roles engaging in quartermaster and pioneer duties, serving as longshoremen or laborers. The men wanted to fight, not be consigned to those tasks. For two of the regiments in which Dutchess men served, they would see their goal of combat. The 369th Infantry Regiment, the “Harlem Hellfighters” began as the 15th New York National Guard. As covered in the 2018 yearbook, Hamilton Fish was the Captain of Company K of the 369th. (Some of the men whose profiles are in this article served under Fish). The 369th was part of the 93rd Infantry Division, which was wholly comprised of colored troops. The 369th, while initially assigned as longshoremen, was loaned to the French under whom the men attained their combat experience and glory.4,5 The other regiment that saw significant combat (also while serving with the French) was the 367th Infantry Regiment of the 92nd Infantry Division. The 92nd was also a segregated Division and as with the 369th served under French command. In the course of attempting to learn more about the men of color who served, I found information about 17 men.

Five of these men served with the 369th and two served with the 367th.

The other ten men served either solely within the United States or, when sent overseas, remained assigned to non-combat roles.

African-American Soldiers Who Served in Combat Units The first five men discussed below were all members of the 15th New York National Guard which was federalized as the 369th Infantry Regiment on March 12, 1918. All five men enlisted ahead of the draft and were all volunteers. The last two men served in the 367th Infantry Regiment.

18

More THan naMeS on a MuSTer roll

All seven men profiled below were volunteers for the War and we have some, limited, information about their service for our country. The two regiments in which they served in saw combat. Both the 367th and 369th regiments, as infantry units, were trained for combat and their members had the expectation of fighting during the War. Charles Cave Charles Cave was born May 27, 1896 in Turynaus Mills, Virginia.6 Although there is no direct evidence, it is likely he came North for a safer and better life as a result of the increasingly severe application of Jim Crow era laws and practices. Prior to his enlistment, he was living in Stanfordville, working as a farmer for Edward Robinson. He was described as having gray eyes, of medium build and height with dark brown hair.7 He registered for the draft on June 5, 1917 and later enlisted on September 29, 1917 at Fort Slocum as a Private in Company M of the 15th New York National Guard. He was to be promoted to Corporal on April 16, 1918 and to Sergeant on June 22 of that year. He served overseas from December 14, 1917 – February 9, 1919. He was discharged February 22, 1919.8 The 1930 Federal Census showed him living in Waterbury, Connecticut working as a factory worker. He was living as a boarder in Floyd Fenderson’s home.9 No other information was discovered for his life between 1930 and his death, March 15, 1971 at age 74. He is buried in Union Cemetery, Bakersfield California.10 James J. Cruse The next member of the 369th who was living in Dutchess when he enlisted was James J. Cruse. He was born in Durham, North Carolina May 15, 1898 and was living in Wappingers Falls in 1917.11 He enlisted in the 15th New York National Guard on September 28, 1917 at Fort Slocum and mustered in to Company F, as a private. He subsequently transferred to Company I on July 9, 1918 and then to Company B, September 19, 1918.

He sailed for France with the regiment on December 17, 1917. He was credited with serving in the Champagne-Marne sector, Defensive Sector and Meuse-Argonne offensive. It was during the latter offensive that he was mortally wounded, dying of his wounds on October 14, 1918.12 He is buried overseas in the St. Mihiel American Cemetery, Thiaucourt, France.13 Although he was living in Dutchess County, he is listed on the North Carolina list of casualties, suggesting that his residency in Dutchess was meant to be temporary.14 This is perhaps sustained by the fact the 19

DCHS Yearbook 2021

contact on his New York Army Card, was his mother, Mrs. Mary Cruse, who resided at 1114 Albright St. Durham. N.C.15 George S. Jackson George S. Jackson was born in Greenhaven, New York c. 1898 and was living at 56 East Mansion St., Poughkeepsie in 1917. Unlike the two previous men, he enlisted at Camp Whitman on August 4, 1917. He mustered in to Company K of the 15th NYNG, as a private, a rank he held throughout his service. He served overseas from December 14, 1917 – February 9, 1919 and was honorably discharged February 22, 1919. He was credited with three campaigns during his service: Champagne, Champagne-Marne and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of fall 1918.16 George Tallie George Tallie was also part of the migration North, having been born in Culpeper Virginia, May 2, 1897. As with the others who came north, it is not clear when he arrived in Dutchess County, or why this county was his choice. We do know that his mother, Belle Tallie, was living in Culpepper, Virginia while George was here.17 He died July 7, 1967 and is buried at the Baltimore National Cemetery.18 It can be deduced that he returned to the South at some time after the War. George Tallie was living on 19 East Mansion Street, Poughkeepsie in 1917 and enlisted at Camp Whitman August 3, 1917. He mustered in as a private, Company K, 15th NYNG. He was promoted to Private 1st Class on September 15, 1917 and later to Corporal on September 25, 1918. He was credited with overseas service from December 17, 1917 – February 9, 1919. As with his fellow “Hellfighters” he was discharged on February 22, 1919.19 James F. Townsend The final member of the 369th from Dutchess County is James F. Townsend who was born in New Hamburg c. 1889. He joined the 15th NYNG well ahead of his fellow regimental members, enlisting April 30, 1917 in New York City. His journey in service took a number of “twists and turns” so to speak. He mustered in to Company K, but was transferred to Casual Company #4, (date unknown), then to Company I of the 369th March 3rd 1918. He remained there until September 11, 1918 when he returned to Company K. His overseas service ran from December 26, 1917 – Decem20

More THan naMeS on a MuSTer roll

ber 20, 1918. Following his return to the United States, he was assigned to the Casual Company at the Base Hospital at Camp Upton (Long Island) until March 7, 1919. He was then transferred to Detachment C, Convalescent center (at Camp Upton) and from there (on March 11) on to the 13th Company 152nd Depot Brigade.20 The path toward the latter half of his service strongly suggests that he was suffering from some illness as his record shows no indication of having been wounded.

Joseph Young Joseph Young is the sole man mentioned about whom there is incomplete information. His name was found in a list of those who died during the World War that was published in the Poughkeepsie Eagle in 1926. The only information provided there was that he was a solider in Company L, 367th Infantry Regiment and that he died of lobar pneumonia, March 14, 1918.21 There was a Joseph Young living in Poughkeepsie at 5 East Mansion Street in 1917 as stated on his Draft registration card. He was African American and was born September 8, 1887 in St. Louis, Missouri. He was married and employed as a driver for E.A. Underhill. More intriguing is that he had served three years in the U.S Regulars (Cavalry) as a Private.

He was described as being (5 feet 10 inches tall, with dark brown eyes and black hair.22 However, it is unclear if this is the same man as the one who served in the 367th. The only New York Army Card found was for a Joseph Young who served in Company K of the 367th and survived the War. David A. Clarke David A. Clarke was chronicled in the 2019 Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook. He is the other known Dutchess County man who served in the 367th Infantry Regiment. Like other men of color from the county, he had migrated north, having been born in South Boston, Virginia.

He was living in Red Hook when he was inducted October 30, 1917. He was assigned to Company A, 367th Infantry Regiment, 92nd Infantry Division. His career in the regiment showed unusual mobility: He was listed as a private November, 1917. One month later on December 22 he was a Cook. Six months later, in May 1918, he was a Private 1st Class.

On August 19, he was promoted Corporal. He was overseas beginning June 10, 1918. As happens, military training can be as deadly as combat.

Corporal Clarke was killed on September 9, 1918 by an accidental grenade explosion.23 He remains in France to this day: He rests in the MeuseArgonne American Cemetery, Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, France.24 21

DCHS Yearbook 2021

African-American Soldiers Drafted for Service, But Limited to Non-Combatant Roles The remainder of those profiled were those subject to the draft. Their service was limited to the non-combatant roles mentioned at the beginning of this article.

Isaac Tuttle Isaac Tuttle was born in Danbury, Connecticut November 20, 1888. In 1918 he was living in Poughkeepsie at 39 William Street. He was inducted on August 5, 1918. He was never permanently assigned a unit and was sent overseas September 20, 1918. His service though was a short one: He died of pneumonia on October 17 less than one month overseas.25 He is buried at the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery, Seringes-et- Nesles, France.26 Benjamin Braddock Benjamin Braddock was living in Salt Point in 1918. He was born in Clinton Corners January 7, 1896. He was engaged in farming, working on W.E. Badgley’s Farm in Clinton.27 He was inducted on August 1, 1918 at Rhinebeck and assigned to a replacement draft and sent overseas on the same date as Issac Tuttle. His service ended with his death from bronchopneumonia October 28, 1918.28 Oscar William Cummings Oscar William Cummings was born in Millbrook September 6, 1889, and was living in Oak Summit (present day Millbrook area) at the time he registered for the draft. He was a laborer on Dr, A. Flint’s farm in Millbrook when he was inducted in to service on August 1, 1918. He was never permanently assigned and died on October 10, 1918 of pneumonia and influenza.29,30 George Gould George Gould, who was also mentioned in the 2019 yearbook was born in 1894 and was living at 103 Catherine Street at the time he was inducted on July 17, 1918. His assignments were

Figure 2. George Gould, Detail. 1918. Photograph by Reuben Van Vlack. Collection of the Dutchess County Historical Society. C. Fred Close Collection.

22

More THan naMeS on a MuSTer roll

typical of those for African Americans. Initially assigned to the 163rd Depot Brigade, he was then transferred to the 811th Pioneer Infantry Headquarters on September 9, 1918 where he remained until his discharge July 29,1919. He served Overseas from October 20, 1918 – July 23, 1919.31 Wilson C. Johnson Wilson C. Johnson was a Poughkeepsie resident and we know something of his pre-war life. He was born January 6, 1888 and was living at 18 E. Mansion Street when he was inducted in Poughkeepsie, July 17, 1918. He served in the 153rd Depot Brigade as a Sergeant until his discharge March 15, 1919. His service was here in the United States.32 The 1915 New York State census (x) indicated that he was living in Ward 7, City of Poughkeepsie, with his mother Nancy aged 50 years and sister Agnes aged 23 years. Both of them worked as waitresses. Wilson was a waiter.33 It is not known if all three worked at the same establishment.

Samuel Williams Samuel Williams was living at 73 E. Mansion St Poughkeepsie when he was inducted August 5, 1918 at Poughkeepsie. He was born in Cooperstown NY August 17, 1889 making him an older draftee at age 29. He served in the Headquarters of the 805th Pioneer Infantry, and made a Band Corporal February 24, 1919. He served overseas from August 1, 1918 – June 27, 1919 and was discharged July 7, 1919.34 The oddity on his New York Army Card suggests that he was overseas even before he was inducted! It is more likely he was sent overseas on September, 1918, but this cannot be verified at this time.

Sebie A. Bostic There is one person of whom we know a great deal: Sebie A. Bostic He was featured in the 2019 Yearbook and additional details have been uncovered for this article. As with a number of the other men of color profiled, he was a transplanted Southerner, having been born in

Figure 3. Sebie Bostic. c. 1920s, street photo from after the War, detail. Photograph by Reuben Van Vlack.

Collection of the Dutchess County Historical Society. C. Fred Close Collection.

23

DCHS Yearbook 2021

Augusta Georgia, October 25, 1886. At the time of his induction (August 5, 1918, in Poughkeepsie) he was living at 1 Reservoir Square. He was initially assigned to the 152nd Depot Brigade then transferred to Company A, September Automatic Replacement Draft (Camp Upton), September 12, 1918 – October 19, 1918 when he was assigned to Depot Service Company 18 until his discharge August 11, 1918. He was promoted to Corporal October 9, 1918, then to Sergeant July 7, 1919. He was overseas from September 20, 1918 – August 4, 1919.35 It is his non-military life about which there is more information. His draft registration card indicated that he was a pool room proprietor at 3 N. Clinton Street in Poughkeepsie and of “Ethiopian race” in June of 1917. He was also married at this time.36 The 1930 Federal Census indicated that he was a 41- year- old bellhop and World War veteran. His household consisted of his wife, Lehilda, daughter Cecela age 11, son Sebie junior age 7, son Ernest age 2, and his brother-inlaw Ernest Jaycox age 32.37 Ten years later in the 1940 census, his daughter Cecelia was no longer on the census. Sebie’s age was listed as 47! He was still a Bellhop and his son Sebie Jr. was a helper at a gas station. His home was then at 387 Mill Street.38 Clarence T. Anderson Clarence T. Anderson was a Poughkeepsie native, having been born there June 10, 1893. His address at the time of service was 94 Hamilton Street. He was inducted in Poughkeepsie, June 17, 1918 and assigned to the 52nd Company Training Battalion, then promoted to Corporal on July 26. The remainder of his service was spent in the United States, serving in the 153rd Depot Brigade until his discharge, January 27, 1919.39 Figure 4. Clarence T. Anderson. 1918. Detail. Photograph by Reuben Van Vlack. Collection of the Dutchess County Historical Society. C. Fred Close Collection.

24

More THan naMeS on a MuSTer roll

Jerome and Franklin Frazier The next two men, Jerome and Franklin Frazier were also chronicled in the 2019 Yearbook. Their New York Army cards list their birthplace as Verbank, with Jerome born in 1894, and Franklin three years later (Franklin was listed as “Frank” on his Army card). They did not serve together.

Jerome enlisted in to the regular Army December 17, 1917 at Camp Dix, New Jersey (later called Fort Dix). He was a private in the 308th Service Battalion and served overseas from March 30, 1918- July 19, 1919.

Franklin though, was drafted, and inducted at Rhinebeck, September 25, 1918. He was a private in the 151st Depot Brigade, serving in that unit until November 4, 1918 when he was transferred to Company B, 63rd Pioneer Infantry until he was discharged December 18, 1918. He was not sent overseas, which likely explains his early discharge.40,41

Conclusion These 17 men represent a sampling of the war time experience of men of color of Dutchess County during the First World War. Eleven came home and picked up their lives, six did not survive, only one of whom died from battle related injuries. Four died of respiratory illnesses, all likely a result of the 1918 Flu pandemic despite the variety of diagnoses noted on their New York Army Cards. Those four deaths are indeed a chilling reminder that the deadliest aspect the final year of World War I was not the battlefield, but an enemy too small to be seen and one that attacked both sides with equal deadliness. At the outset, the goal of this study was to humanize and perhaps bring these men to life, however, briefly. It is hoped that this has been accomplished to at least a small degree.

1

Frederick Phisterer, New York in the War of the Rebellion 1861-1865 (New York: T.R. Lyon, Co.,Third Edition, 1912). See also Bill Jeffway and Melodye Moore, “Over Here: The Yet-To-Be Told Stories of the Men, Women, and Children of Dutchess County During the World War, 1917 to 1919,” in Candace J. Lewis, ed., Patriotism and Honor: Veterans of Dutchess County, New York, Part I (Poughkeepsie, NY: Dutchess County Historical Society, 2018), pp. 21-37. Sarah Gates, “The Unknown Soldier—and the Unknown Hamilton Fish,” in Candace J. Lewis, ed., Patriotism and Honor: Veterans of Dutchess

25

DCHS Yearbook 2021 County, New York, Part I (Poughkeepsie, NY: Dutchess County Historical Society, 2018), pp. 39-54. Bill Jeffway and Melodye K. Moore, “Dutchess County’s African-American Experience During the World War, 1917 to 1919… and beyond,” in Candace J. Lewis, ed., Patriotism and Honor: Veterans of Dutchess County, New York, Part II (Poughkeepsie, NY: Dutchess County Historical Society, 2019), pp. 9-18.

2

Luis Emilio, A Brave Black Regiment: The history of the 54th Massachusetts 1863-1865 (New York: Da Capo Press, Reprint, 1995).

3

Their Glory Can Never Fade: Creating the Regiment and its Band (New York State Museum: Press release to the Exhibit: The Legacy of the Harlem Hellfighters). https://empirestateplaza.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2018/10/ hhf-2-creatingtheregimentweb.pdf

4

Sarah Gates, Ibid.

5

369th Infantry Regiment World War One ,New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs, https://dmna.ny.gov/historic/reghist/wwi/infantry/369th Inf/369thInfMain.htm

6

Charles Cave, World War I Draft Registration Card, https://www.fold3.com/ image/567186558?terms=cave,war,i,world,united,america,charles,states

7

Charles Cave, World War I New York Army Card, https://www.fold3.com/image/322244305?terms=cave,war,i,world,united,america,charles,states

8

Charles Cave, World War I New York Army Card, Ibid.

9

1930 Federal Census, http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=1270 687&type=member&item=5847736181311180804&trk=Skyline_click_ NGDR&sl=NGDR%3B93634039%3A1394733512851%3B1%3B%3B

10

“Find a Grave,” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15528843/charlese.-cave

11

James J.Cruse, World War I New York Army Card, https://www.fold3.com/ image/322503927?terms=james,war,america,j,i,world,united,cruse,states

12

James J. Cruse, World War I New York Army Card, Ibid.

13

American Battle Monuments Commission, https://www.abmc.gov/ decedent-search/cruse%3Djames

14

Soldiers of the Great War Volume 2: North Carolina, https://www.ancestry. com/imageviewer/collections/61470/images/7399-2-28-0389?treeid=&personid =&hintid=&queryId=1d36161e4e0a4aaa67729ad96cb87529&usePUB=true &_phsrc=Pot153&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&_ga=2.177332 519.346116356.1613418621-1649427813.1590110043&pId=46017

15

James J. Cruse World War I New York Army Card, https://www.fold3.com/ image/322503927?terms=james,war,america,j,i,world,united,cruse,states 26

More THan naMeS on a MuSTer roll 16

George Jackson, World War I New York Army Card, https://www.fold3.com/ image/322791457?terms=george,jackson,s

17

George Tallie U.S. Army World War I Transports, February 2, 1919, https:// www.fold3.com/image/604387197?rec=626731999&terms=war,george,i, tallie,world

18

“Find a Grave” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1239725/george-tallie

19

George Tallie, World War I New York Army Card, https://www.fold3.com/ image/591247299

20

George Tallie, World War I New York Army Card,. https://www.fold3.com/ image/591018636?terms=jame ,war,i,world,townsend

21

Peter Bedrossian, “An annotated list of the revised Roll of Honor of War dead published in the Poughkeepsie Eagle, 1926,” Dutchess County in the Great War 2018.

22

Joseph Young, World War I Draft Registration Card, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6482/images/005265856_01715?backlabel=ReturnSearchResults&queryId=b61a79aba0dea3f5c940753619477380&pId=16042580

23

David A. Clarke, World War I New York Army Card, https://www.fold3.com/ image/321065002

24

American Battle Monuments Commission, https://www.abmc.gov/ decedent-search/clark%3Ddavid

25

Isaac Tuttle, World War I Draft Registration Card, https://www.fold3.com/ image/591210503?terms=tuttle

26

American Battle Monuments Commission, https://www.abmc.gov/decedentsearch/tuttle%3Disaac

27

Benjamin Braddock, World War I Draft Registration Card, https://www.fold3. com/image/567186219?terms=braddock

28

Benjamin Braddock, World War I New York Army Card, https://www.fold3. com/image/322228871?terms=braddock

29

Oscar Cummings, World War I Draft Registration Card, https://www.fold3. com/image/567186913?terms=cummings

30

Oscar Cummings, World War I New York Army Card, https://www.fold3.com/ image/322254918?terms=oscar,cummings

31

George Gould, World War I New York Army Card, https://www.fold3.com/ image/322717832?terms=george,gould

32

Wilson Johnson, World War I New York Army Card, https://www.fold3.com/ image/599738270?terms=johnson,wilson 27

176 DCHS Yearbook 2021 33

New York, U.S. State Census, 1915, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/ collections/2703/images/32848_B094013-00345?backlabel=ReturnSearch Results&queryId=866e1b394fb46e0fea2c4dcaf731ebf9&pId=7458994

34

Samuel Williams, World War I New York Army Card, https://www.fold3.com/ image/591226051?terms=williams,samuel

35

Sebie A.Bostic, World War I New York Army Card, https://www.fold3.com/image/322228914?terms=bostic

36

Sebie A, Bostic,World War I Draft Registration Card, https://www.fold3.com/ image/569004277?terms=bostic

37

1930 United States Federal Census, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/ collections/6224/images/4661090_00728?usePUB=true&_phsrc=iIt324&_ phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=28825329

38

1940 United States Federal Census, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/ collections/2442/images/m-t0627-02524-00255?usePUB=true&_phsrc=iIt325 &_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=2880474

39

Clarence Anderson, World War I New York Army Card, https://www.fold3.com/ image/320522063?terms=clarence,anderson

40

Jerome Frazier, World War I New York Army Card, https://www.fold3.com/ image/322875788?terms=frazier

41

Frank Frazier, World War I New York Army Card, https://www.fold3.com/ image/322875756?terms=frazier

28

AFRICAN-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE 9

Dutchess County’s African-American Experience During the World War, 1917 to 1919…and beyond

by Bill Jeffway & Melodye K. Moore April 1917: Call for Unity Suggests Opportunity When President Woodrow Wilson addressed Congress in April 1917, seeking a declaration of war on Germany, he ended with a call to the nation saying, “The supreme test of the nation has come. We must all work, act, and speak together.” There was “no color line,” as they would have said at the time, when it came to sacrifice. Individuals of any race would be asked to suspend personal liberty and risk their lives. All were expected to sacrifice by buying war bonds, cutting back on coal consumption, and cutting back on food and basic staples like wheat and sugar. It was the pressure of the scarcity of everything, including manpower and individuals who were productive in labor or the military that created the pressure for change.

The national emergency created a kind of meritocracy that opened previously closed doors to persons of color, as well as women, who stepped into new roles with a sense of urgency, and immediately performed.

Figure 1. African-American men from Dutchess County march to sign up for military service in World War I. Poughkeepsie, New York. June , 1917. Photograph by Reuben Van Vlack. Collection of the Dutchess County Historical Society. C. Fred Close Collection.

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10 DCHS YEARBOOK 2019

Only two divisions, the 92nd and 93rd, had Black infantry units. Of these units, the 369th, sometimes called the Harlem Hellfighters, led by Putnam County’s Captain Hamilton Fish, became one of the most decorated and celebrated of the war. There were other combat units, like the 367th, in which a number of Dutchess men served. Beyond these units, many African Americans served in vital, risky, demanding, support and supply roles, as cooks, stevedores, drivers, and construction workers. A Black officer training school was created and some varied and tentative progress made. Outspoken, local proponents included Amenia’s Joel Spingarn (a New York City Jewish lawyer), a co-founder of the NAACP, and GreatBarrington-born W. E. B. Dubois (an African-American writer and thinker), through his magazine The Crisis. This national unity and proximity put racial, and other, inequities and injustices into stark relief. How could Black men be called on to die “to make the world safe for democracy” if democracy was not practiced at home?

Figure 2. Black soldiers at Camp Whitman, Town of Beekman. Photo courtesy of Drew Nichols, private collection. After local Dutchess County men had volunteered to serve in the War, they were first stationed at Camp Whitman in the Town of Beekman for a short stay and training before being sent onward.

June 1917: Violence is Harbinger of Resistance In late May, only a matter of weeks after President Wilson’s call for unity, violence in East St. Louis started to grow. It culminated in riots on July 3, targeting newly-arriving African Americans from the South. European immigration had virtually stopped due to the war and the growing demand 30

AFRICAN-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE 11

for labor was accommodated by African Americans who wanted to live in the North. Several hundred Blacks were killed, thousands made homeless.

One of the most vocal critics of the rioting was former President Theodore Roosevelt.

Six weeks later, on August 23 at Camp Logan in Houston, Texas, Black soldiers of the 24th Infantry Regiment encountered strictly enforced Jim Crow laws of segregation, verbal and physical abuse, and harassment by both civilians and police. They retaliated by marching on the city and killing 16 whites. Four Black soldiers died as well. Through court martial, 63 soldiers were jailed for life, and 13 were put to death by hanging.

Against this tense backdrop, Capt. Hamilton Fish arrived with Black recruits of the 369th in Spartanburg, South Carolina, in October. Soldiers were formally ordered to make no response whatsoever to the verbal and physical harassment that commenced quickly upon their arrival. As perhaps a sign of the difficult relationship they would have through their long political lives, Hamilton Fish approached Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt, imploring him to help get the Black servicemen back to the North. FDR took no action. It turned out that a more expedient plan was to get the troops to France earlier than planned. They went first to New York and then to France on December 17, 1917. They were among the earliest to arrive, and last to leave, in Europe.

Figure 3. Red Hook’s Louis Shook mingling with locals in South Carolina while training. Dutchess County. Photograph. Collection of the Dutchess County Historical Society. L. Shook Collection.

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Northern Whites, like Red Hook’s Louis Shook, had a very different experience. Serving in a different unit, going to the South Carolina training camp, was a sort of curiosity. He took a number of photos showing himself meeting locals in the cotton fields (Figure 3).

Both the Newly-arrived & the Deeply-rooted Serve Some Black recruits had only recently, and temporarily, taken up residence within Dutchess County. Both the military census and mandatory in-person registration took place in June 1917, so a number of its southern seasonal farm workers were present at the time. One such example is 23-year old David A. Clark. He was working as a temporary farm hand in the hamlet of Lafayetteville in the town of Milan, having left his parents and two sisters in his birthplace, Virginia. He departed the Poughkeepsie train station with other Black draftees on a rainy morning, October 30, 1917, never to return. Serving in the 367th Infantry, he was killed in an accidental grenade explosion on September 9, 1918, just two months before the Armistice of November 11 and is buried in France.

Figure 5. Sebie Bostic in World War I uniform. Photograph.

Collection of Bostic Family.

Figure 4. Sebie Bostic, street photo from after the War. Detail. Photograph

by Reuben Van Vlack. Collection of the Dutchess County Historical Society. C. Fred Close Collection. .

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Others were newer arrivals but with plans to stay. Typical of what is referred to as the “great migration,” Sebie Bostic had been advised by his father to move from their Georgia home to the North for his own safety, and for a greater chance of employment. (His story comes down to us from family members.) He served overseas, having been promoted to corporal in 1918 and then to sergeant in 1919. He is shown in a “street photo” with other recruits (Figure 4) and shown in uniform, from a photograph provided by his family (Figure 5). After the war he came to own his own store, and worked at a Poughkeepsie hotel spending the remainder of his life in Poughkeepsie.

By contrast, brothers Jerome and Franklin Frazier, both born in Union Vale, belonged to a long-established local family. They served their country in WWI just as their father and uncle had served from Dutchess in the Civil War, just as their northern-Dutchess based great-great grandfather Andrew Frazier had served in the Revolutionary War. Jerome and Franklin’s cousin Susan Elizabeth Frazier served in WWI as the founder and president of the Women’s Auxiliary of the 369th. (She is profiled below.)

The Quill was published by Poughkeepsie’s Smith Metropolitan AME Zion Church. In May 1918, it thanked two of the Church’s women’s groups: Two organizations in the interest of our soldier boys have recently sprung into existence in this city, namely: “The Soldiers Comfort Club” of which Miss Grace Deyo is president, and a unit of “The Circle for Negro War Relief ” with Mrs. Maggie Wormley, president. They both have worthy aims and a splendid opportunity of doing much tangible good, and merit the hearty support of one and all. They have the best wishes of The Quill and their very laudable undertaking. We thank you.

In the same issue, The Quill celebrated the success of the 369th, using its old name, the 15th, New York National Guard (see above) and decried the escalation of lynchings, writing: In 30 years, 3,000 Negro citizens of America whose patriotism has never been doubted; men, women and children have been butchered in almost every conceivable form by the lynching bee’s and but little if any serious attention accorded it by the authorities. The sport yet goes merrily on undisturbed—four or five reported lynched the past week. … Our boys are now abroad giving their lives for America and democracy. Can it be out of place to ask of America protection for their loved ones at home?

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Gaius Bolin was the son of a Dover Plains farmer. He was the first Black graduate of Williams College and had a long and distinguished legal career, including serving as President of the Dutchess County Bar Association. The year 1919 should have been a jubilant year. Combat had ceased the prior November; the Armistice was formally signed in June 1919.

Instead, it was so filled with riots that it came to be known as the “Red Summer.” At its height, on August 14, Bolin wrote an open letter in the Poughkeepsie newspaper which read, in part, as follows: If the people of this country can afford to send the flower of its manhood, the finest men in all the world, to foreign countries to fight and suffer and die […] they can afford to see to it that American citizenship means American citizenship, and that it means it without any kind of reservation or winking of the eye with reference to anyone who is entitled to that citizenship.

Experiences After the War Clarence T. Anderson (Figure 6) was born in Poughkeepsie in 1893 and remained there his entire life. He married Frieda Potter April 28, 1918, just a few months before heading out to serve as a corporal at Fort Dix. After the war he settled into a 32year career as a mail carrier, after which, he became a court officer, and was serving as such at the time of his death. Anderson was active at the Smith AME Zion Church as member, trustee, choir member, historian, Sunday school teacher, and Assistant Sunday School Superintendent.

Even with his war service, obvious strength of presence and character and skill in the community, he did not escape discrimination.

In 1941, he had ordered tickets to a play in Clinton for a group of friends. Upon arrival, although

Figure 6. Clarence T. Anderson. Detail.

Photograph by Reuben Van Vlack. Collection of the Dutchess County Historical Society. C. Fred Close Collection.

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AFRICAN-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE 15

they could see the tickets pinned to a board behind the ticket agent, they were denied entry. A lawsuit followed which they lost. There are conflicting reports as to whether the loss was due to a procedural technicality or whether it was due to the endorsement of the validity of the counterclaim that they were denied entry “for their own safety.”

George Gould (Figure 7) was born in Poughkeepsie in 1896. In the war, he served as a musician in the Regiment Band. He played piccolo, beating out five others in an audition for the one spot in the 52-person band. Music was vital in the upkeep of the morale of the troops, and relations with local civilians. He did not return from France until July 23, 1919— more than eight months after the end of fighting. When he came back, it took him five months to get a job as a bellhop at the Windsor Hotel in Poughkeepsie. In a 1979 newspaper interview with the Poughkeepsie Journal he said, “We weren’t treated very fair when we came back. They were so prejudiced.”

Figure 7. George Gould. Detail. Photo-

Susan Elizabeth Frazier’s father graph by Reuben Van Vlack. Collection of was born in the northern Dutchess the Dutchess County Historical Society. C. Town of Milan, part of the large Fred Close Collection. family of servicemen described earlier. She herself was born in and lived in New York City. She earned a national reputation when, in 1896, she became the first person of color allowed to teach white students in New York City. Although her legal action that she had instituted had failed, her moral argument and public appeal prevailed. The story was carried in newspapers across the country. She was given a job she had for some time been denied. She became a teacher in the public schools and remained in that position until her death in 1924.

She founded and became President of the Women’s Auxiliary to the 369th. In 1919, in a highly fortuitous and coincidental reflection of her 35

16 DCHS YEARBOOK 2019

Figure 8. Well-wishers at the Poughkeepsie train station platform. July 8, 1918. Photograph by Reuben Van Vlack. Collection of the Dutchess County Historical Society.

C. Fred Close Collection.

commitment to teaching and to veterans, she won a New York City newspaper contest as “favorite teacher,” the prize being a trip to the battlefields of Europe. While much could be written about Miss Frazier, for our purposes here, it is worth noting the pressure she received not to go, and the constant pressure to segregate her from the main group. She died in 1924 and is buried in Rhinebeck at the family plot. In 2018, local residents raised money to erect a memorial headstone at what was her unmarked grave. Comments from newspapers at the time of her trip in 1919 reflect her strong character: …an effort was made to buy her off when it was discovered that she was one of the successful contestants. But she would not be bought. To all of the propositions, arguments and offers to prevent her sailing, Miss Frazier returned one answer—that she was standing on her rights as an American woman and would make the trip. On board the boat an effort to seat her at a separate table and a similar effort at the hotel in Paris were frustrated

by Miss Frazier’s ignoring of the plan. The officer in charge of the party, in fact, was put to the necessity of apologizing to Miss Frazier…

On her memorial headstone are the words, “Her voice endures.”

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1

For an account of Dutchess County at home during World War I, see Bill Jeffway and Melodye Moore, “Over Here: The Yet-To-Be Told Stories of the Men, Women, and Children of Dutchess County During the World War, 1917 to 1919 in Patriotism and Honor: Veterans of Dutchess County, New York, Part I; The Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook (vol. 97, 2018), pp. 21-37.

2

For one account of Hamilton Fish and his participation in World War I with the Harlem Hellfighters, see Sarah Gates, “The Unknown Soldier—and the Unknown Hamilton Fish,” Ibid., pp. 39-54.

3

For an account of the formation of the NAACP, see Julia Hotton, “The Amenia Conference: The Dutchess County Connection to the Development and Growth of the NAACP,” in Prohibition and the Progressive Movement in Dutchess County, New York; The Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook (vol. 96, 2017), pp. 73-77.

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The Amenia Conference 73

The Amenia Conference: The Dutchess County Connection to the Development and Growth of the NAACP

by Julia Hotton The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is the nation’s oldest civil rights organization. It has had a profound influence on the course of this country’s history for over one hundred years. What is perhaps little known is the role of the one of Dutchess County’s preeminent citizens in its early growth and development.

Joel Elias Spingarn was not one of the original founders of the NAACP, but was invited to join its executive committee soon after its formation.

Like many of the NAACP’s founders, Spingarn was a progressive who felt that race relations were deteriorating throughout the country after the devastating riot and lynching in Springfield, Illinois in the summer of 1908. Alarmed by this trend, a group of Northern progressives and social reformers martialed forces to develop an organization to defend AfricanAmerican rights. A conference was held in 1909 out of which a committee was appointed to develop the structure for the new organization.

The committee consisted of wealthy and influential whites—and distinguished blacks—including the celebrated intellect and activist, W.E.B. Du Bois, who was said to be indispensable, both as an organizer and a symbol. It was his plan for the organization that was adopted at the second conference in the spring of 1910. It was at that conference where the name, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was taken by the organization. Spingarn and Du Bois came to the newly formed association about the same time: Du Bois in a position of salaried “director of Publicity and Research” in November of 1910, and Spingarn also in November of that year as a key member of the NAACP administrative hierarchy. Spingarn worked with Du Bois to chart the course of this burgeoning organization and was a vital part of the development and growth for twenty-eight of the first thirty years of its existence. During that time Spingarn served in various capacities as chairman of the NAACP’s Board of Directors, Treasurer, and President.

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In his role as publicist, Du Bois created a national monthly magazine that was named the Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races. The magazine was a brilliant and effective means of getting the message of the NAACP to a mass sympathetic audience. It also provided Du Bois with a regular outlet for his constant criticism of his longtime nemesis, Booker T. Washington whose politics of compromise was the opposite of Du Bois’s and that of the NAACP.

Figure 1. Members of the NAACP at the 1916 Conference held at Troutbeck, in Amenia, New York, the country home of Joel Spingarn. W.E.B. Du Bois was present as was John Milholland, then treasurer of the organization. 1916. Photograph. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Visual Materials from the NAACP Records.

While Washington appeased southern whites by agreeing that blacks need only have an industrial education to equip them for work in agriculture and some forms of business, Du Bois and the NAACP leadership held opposite opinions. They believed in higher education, self-assertion and ambition; as well as the right of suffrage for blacks on the same terms as whites.

Joel Spingarn was in total agreement with Du Bois regarding AfricanAmerican aspirations. After the death of Booker T. Washington in 1915, Spingarn felt that racial relations were entering a new phase in the 40

THe aMenia ConferenCe

United States. He was therefore motivated to propose the convening of a conference of people interested in the race problem at his beautiful country home, Troutbeck, in the peace and quiet of Amenia, in Dutchess County, New York.

While the Amenia conference was Spingarn’s idea, it is said that it would not have been possible without Du Bois, who also envisioned changing attitudes with the passing of Booker Washington. The conference would in fact replace the NAACP’s previously scheduled annual meeting which was postponed because it conflicted with the memorial service for Booker Washington on February 12, 1916. In showing respect to Washington’s memory, both Spingarn and Du Bois thought it would be possible to attract some of Washington’s former followers. Two hundred invitations were sent out in Joel Spingarn’s name as Master of Troutbeck, Dutchess County, New York. Those invited, came from across the civil rights spectrum. The details of organizing the conference were handled by an NAACP staffer.

The conference convened on August 24, 1916 and went through August 26th. The proceedings began with an opening message from the Governor of New York State, Charles Whitman, and a number of others including Inez Milholland, Woman Suffrage icon, and daughter of an NAACP founder, John Milholland, at that time treasurer of the organization.

Messages of good will sent from Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, and Charles Evans Hughes, among others, attest to the importance of the event.

In his enthusiasm, Du Bois said he doubted “if ever before so small a conference of American Negroes had so many colored men of distinction who represented at the same time so complete a picture of all phases of Negro thought.”1 Men and women represented various parts of the country; they came from the deep South, from New England, and everywhere in between. Subjects for discussion included: education, politics, and the situation in the South. The highly acclaimed educator, John Hope, presided over a session on higher education. There were also roundtable sessions on industrial opportunity and practical matters. Speakers included the storied figure of John R. Lynch, the celebrated survivor of Reconstruction politics, and the much younger James Weldon Johnson, song writer, diplomat, novelist, poet, and soon to become field organizer for the NAACP. The rolling wooded grounds of Troutbeck intersected by a sparkling stream provided an ideal environment for the tents, housing, the conferees.

The gracious hospitality of the Spingarns, their impressive library, and 41

DCHS Yearbook 2017

well stocked wine cellar all served to establish a feeling of wellbeing and camaraderie among the group. Du Bois reported that “promptly at meal time food appeared, miraculously steaming and perfectly cooked.”2 They ate in the open air, while at the same time enjoying the spectacular views.

They also found time to play tennis, and croquet; to swim, row, hike and roam the forests, pick flowers and sing.

Du Bois felt that the Amenia Conference marked the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. It witnessed the end of the philosophy of Booker Washington and the burgeoning dominance of the philosophy of the NAACP among African Americans. At its close, it produced a list of seven principles, one which called for annual meetings like that which had just taken place at Amenia. Unfortunately, it was not to be. While the conference was taking place in August of 1916, war was raging in Europe.

Within a year the Great War would involve the United States, creating chaos and distraction. There would not be another conference at Amenia until 1933.

In an eloquent summary of the conference Du Bois wrote the following: ….. Probably on account of our meeting the Negro race was more united and more ready to meet the problems of the world than it could possibly have been without these beautiful days of understanding…

How appropriate that so tremendous a thing should have taken place in the midst of so much quiet and beauty there at Troutbeck,.a place of poets and fishermen, of dreamers and farmers, a place far apart and away from the bustle of the world and the centers of activity. It was all peculiarly appropriate, and those who in future write the history of the way in which the American Negro became a man must not forget this event and landmark in 1916.3

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Figure 2. Members of the NAACP at the August 1933 Conference held at Troutbeck, in Amenia, New York, the home of Joel Spingarn. 1933. Photograph. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Visual Materials from the NAACP Records.

1

David Levering Lewis, W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race 1868-1919 (A John MacCrae Book)(New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1973), p. 520. For more on Joel Spingarn and the NAACP see also B. Joyce Ross, J.E. Spingarn and the Rise of the NAACP 1911-1939 in the series Studies in American Negro Life (August Meir, General Editor) (New York: Athenaeum, 1972) and Marshall Van Deusen, J.E. Spingarn (Riverdale, California: University of California and New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1971).

2

W.E.B. Du Bois, The Amenia Conference: An Historic Negro Gathering (Amenia, New York: Troutbeck Leaflets Number Eight, 1925), p. 13.

3

W.E.B. Du Bois, The Amenia Conference, pp. 17-18.

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Poughkeepsie’s Contribution to the Enlistment of Blacks 35

How Poughkeepsie Contributed to the Enlistment of Blacks in the Union Army

by Julia Hotton In this essay, the author has addressed the theme of “thinking historically” by presenting a picture of a critically important period in our national story and then finding a local narrative of compelling interest. Dr. Hotton’s thesis pivots on a barely known convention held in Poughkeepsie, New York during the Civil War and the almost completely forgotten document that recorded it.—Editor From the onset of the Civil War, free black people throughout the country expressed a wish to join the Union Army in order to help in the eradication of slavery. The Government, however, did not accept their offer to serve.

During the early stage of the war, President Lincoln opposed black recruitment, doubting the ability of blacks to be effective soldiers. He also made it clear that his objective was to restore the Union, not to save or destroy slavery; but at the same time Lincoln expressed his personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.1 In spite of the Union’s stance against black enlistment during the early stage of the conflict, black people continued to strive for meaningful involvement in the war by urging the emancipation and use of the large slave population. One of the most eloquent and outspoken proponents on the subject was former slave and avid abolitionist, Frederick Douglass. At the beginning of the war, Douglass pleaded with the government to free the slaves as a war measure and recruit them into the Union Army. He used every opportunity to promote this idea; in editorials, speeches, letters, and interviews, he was unrelenting. In one of his articles Douglass reasoned that freeing the slaves would “smite the rebellion in the very seat of its life,”2 depriving it of the labor which kept the rebel army supplied with food, clothing and the essentials of war.

President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation January 1, 1863 As the war ground on, unexpected events began to reshape Lincoln’s attitude about the use of blacks in the military. Some members of Congress 45 M9214 DCHS 100214.indb 35

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began to advocate for black enlistments, while a few local commanders began to form black units on their own. These quietly organized black units consisted of the First South Carolina Regiment, the First and Second Regiment of Kansas Volunteers, and the First Regiment Louisiana Native Guards. That these regiments performed admirably and helped to ease manpower shortages in the areas where they were formed, made a positive impression on the President.3 It was also evident that the labor of thousands of fugitive slaves who were escaping to Union lines for protection, was indispensable to the Union efforts. The contrabands (the escapees were called contraband of war), performed much needed work such as building forts, roads, and bridges and foraging for food for the troops.

These former slaves had an unrivaled knowledge of the South’s waterways and land configurations and were said to be the greatest single source of military and naval intelligence for the Union during the war. Contrabands were an acknowledged effective military and naval resource who willingly and enthusiastically served the Union cause, proving that they could adapt to a free labor economy, and that no sacrifice was too great be free.4 These and other events, no doubt, influenced Lincoln’s thinking about how emancipation and the enlistment of blacks might be an effective war strategy. In the summer of 1862, Lincoln informed his cabinet of his plan to issue a proclamation, on January 1, 1863, to emancipate slaves in those states that remained in rebellion. In September of 1862, Lincoln officially announced his intention to issue a Proclamation of Emancipation on January 1, if by that time the rebel states had not laid down their arms.5 Elated blacks and abolitionists waited with bated breath, hoping that nothing would happen to change the President’s extraordinary plan before January 1. Lincoln must have felt secure about including the black enlistment as part of the proclamation sensing that Northern public opinion on the subject was quickly changing. Many governors who were finding it difficult to raise their quotas of troops began to see the enlistment of blacks as a solution to the problem. The scores of Northern families who were suffering extensive losses began to see the advantage of black enlistment. One Union Chaplain noted: “We needed that the vast tide of death should roll by our own doors, and sweep away our fathers and sons, before we could come to our senses and give the black man the one boon he was asking for so long – permission to fight for our common country.”6 In many ways the Congress was ahead of Lincoln in recognition of the importance of the enslaved population to the war effort. Their passage of

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the Confiscation Act enabled fugitive slaves, escaping military labor with the Confederate army, to take flight into Union lines for protection of the Union Army. They later adopted the articles of war that forbade military personnel to return fugitive slaves to their owners. This action resulted in fugitive slaves fleeing to Union lines in unprecedented numbers. Soon after that, Congress passed a Second Confiscation Act that declared free all slaves whose owners supported the rebellion. They even authorized the enlistment of “persons of African descent” into the military.7 The last two acts were passed over Lincoln’s objections. While legal, they did not have the support of the administration’s war department until the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation. The mood in Congress may have been best expressed in a letter from Senator John Sherman to his older brother, William Tecumseh Sherman in August: You can form no conception at the change of opinion here on the Negro question. Men of all parties who now appreciate the magnitude of the contest and who are determined to preserve the unity of the government at all hazards, agree that we must seek and make it the interests of the Negros to help us.8

When the long awaited day came, and the edict was issued, it did indeed contain the following words soliciting help of the Negro: …such persons (emancipated slaves) of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.9

The challenge now was the recruitment of blacks in the numbers promised by abolitionists like Frederick Douglass. It was up to the Governors of the States loyal to the Union to begin the process. John A. Andrew, Governor of Massachusetts, was the first to request permission to raise two regiments of Negro troops to serve for three years. When permission was granted by the War Department, Governor Andrew announced the formation of the 54th Massachusetts regiment, the first black regiment to be recruited in the North.

Because the black population in Massachusetts was relatively small, the Governor’s appointee in charge of black recruitment set up recruiting posts from Boston to St. Louis with Negro leaders to act as recruiting agents.

Frederick Douglass was personally solicited as an agent. He was thrilled to join the effort. Within days of his agreeing to become an agent for Massachusetts, Douglass issued his famous call:

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38 DCHS Yearbook 2014 Men of Color, To Arms From East to West, from North to South, the sky is written all over, NOW OR NEVER. Liberty won by white men would lose half its luster. Who would be free themselves must strike the first blow. Better even die free, than to live slaves.10

The recruiting agents accomplished their tasks so well, providing more than enough men to fill the quota of the Fifty-fourth. There were enough volunteers to develop another regiment, the Massachusetts Fifty-fifth. Other states soon followed: Rhode Island with the first colored artillery regiment in the North, and Pennsylvania with ten full regiments, one of which, the Third United States Regiment, was in front of Fort Wagner when it surrendered.11

Horatio Seymour, the Governor of New York State New York State was another matter. When Democratic Governor, Horatio Seymour showed no interest in raising black troops in the state, a committee of prominent New Yorkers managed to get a meeting with President Lincoln to find out what the government might do to assist in the matter.

While Lincoln was impressed with the fact that the delegates already had over 3,000 pledges and the potential for 7,000 more Negroes for enlistment from the state, he told them that it was still up to the Governor of the state to sign them up. The President said that the national government could not act unless Governor Seymour specifically refused to do so. Upon the return of the delegation a formal request was sent to the Governor on July 9, 1863.12

The Poughkeepsie Convention While the committee and interested parties throughout the state awaited the Governor’s response, a group of prominent black citizens held a convention in Poughkeepsie on July 15 and 16 to “show the government and the people their willingness to aid in the suppression of the rebellion, by organizing a large force of Colored Volunteers for the war.” The call for the meeting was addressed to the Colored Citizens of the State of New York, assembled in Poughkeepsie at 10 a.m., on July 16, 1863. The Rev. J.W.C. Pennington of Poughkeepsie was elected the Convention’s President.

There was a Position Paper exploring the meaning of the war to blacks in particular and to all Americans in general, followed by a list of resolutions in which a variety of salient points were presented. “It is a battle for the right of self-government, true Democracy and just Republicanism, and

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righteous principals against anarchy, misrule, barbarism, human slavery, despotism and wrong,” it declared, then continued with the reason for the meeting in the following manner: This contest is one in which every son and daughter of the land is, and of necessity must be, interested. It is the bounden duty of us all….all in whom the warm blood leaps, all who feel what a terrible thing is HUMAN SLAVERY – to up and struggle for God and Right.

After a series of colorful allusions to the horrors of the war and the resulting calamity if it were lost to the “movers of the Rebellion,” a list of resolutions was adopted. They included reasons for joining in the fight, such as: Resolved, that we, the Colored Citizens of this State, are LOYAL and TRUE to the Government; that our fortunes rise and fall with it; that we are ready, anxious and willing to demonstrate that truth and loyalty on the field of battle, or wherever else we can aid in restoring the nation to its integrity and prosperity…

The Resolutions went on to innumerate the consequences of a Rebel victory, on the one hand, and the glory that success of the Union forces would bring on the other. The tenth and final numbered resolution perhaps best summarized their feelings as follows: Resolved, that recent events have demonstrated that men of negro lineage hold the balance of power in this contest, and that we should prove recreant to all that constitutes manhood did we fail instantly to throw our weight for the Government, nor alone in words, but by sturdy blows. We should strike, and strike hard to win a place in history, not as vassals, but as men and heroes…..

The Convention also unanimously adopted a series of additional resolutions with recommendations and actions necessary to the success of the first ten resolutions. They included business matters such as the development of a committee structure with the task of “enrolling and organizing colored troops.” As can be seen in this excerpt from the action resolutions, they remained steadfast to their original purpose: Colored men all over the State are called upon to enroll themselves, and cause lists of the enrolled to be made out and transmitted forthwith to the Chairman of the Control Committee. And colored females are requested to form themselves into Colored Soldiers Aid Societies all over the State…..13

The organizers invited Massachusetts Senator, Charles Sumner and William Whiting, Solicitor to the War Department, to speak at the Convention,

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40 DCHS Yearbook 2014

no doubt, in hope of getting support from sympathetic people in high places. Although neither could attend, they both sent letters full of praise and encouragement.

End of the Impasse As days, weeks, and even months passed, there was still no response from Governor Seymour. The committee sent him another letter, again to no avail. Finally in November a delegation went to Albany to see him, and at last got Seymour’s answer, which was: “I do not deem it advisable to give such authorization, and I have therefore declined to give it.” Letters were then sent to the President and to the War Department with news of the Governor’s official refusal to enlist blacks in New York State. The immediate reply from the War Department said they would “grant authorization to raise colored troops whose membership would be credited to the state.”14 In December the Association for Promoting Colored Volunteering was joined by the Union League Club of New York to facilitate the recruiting of blacks as part of New York’s draft quota. Within two weeks, the quota was filled. The recruits were sent to Rikers Island for training. In March of 1864, the Twentieth United States Colored Troops left Rikers Island for Manhattan. At the foot of Thirty-sixth Street and East River, they disembarked, formed in regimental line, and with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets marched to the Union League Clubhouse where a flag presentation ceremony had been arranged. A newspaper reported the scene: A vast crowd of citizens of every shade of color, every phase of social and political life, filled the square and streets, and every door, window, veranda, tree and house top that commanded a view of the scene, was peopled with spectators.15

After the ceremonies, the soldiers enjoyed refreshments with friends and family. The troops then boarded a ship to their first assignment in New Orleans. By joining the struggle to defend the country of their birth, the brave men of the Twentieth United States Colored Troops joined with over 200,000 of their black brothers in arms to hasten the end of the rebellion, free their people, and strengthen America’s values. Their valor did not go unappreciated, as can be seen in a letter General Grant wrote to President Lincoln: I have given the subject of arming the negro my hearty support. This with the emancipation of the negro, is the heaviest blow yet given to the Confederacy…By arming the negro we have added a powerful ally….16

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Poughkeepsie’s Contribution to the Enlistment of Blacks 41

And the President, whose change of strategy from making the sole purpose of the war to save the Union, a combined effort to free the slaves, seemed pleased with his decision. Lincoln is reported to have thought the effect of the Emancipation Proclamation had broken the backbone of the Confederacy and to have said that it was “The Central act of my administration, and the greatest event of the Nineteenth Century.”17

1

Benjamin Quarles, The Negro in The Civil War (New York: Da Capo Press, Inc. of Plenum Publishing Corp. Company, 233 Spring St., unabridged republication of edition published in Boston in 1953. Reprinted by arrangement with Little, Brown & Company, 1989) p. 60.

2

Philip S. Foner, Frederick Douglass, A Biography (New York: The Citadel Press, 2010), p. 193.

3

Eric Foner, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery (New York & London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010), p. 230.

4

Benjamin Quarles, Ibid., pp. 95-99.

5

Eric Foner, Ibid., p. 218.

6

Benjamin Quarles, Ibid., p. 183.

7

Barbara J. Fields, “Who Saved the Slaves?”, from Geoffrey C. Ward with Ric Burns and Ken Burns, The Civil War, An Illustrated History (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990), pp. 180-81.

8

Benjamin Quarles, Ibid., p. 158.

9

Ibid., p. 182.

10

Langston Hughes, Milton Meltzer, and C. Eric Lincoln, A Pictorial History of Black Americans (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1956), p. 172.

11

Philip Foner, Ibid., p. 211.

12

Benjamin Quarles, Ibid., pp. 188-89.

13

Record of the Action of the Convention Held at Poughkeepsie, N.Y., July 15th and 16th, 1863 , for the Purpose of Facilitating the Introduction of Colored Troops into the Service of the United States. (New York, New York, 1863). This report was found in the New York City Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture: Manuscripts Archives & Rare Books.

14

Benjamin Quarles, Ibid., p. 189.

15

Ibid., p. 191.

16

James M. McPherson, Marching Toward Freedom, The Negro In The Civil War 18611865 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965), p. 104.

17

Benjamin Quarles, Ibid., p. 182.

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52

Wise Voices, Plain Speaking: Twentieth Century Griots

by Lorraine M. Robe1is and Eileen M. Hayden In recent decades, preserving and interpreting the stories of everyday people has gained increasing credibility and recognition among histo­ rians as a vital history gathering tool. Local historian Helen Wilkinson Reynolds, working in the first half of the 20th century, noted "that it was not the kings, queens and prime ministers who shaped history, but the everyday man and woman at the base of the pyramid who provided the stimulus to affect great decisions." She could well have been fore­ shadowing Dutchess County Historical Society's Black History Commit­ tee oral history project.

Recognizing the need for a closer, more focused look at Black history in Dutchess County, the Black History Committee has worked since the early 1980s documenting the lives and events of generations of people of color. In keeping with the committee's mission to inform the com­ munity of the rich heritage and contributions made by Black people in Dutchess County, a variety of programs-including oral history inter­ viewing-have provided an opportunity to expand such knowledge.

One of the earliest programs of the Black History Committee was a lec­ ture on genealogy by David A. G. Johnson of the Schomburg Center for Research and Culture. In a lecture entitled "Routes to Roots," Johnson sparked the interest of a diverse audience-an interest which increased steadily following several planning meetings and a compelling talk en­ titled "Echoes of the Past" by Dr. Albert Williams-Myers of SUNY New Paltz. Williams-Myers spoke of Biblical accounts in Genesis as being, at one level, the oral history of families passed from one generation to the next. The keeper of the official memory, also known in Black culture as the "Griot," was a deeply honored person whose role was to help per­ petuate the history and spiritual values of African culture.

As a result of Dr. Williams-Myers' lecture, the Black History Committee participated in a "how to" session on oral history led by author and Bard College professor, Dr. Myra Young Armstead. Using this training in 53

oral history methodology, a questionnaire was developed to gather per­ sonal information from each interviewee as well as information on their education, employment and community life. A question at the end of the interview offered a chance for a final comment or reflection on any areas not covered in the questioning. Some interviews were consider­ ably longer than others, but most took about an hour.

The committee's goal was to collect oral histories from four major areas of Dutchess County, beginning with the Beacon/Fishkill area. Two meet­ ings, first at the Howland Library and then at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center, advanced the idea to African-American community leaders. An after-school group component was added. With the aid of Social Stud­ ies teacher Frank White, interested students in the Beacon High School Diversity Club joined the five oral history training sessions, although only one student was actually available on interview day. The sessions included interviewing techniques, operation of recording equipment and practice interviews.

Interviews of approximately 15 people were then conducted in 1995 at the Springfield Baptist Church in Beacon. The team of interviewers consisted of Dorothy Edwards, Robert Hancock, Eileen Hayden, Carmen McGill, Bertha Merriett, Lorraine Roberts, and Frank White. A high pri­ ority was given to the transcription of the tape recorded Beacon in­ terviews, and an IBM grant was obtained by Black History Committee member Walter Patrice to fund tape transcriptions by Patricia Robins.

Participants interviewed ranged in age from 42 to 82 and lived in Fish­ kill, Beacon, Chelsea, and Poughkeepsie. The parents of some of the participants had come to the Hudson Valley from the south in the early 20th century, drawn by employment opportunities in southern Dutchess farms and brickyards. Others were the children of longtime Dutchess County residents.

Interviews detail employment patterns from the 1930s to 1970-cov­ ering a wide spectrum of opportunities depending on both personal circumstances and socio-economic climate. Broadly speaking, many re­ called their parents working in service related occupations-as waiters, maids, chauffeurs, farmers, and teamsters. Professional occupations­ teachers, lawyers, physicians, dentists-are increasingly represented later in the 20th century.

54

As political conditions changed in these four decades, so too did job "choice" become increasingly evident in African American employment patterns. Initially, the Depression years offered few choices for em­ ployment, regardless of education. Often, Black college students came to Poughkeepsie in the summer for work in local hotels. Throughout World War II and in the years following, Blacks with blue-collar and pro­ fessional skills became an active presence in the Dutchess County work force. Many of those interviewed demonstrated an uncanny reverence for "self" and the determination to overcome barriers in spite of dif­ ficult circumstances.

These oral histories reflect our long national struggle for political, economic and social equality. Federal legislation affecting education, voting rights, housing, and employment were the result of countless individual struggles like those represented here-bearing out local his­ torian Helen Wilkinson Reynolds' belief that everyday lives do indeed shape larger events.

JULIA HILL ANDERSON grew up in the West End section of Beacon, where

her mother worked as a laundress. Her father lived in Newburgh and she knew little of him. During her childhood, telephones were a luxury item and communication generally meant "yelling out the window or knocking on the wall." After school, there was back yard play, bicycle riding, roller skating, and baseball. When she was a young teen, there were "chippie joints."

"We had a chippie joint where we could go and dance. One was owned

by Mr. Horton. The Hortons are still in the area. He let younger kids come in until about 10 [pm] and older ones came in later. There was another one across the street, Beacon Street . .. Charlie's chippie joint. He had a garage, but I don't think he ever had a car in it. But he let us come in and [he] had a juke box there."

SUSAN (SUDIE) BARKSDALE was born in North Carolina and came to

Chelsea when she was 17. Her father was a construction worker on the railroad. She eventually owned a beauty salon in Poughkeepsie. Barks­ dale, too, remembered chippie joints:

[Chippie joints were a place] "where teenagers and some others would come in to dance and have food and good clean fun. It wasn't like now.

There was also the Blue Bird Inn owned by Mr. Horton and the Grayson 55

Lodge, where if you didn't want to walk by the bar, you could go in the side door. I remember we went to a dance up there once. We went up by trolley car. I kept scaring everyone on the car. I said, 'What if the cable breaks.We'll end up in Newburgh!' (laughter) ... Somebody had waxed the floor, and it was just like glass. You couldn't stand up (laughter). We were trying to dance and everybody was holding each other up.

A lot of blacks tried [to run for office], but they never really won, except for Mr. Tucker. He is on the school board [in 1995], and he is running again."

WALTER N. PATRICE, one of nine siblings,

Walrer Patrice

was born in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1919.

His mother was born in Dutchess County in 1889 and died at age 100. His father, born in St. Lucia in the West Indies, was employed as a merchant seaman with ports of call from New York City to Houston. Every other Tuesday, he returned to Poughkeepsie to be with his family. After leaving seafaring work, Patrice's father was employed by the Hudson-Essex auto dealership on Academy Street in Poughkeepsie.

Walter Patrice attended the Poughkeepsie public schools, graduating from Poughkeepsie High School in 1939 and matriculating at Johnson C. Smith and Howard Universities. Beginning in 1943, he served as a First Lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers for 2½ years. Patrice was employed at IBM for 33 years from 1952 until his retirement in 1985.

Community service is a hallmark of Patrice's legacy with numerous lead­ ership roles in not-for-profit and governmental entities including the Poughkeepsie Planning Board, the Poughkeepsie Recreation Commis­ sion (where he served as president), and Catharine Street Community Center (where he served as interim director). As the church historian of AME Zion in Poughkeepsie, Patrice spearheaded the church's nomina­ tion to the National and State Registers of Historic Places in 1992. He has been honored by both the Dutchess County Historical Society and the US Colored Troops Institute for Local History and Family Research at Hartwick College; in 2009, Patrice was inducted into the Sports Mu­ seum of Dutchess County's Hall of Fame.

56

[Responding to an inquiry about particularly memorable Black citizens:] "Yes. there was a young lady who came to Poughkeepsie in 1936, may­ be. Her name was Lucy Graves. Lucy Graves was the Executive Direc­ tor of Catharine Street Center [the Center's 3rd director]. Lucy was the kind of woman that would say to a group of young fellows - 'Listen, let me tell you something. You have to respect your women, even if they're prostitutes; you have to respect them because they're females.' She was a fighter, a teacher.

Eleanor Roosevelt at the Catharine Street Community Cente1; 1940. The Center's director Lucy Graves (3rd/imn the left) stands next to Mrs. Roosevelt.

I have personally met people like Langston Hughes...Langston Hughes was the pre-eminent black poet in the history of the U.S. She [Lucy Graves] brought him to Poughkeepsie. These guys would come up from New York by train. We'd take a silver offering. It's the best you could do, take up a silver offering. They'd take your silver offering. They'd go back to New York.

These were leaders in the country-not only in New York. These guys were internationally known. Langston Hughes, Channing Tobias-all the big people in New York, she brought to Poughkeepsie as speakers.

They came because she asked them... She was outstanding. She wanted to teach school, but they wouldn't hire her...she was from Hunter Col­ lege.

57

The most political affiliation Blacks had was the two dollars that the ward head gave them. I have no idea what party. I have no idea who they voted for. All I know is a white guy would come around with a big roll of bills. A bribe? I don't think so, but people did take the money. Or they would come into a bar and buy two or three bottles of Scotch... to pass around...I don't vote party...The whole period [the 1960s] was traumatic to a lot of people. Bobby Kennedy, Jack Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr....This was a tragic era to a lot of people.

Church was the place to go when I was a 'kid. As a teenager, you went to church because the girls were there. We had a nice size organization called Christian Endeavor that was like 6 to 7 :30 on Sunday evening, and that's when you all congregated. You had a lot of fun before you went in, and you came out, and it was good clean fun....Church was fun...

Every April...they would have what they called the 'Annual Fair' and it lasted all week. The downstairs of the church was partitioned off in booths. They had a grocery store; they had an ice cream store; they had a soda store; they had a wishing well; they had used clothes; they had baked goods. Even the whole basement was lined with booths, flowers, the flower shop; and every evening another church came in to put on the program, a visiting church...they did singing, they did instrumental solos and you were upstairs and you enjoyed it...every week it was a different church and a different bunch or girls. It was fun.

I started off in the [IBM] plant in 1952. In 1969, I went to East Fishkill when it was one building [the Personnel Department]. [I] stayed in Fish­ kill 'ti! 1984. Came back to Poughkeepsie, and I taught Management Development from '84 to '85, and I retired. ...the older black community didn't work for IBM because they didn't have that many entry level people. They talk about equal opportunity, well up 'ti! 1952, IBM had a quota system of I% for minorities ...The field is never gonna be level without equal opportunity...it isn't gonna be level unless they have it [affiimative action] in place and furthermore, I think everybody should have an equal shot at making money that the government is providing corporations...IBM was a government subsi­ dized company...if you have a government contract and you have over 50 people, you have to live the equal rights or equal opportunity laws...

It [IBM] got better because there were better opportunities, and it got better because there was outside pressure to do better."

58

ROBERT H. HANCOCK was born in Pleasant Valley in 1914. He gradu­ ated in 1931 from Millbrook Memorial High School (the building now known as Thorne Memorial Building). Each day, Hancock walked about 8 miles round trip between his home in Verbank and his school in Mill­ brook. His parents, originally from Charlotte County, Virginia, came to Dutchess County seeking farm jobs in what was then a strong dairy farming region. Hancock's earliest recollections are of being raised on the Webster farm in Clinton Corners where he lived for 12 years. After graduating from high school, he got a job on the Hasbrouck Farm in Salt Point.

"They used to call it the He1Tick Farm because it came from the Herrick family on Mrs. Hasbrouck's side, and she married a Hasbrouck and then it got to be known as the Hasbrouck Farm ...They were not high paying jobs, but you had a subsistence...When I was working on a farm in 1936, there was a check given to me for $35 and a check for $15 for my board. .. .I got $35 and he [Hasbrouck] got $15 ...that's $50 for a month's pay.

You didn't have much choice [about where you wanted to work] ... that was what was available. When I got out of school, again in the 30s, which was called the Depression era, you took what you could get. I cut cord wood, worked on a farm, stuff like that." [During these years, it was Hancock's dream to build houses. After he got out of the service in 1946, he bought 7 acres of land on Friendly Lane in Poughkeepsie where he built his home and two others and sold several lots.]

LEVI DANIEL HORTON was born in LaGrangeville in 1931. He was reared on Fishkill's Academy Street in a home where there was no running wa­ ter or electricity. "We used a kerosene lamp for light and carried water from a neighbor." Horton went to Fishkill Union Free School (grades K - 6) in the 1930s when there were only three black children in the school: his sister, Marie Horton Karatz; a cousin, Reggie Henderson; and himself. At age 16, he moved to Baxtertown Road in Fishkill.

His first experience with discrimination came in 1949 during his junior year of high school in Wappingers, when despite being the first Black student named to play on the varsity basketball team, his coach never picked him to play. Horton quit the team after six games on the bench, later learning that the coach had never intended to let a Black athlete play in any of the games; later in his high school career, he played var­ sity football with no problems. Levi Horton graduated from high school 59

'

,;·

., ,

::;

in 1950; in his class of 113 stu­ dents, four were Black.

After graduation, Horton en­ listed in the Marines where he served for five years. In 1955 he came home and sought employ­ ment at I BM, where he worked for 36 years, retiring in 1991.

Horton was particularly noted as a Dutchess County umpire, refereeing high school, col­ lege, and Little League baseball games for over 45 years. During his interview, Horton looked out Levi Horton a restaurant window facing a large Wal-Mart and Sam's Club shopping complex while painting a vivid picture in words of Blodgett's string bean farms.

[The following is from an interview of Levi Horton published in the Fish­ kill Historical Society's newsletter, The Van Wyck Dispatch (July 2008), edited by Steve Lynch:]

"I remember that Mr. Stephen Blodgett was a string bean farmer-his string beam farms were the biggest industry of the Fishkill area ....They extended west from Main Street in the Village ofFishkill...westward be­ yond where I-84 now cuts through Fishkill. Mr. Blodgett had an airport runway (dirt) in his string bean fields located southwest of the Village, and customers could fly in on small planes and check his crops and ar­ range to purchase large quantities of his string beans. He also trucked in about 600 Black migrant workers from Florida each summer to pick his string beans during the harvest season. They stayed in wooden bar­ racks built on his farms near Fishkill Creek southwest of the Village­ the creek provided their water supply.

On Route 9, south of the village, Mr. Blodgett's string bean fanns ex­ tended from around Elm Street, or just south of the railroad tracks, all the way down Route 9 on both sides. Today his farm lands are all gone­ Dutchess Mall, several restaurants and motels, the Gap center, Wal­ Mart, Sam's Club, and recent developments all along Merritt Blvd-Van 60

Wyck Glen and Van Wyck Meadows Condos & Town houses-have all been built on Mr. Blodgett's string bean farm lands.

While I was in high school, I worked each summer picking string beans at Fishkill Fanns owned by Mr. Morgenthau. I was paid 10 cents per bushel and could make as much as $4 per day-but it was really hard work in the hot sun in July and August. We worked from 5am to 4pm with an hour lunch break... .I also picked cucumbers for "Pickle Suzie" in Wicoppee for 5 cents per bushel, and I also picked potatoes for 5 cents per bush for Mr. Morgenthau." [At the end of the working season, migrant workers paid their transportation to and from Florida as well as their bills for housing and sustenance, returning home with nothing or very little. This system was in operation for many summers during the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.] was a Pough­ keepsie native born in 1918. Her moth­ er was a native of Dutchess County and her father hailed from Augusta, Geor­ gia. Magill went to the Poughkeepsie public schools and also completed var­ ious training courses offered through the Hudson River Psychiatric Center.

Magill noted that during her early years, most Black people in Pough­ keepsie were employed in service businesses. She remembered Blacks from the south who ultimately settled in Poughkeepsie and others who came up during the summer; some were col­ Cecelia Magill lege graduates who worked in local hotels. Her father came up from Augusta, Georgia-first stopping in New York then coming to Poughkeepsie. In 1942, Magill was a victim of racial discrimination at Poughkeepsie's Schatz Federal Bearing Company, which at the time had government contracts requiring equal employment opportunity.

CECELIA BOSTIC MAGILL

"I walked three months, five days a week, in all kinds of snow and ice; I did it. I said 'Mom, I can't do this' and she said, 'Yes, you are.' In the meantime, Lucy Graves was head of a community center [Catharine Street Community Center in Poughkeepsie]-that was around 1940; and 61

she had good people down there in D.C. And she'd call the Man. She knew who he was and said they had two places, and they got to open up. But we need some help from you, and they won't let the kids in to have jobs. So, she [Graves] came up and told him: 'It's been passed now [the equal opportu­ nity employment law]; you can't keep these people out. If you do, you aren't going to do one thing for the Army or the Navy or anybody.' [On July 15, 1942, Cecelia Magill received the fol­ lowing telegram: "You are requested to be present at 1 :30 PM Tuesday July 21 1942 at 1406 G Street BNW Washing­ Lucy Craves ton DC Room 319 to testify in matter of alleged discrimination by Schatz Manufacturing Company and Fed­ eral Bearing Company STOP Transportation is being mailed and subsis­ tence expenses will be paid by government on voucher STOP If possible conference with you desired at same place." On July 18, 1942, Magill received a second telegram: "Schatz case postponed on promise of com­ pany immediately to employ without regard to race STOP Your pres­ ence therefore not required on July twenty first as previously requested = Lawrence W. Cramer."]

So, Dutchess Manufacturing opened up; Federal Bearings opened up; and from then on, everything opened up, and people had jobs." [Magill was employed at Hudson River Psychiatric Center and retired after 31 years of service in 1981.] was born in 1925 in Durham, North Carolina and settled in Hughsonville after marrying Alexander Drake of Bea­ con. Lillian Drake graduated from Winston Salem Teachers College and taught school for 14 years before her marriage.

LILLIAN HUSBAND DRAKE

"...It was unheard of to have a Black teacher 35 years ago [at Beacon High School around 1960]. They told me they weren't going to hire me and told me to get a job at Matteawan. I said 'What's Matteawan?' They said, ' Prison.' ...I went down to the Beacon superintendent's office. He was nice; he let me come in, and we talked. He wrote down some things 62

I said about myself. Well, it started raining. It happened that I had my umbrella, and I was putting on my coat. As I was putting on my coat, I saw him take the paper that he had written on about me and put it in the [waste] basket. So, I knew I wouldn't hear from that.

I went on to South Street [Beacon Elementary School] and talked to the principal there. She told me she would put my name down as a sub­ stitute. I went to Wappingers and wrote them several times and called them. I got a letter from them asking me to come there and to be there at 8 o'clock because they were having a meeting and I could meet the principal and I had the job. Well, when I showed myself...I saw the sec­ retary talking to them at the meeting...and when the meeting was over, they came out and said the principal had re-hired the teacher that had been here. I knew she [the secretary] went [in] there and told them I was Black.

[At the Dutchess County Girl Scouts' "Camp Foster," Drake met a mem­ ber of the Beacon Board of Education who arranged for her to meet with a Beacon school principal. The principal said:] 'I'd like to know why so many of you all come up here from down south.' I said that I didn't know; I came up here because I got married. I finished college to be a teacher, and now I'm looking for a teaching job. She [the principal] said: 'Well, we get a whole lot of them up here, and they don't know noth­ ing.' So, I said, 'You must be talking about the people who travel with the seasonal work; they come to pick apples, and as the seasons change, they move on up and they go back. But my people didn't travel around like that. Most of my relatives were teachers, and there are some doc­ tors in the family, and that's why I'm seeking a job.' So she told me she would call me.

Well, by the time she decided to call me, I was working over in New­ burgh...and I was teaching school for the last couple of years." [Lillian Drake retired from the Newburgh Enlarged School District after more than 35 years as an elementaiy school teacher.]

ETHEL GREEN VAUGHN was the oldest individual interviewed. Vaughn was born in 1913, approximately 40 years after the New York State Leg­ islature abolished segregation in the public schools. What the legisla­ ture did in 1874 commenced the very slow process of school desegre­ gation and the beginning of racial understanding and tolerance.

63

Vaughn was proud to say that she was born on Pershing Avenue in Poughkeepsie on July 4, 1913.

When Vaughn was three years old, her father, Homer Green, moved the family to Poughkeepsie's Arlington area in back of Friendly Lane (which Vaughn described as "a swamp" at the time she lived there). Her father worked in the Arlington Brickyard as a teamster. Her older sister went to school in Arlington; however, Elhel Vaughn the family eventually moved back to Poughkeepsie on Cottage Street. Her husband's father [Benjamin Vaughn] was a lawyer who worked in the office of Judge Morschauser.

According to Vaughn, her father-in-law died shortly after he became a lawyer.

"I went to school in Poughkeepsie-Warring School, Smith School and Poughkeepsie High School. I graduated 8th Grade from W.W. Smith in 1924. Let me go back and say...I had a chance in my last year [of high school] to get a job so I left school, took the job so I could earn some money. Then I went back and took an equivalency test, so I have my New York State Diploma.

[After a stint working at the Nelson House Hotel running the elevator and marrying in 1936, Vaughn's life changed.] I started to try to improve myself. I went to Poughkeepsie College Center, Spencerian Business College in Newburgh. I took additional courses at Dutchess Commu­ nity College, SUNY, and seminars in planning and renewal. I also took courses at Marist College ...! worked in [for] the Board of Education [in Poughkeepsie] from 1939 to 1978; I was a licensed assistant teacher, guidance assistant for junior high and middle school, media center assis­ tant at the Middle School, acting media supervisor at the Middle School, lunch program and recreational program supervisor at Warring Elemen­ tary School and Morse School.

In 1974, they had problems at the Poughkeepsie High. And Ed Hunger, the superintendent, sent me over there with Jim Dodd and Jim Clark on a Task Force...we were to see what the problems were ...if it was just the children or the teachers. We delved into different areas. We didn't 64

go back to the public to tell what we did, but we solved the problem.

Well, some of it was a tension that existed between the children and the teachers...teachers' attitude toward the children. Some of it was chil­ dren's fault and some was teachers'. And that was some of the things we tried to correct. I worked in the Dean's office. [Dorothy Stanley was the dean.]

[Vaughn noted that she faced prejudice and discrimination mostly in adulthood.] That's when we found things that just didn't work with one another together. And it seemed so funny since we had always been such good friends before. It wasn't that they weren't friendly. It was that the people who had the jobs just didn't give them to us."

L. EDWARDS was born in 1920 and came to Poughkeepsie at the age of two from New Haven, Connecticut. She lived in Poughkeep­ sie for over 75 years. Her father was a chauffeur, and her mother was a cook and housekeeper for a doctor's family. Catharine Street Community Center was an important part of her early life.

DOROTHY

"At the Center, I belonged to what was known as the High Tribe Club.

Dorothy Edwards We played basketball and did other things at the Center. There were arts and crafts and teaching younger children how to put on their jackets-that sort of thing.

My parents were Republicans, and I have always been inclined toward the Democratic Pa1ty. My father once made a statement at the dinner table. Being a smart mouth, I asked him why, since he had always been a Republican, did that mean that he had to continue to be one without discussing the issues. I said, 'You know, that's tantamount to having an outhouse in the yard and a bathroom in the house that you would con­ tiime to go to the outhouse 'cause you had always gone there.' He said I was a Communist. I told him he shouldn't say that.

My feeling is they [Blacks] were aligned with the Republican Party be­ cause they were paid for their votes...cash money. At voting time, you 65

know, they would knock on doors and say 'Vote and we'll take care of you.' As a kid I heard this. I couldn't understand that something that was your inalienable right should have to be paid for.

[Jobs in] businesses were [ closed to Blacks], of course. But that, I think, was primarily due to the lack of their education. They [Blacks] probably didn't even look for positions other than what they were used to... .I went to Morse School, which is now a magnet school on Mansion Street, and I went to Poughkeepsie High School and graduated from there.

[Edwards graduated from high school in 1938. That same year, for 6 months, she attended Wood-Puriont Secretarial School as the only Black student.] I. . . left there to go into nurse's training...and that was a three­ year course. I actually wanted to go into physical education. And I had applied, and I was told that there were not many jobs available to Blacks in that area. So then my second choice was nursing. And that's why I went into nursing. I married before I went into nurse's training....My parents wouldn't have sent me to nursing school if my husband had said that he didn't want me to go. But he was good about it, and I was able to go.

My parents were very education-oriented. I was the only one in my fam­ ily to go beyond high school. The only discrimination I encountered was when I came back to Poughkeepsie as a graduate nurse and went to Vassar Hospital...in 1941. I applied at Vassar, and there was a director of nursing...who felt that since I was the only Black nurse who had ever ap­ plied, the nurses wouldn't want to work with me. My answer to her was that they went to high school with me. I don't know why there would be a problem. She wanted to know ifl could get someone to vouch for me.

I said that I didn't think I needed anyone. I had my own credentials. So I was hired anyway."

[Edwards graduated from Columbia with a Master's degree and became a teacher and unit chief at Bellevue Hospital. She later served as the deputy director at Willowbrook State Developmental Center on Staten Island. Edwards was a local community activist and became the first Black president of the Poughkeepsie YWCA board.]

AUDREY MYRICK STEWART was delivered at birth by a Polish mid-wife in

Chelsea on July 3, 1932. Her mother, Lessie Booten Myrick, moved to Dutchess County from Virginia when Stewart was 9 months old.

66

"[My father, Ryland Myrick] left Baltimore...He was following work... working in 'transportation' they called it. That is the word they used when they traveled looking for a job...They heard about a job at Castle Point....I don't know how they heard about it down south, but they came up here. [Mr. Myrick worked at Castle Point for about 40 years.] ...he started as an orderly...took a test...became a practical nurse...he was very good at that. A patient fell off the stretcher [at Castle Point], and my father invented this thing that you put on a stretcher to keep the patient from rolling off. ...He said, 'They are using my invention [ without giving me credit].'

Audrey Stewart

He [Stewart's father] had gladiolas, sweet potatoes, cabbage, lettuce... and the seedless watermelon...He had his garden, and the nurses from the hospital would come down to our house; take things from his garden and take them to the fair [Dutchess County Fair]...and come back with all these ribbons...blue ribbons, red ribbons, white ribbons.

I went to school at Brockway School [starting in I 937]. It was a school that was built for the children of the workers at the Brockway brick­ yard [in Beacon]. That school was built specifically for the people who worked in that area and since I was in that area, I went to school there [until 8th grade]. Children who lived on North Road [in the area of to­ day's Dutchess Stadium]...went. I was six years old. [Brockway School was a] three room school and an assembly. It had two bathrooms. Grades 1 - 3 were taught by Ann Hayden. Grades 4 - 6 were taught by Mrs. [Florence] Gilbert. Grades 7 and 8 were taught by Margaret Dolan.

After they [the three teachers] left, we had this old couple...and they were the end of the line teachers. They came from Hyde Park or some­ where, and they came down to teach...they would teach us as if we were 'pickin ninnies' on the farm. That's the kind of attitude they had. Recess wasn't like 'let's play ball.' He would take us down in the bushes and pull skunk cabbage...but anyway we learned a lot. [All the teachers at the Brockway school were white, and three white children attended the 67

school.] [Describing requirements for going to high school:] "We had to take a general exam to go from 8th Grade to 9th Grade, but a Regents exam to go to the high school. ...You had to have a certain number [of students] in order to have the Regents exam [in the school building], and we didn't have enough. So my class had to go to the Glenham School to take the Regents exam...They called it a Regents exam...to go to Beacon High School. There were only four of us [Blacks in the Beacon class of 1951]: Eugene Simms, Leonard Morgan, Dorothy Reed, and myself."

[Audrey Myrick Stewart retired from IBM in 1991; in 1993, she opened Audrey's Flowers, a Beacon floral shop which she operated for a num­ ber of years.]

End Notes: This material is provided courtesy of Dutchess County His­ torical Society's Black History Committee (BHC) and its 1995 oral his­ tory project. The BHC interview with Levi Horton was done in 2008. Our thanks to Steve Lynch and the Fishkill Historical Society for use of mate­ rial relating to Levi Horton. All BHC materials are part of the Dutchess County Historical Society archives and are available for research pur­ poses. Portions of additional interviews conducted through Dr. Myra Armstead and Bard College have been included in this article. Full tran­ scriptions of Bard materials are also available at OCHS.

68

The Fugitive Slave· Law of 1850

by Arnn Banerjee Arun Banerjee is a resident of New York City and a first year stu­ dent at Benjamin Cardozo Law School, Yeshiva University in New York City. He is a 1995 graduate of Vassar College. Arun participated in the Vassar Field Work Program in his junior year and was an intern at the Society.

In 1850 the U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law, which was a provision in the Compromise of 1850. The compromise asserted that the new state of California would be a free state upon its admit­ tance into the union. Other stipulations of the compromise regarded the United States' future involvement in the institution of slavery. The Fugitive Slave Law dealt with the problem of runaway slaves who entered free states. The law required slaves to be systematically cap­ tured and returned to their rightful owners. State and local govern­ ments were to aid the federal authorities in apprehending the slaves.

The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 would affect communities through­ out the north, including Poughkeepsie. Two accounts of contested fugitive slaves are recorded, including the accounts of John Bolding.

Bolding was a resident of Poughkeepsie when Federal marshalls arrested him. The interesting fact that followed his arrest was the fund raising initiated by various Poughkeepsie residents to buy the freedom of Bolding. Influential members of Poughkeepsie as well as average citizens contributed, and Bolding was finally released and returned to Poughkeepsie.

The northern states of the Union initially reacted in a hostile man­ ner to the passing of the law in 1850. Congressman from the north attempted to enact certain provisions which would allow state judges to decide whether a slave should be returned to bondage. With strong opposition from the southern portion of Congress, these provisions never came about. Abolitionist writers began a campaign to lobby against the new law. Most northerners who opposed the law cited it as being unconstitutional for slavery to exist in a modem day society: 1 Arguments which attempted to prove its unconstitutionality were as follows. The law which had been originally enacted in 1793 was an agreement between the states, thereby stripping Congress of any right 69

to pass laws for the reclamation of slaves. The fugitive slaves were also denied a trial by jury and the right to cross examine witnesses.

The actual trials of the fugitives violated the rights guaranteed under habeas corpus, which were completely guaranteed in the Constitution. Another argument stated that fugitive slave commis­ sioners enacted judgements which could only be rendered by U.S. Federal Judges. These points created conflicts of judgement between free state, slave state and Federal Judges.2 Public opinion in response to the passing of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 varied from state to state, but northerners as a whole acquiesced to the law's provision to maintain adequate relations with the south. According to Stanley Campbell, A group composed mostly of abolitionists was opposed to the law under any circum­ stances and vowed to resist its enforcement in any way it could."3 The force behind the abolitionist movement included influential preachers in Massachusetts and New York. Reverend Charles Beecher of New York stated, This law is an unexampled climax of sin. It is the monster iniquity of the present age, and it will stand for­ ever on the page of history, as the vilest monument of infamy of the nineteenth century."4 Early opposition to the law resulted in public gatherings in cities in Massachusetts, such as Boston, Springfield and Lowell. The purpose of these meetings was to voice outrage because of the passing of the law and because the provisions violated certain fundamental rules of Christianity. In some cases, white citizens who opposed the law were willing to take up arms to defend any fugitive slave in the state of Massachusetts. In Syracuse, New York, five hundred people gathered to publicly declare that they would oppose anybody who attempted to enforce the provisions in New York State. The majority of abolition­ ists and those who opposed the law were in the western part of New York State.5 The Fugitive Slave Law endangered the safety of free blacks living in northern states. When the black communities realized this, many of them fled further north to Canada. Campbell writes, 0f the 114 members of the Negro Baptist Church in Rochester, New York, all but two left the country rather than face the possibility of being cap­ tured and returned to slavery."6 In areas such as Oswego, New York, free slaves armed themselves to resist any attempt to capture them.

By 1851 most of these initial responses to the law by northern com­ munities had subsided. Public sentiment had swayed towards sup­ port of the conditions of the law because of the improved relations between the northern and southern states. Many feared a possible 11

11

11

70

conflict which could dissolve the union, and no patriotic citizen wanted to witness that. The Fugitive Slave Law became a satisfactory compromise �which aided in sustaining the cohesiveness of the Union. According to Campbell: American clergymen, businessmen and industrial­ ists in large cities, and politicians in congress had cooperated effectively in an effort to put down anti­ slavery agitation. They worked diligently to convince the public that opposition to the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law would result in disruption of the Union. Because of the efforts of these three groups, the compromise was hopefully accepted by a large major­ ity as final settlement of the slavery crisis.7 The year 1854 would mark the turning point of the anti-slavery movement. Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which began the formulation of the extension of slavery into the northwest terri­ tory. The north felt betrayed. Campbell explains, "'Fearing that the Nebraska bill might set a precedent for the recognition of slave prop­ erty in the free states, a great many of the Boston merchants who supported the compromise felt cheated."8 Northerners believed that the large territory of Kansas and Nebraska should be free from slav­ ery by law, but southern Democrats and half of the northern Democrats combined forces to pass the bill to allow slavery to enter the area. The anti-Nebraska Bill movement was then formed to work towards the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Seven state leg­ islatures adamantly opposed the bill and demanded the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law.9 State legislatures, such as those of Connecticut and Rhode Island, publicly declared the capture of fugitive slaves to be the responsibil­ ity of the Federal government, not the states. After 1854, most of the northeast passed personal liberty laws to battle the power of the Fugitive Slave Law. The personal liberty laws declared that state legal officers should represent the slaves. The laws stated that slaves had the rights of habeas corp�s, a trial by jury, and that the kidnap­ ping of slaves was punishable by imprisonment. A few states also included the provision that federal slave prisoners could not be held in state jails.10 The majority of free states which bordered slave states, such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, continued to sup­ port the Fugitive Slave Law instead of aiding in the possible division of the nation.

71

By 1860, South Carolina had seceded from the Union and other states in the south seemed prepared to follow its lead. Several north­ ern governors began to panic and asked their state legislatures to repeal the personal liberty laws. Four months before the Civil War, states such as Rhode Island repealed their personal liberty laws, while the other states began to drastically revise their laws. A few states, such as Connecticut, did not act to repeal or revise their personal lib­ erty laws because they felt nothing could prevent the Union from dividing. Connecticut was correct. The repeals and revisions by other states did not stall the dissolving of the Union or the Civil War.11 Narratives of fugitive slaves who had successfully escaped to the north were distributed as propaganda to enhance the image and goals of abolitionists. In 1850, after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, Harriet Tubman, a former slave, began to organize stations for the underground railway. These stations were located in New York and allowed the slaves to travel to Canada. Her work as an agent of the underground railway allowed her to make secret missions into the south to convince slaves to escape. She was known to have used spiritual singing and other methods to attract slaves. Harriet Tubman was a fugitive slave whose dangerous work might have facilitated her capture, but because of her strong beliefs against slavery, she con­ tinued to crusade for the freedom of slaves in the south.12 In Poughkeepsie, New York, a fugitive slave named John Bolding escaped from South Carolina and settled in the area. He was employed by a tailor shop on Main Street and was identified as an escaped slave by a South Carolinian staying in Poughkeepsie. The southerner contac;ted Bolding's owner, Robert Anderson, who began the required procedures to recover his lost property.13 On August 25, 1851, a U.S. marshall_ arrested Bolding in Poughkeepsie while he was at work. In New York City he was tried before a U.S. state commissioner and was ordered to be returned to his owner. Many Poughkeepsie residents were disturbed by this action, since Bolding was forcibly seized by a U.S. marshall. Residents decided to raise the money from their community to purchase the freedom of Bolding from his southern owner. It was stipulated that the price be $2,000 and that only half the amount could be raised in Poughkeepsie, while the other half had to be raised in New York City)4 The fund that was organized was a success and various residents contributed to the cause, including Matthew Vassar, the founder of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie. A total amount of $1,109 was col­ lected and sent to' the U.S. marshall who had Bolding in custody.

Facts concerning the raising of the other half are unknown, but John 72

Bolding was returned to Poughkeepsie a free man. Bolding died in Poughkeepsie on April 30, 1876. 15 Another account bf a fugitive slave occurred in 1860, when a slave from New Orleans arrived in Poughkeepsie by train. He then crossed the frozen Hudson to the town of Louisburgh. The fugitive slave told the local townspeople of his escape from the south. According to the escaped slave, he was a former free slave who was employed on a ship which transported goods to the south. When the ship was in New Orleans, he was illegally kidnapped and sold to a merchant who returned him to slavery. 1 6 Poughkeepsie had been an area of anti-slavery sentiment in the 19th century. The Poughkeepsie Anti-Slavery Society was established in 1835 and its membership grew after its inception.1 7 Along with the presence of the Anti-Slavery Society, the Dutchess County area had stations which were part of the underground railroad network lead­ ing north to Canada.

By 1860, southerners did not believe the north was fully uphold­ ing the Fugitive Slave Law. These same southerners cited this non­ enforcement as a possible cause for a future division of the Union. In the early 1850's enforcement of the law was effective, but by the 1860's accounts of the rescuing of slaves became quite popular. The number of slaves between the period of 1850-1860 remained constant and the law did not deter runaway slaves at all. A proper consensus to provide a comparison of the amount of slaves arrested and returned was difficult. The communities which were against the law would only report in their newspapers instances when the captured slave was rescued or freed; while other communities which sup­ ported the law did not deem it necessary to report the occurrences in their newspapers.IS Enforcement of the law during the 1850's seemed to be extremely effective. In 1851 anti-slavery societies were able to organize demon­ strations in town halls, town squares and outside courthouses. This was prevalent in Boston, but local judges and Federal marshals com­ pletely carried out their duties even with the presence of public hos­ tility. Many accounted cases describe the attempts of abolitionists to free slaves, but in most cases the abolitionists were tried for aiding in the escape of the slave and fined large sums of money. The Federal government employees responsible for returning the slaves allowed the enforcement of the law to be upheld, even with all the legal and human obstacles which were placed before them.19 After the secession of the states in the south, the role of the Federal government towards fugitive slaves became complicated. The states 73

which had seceded forfeited their rights under the Constitution, but the states still loyal to the union, which instituted slavery, expected the Federal government to continue the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law. Federal marshals still enforced the law because only the states in the deep south had seceded by 1861. In Lincoln's inaugural address he stated he would not interfere with slavery in the slave 11 states. In 1858 he stated,, I have never hesitated to say, and I do not hesitate to say, that I think, under the Constitution of the United States, the people of southern states are entitled to a congressional Fugitive Slave Law."20 During the initial fighting in 1861, Union generals were harboring slaves who desired protection. In August of 1861,- Congress passed the first confiscation acts that stated all slaves fighting against the Union would no longer be the slave owner's property. In 1862, the slaves of disloyal owners who arrived in Union territory were declared free.

Many Federal Marshalls of loyal states returned fugitive slaves to their owners, and by June 1863, six months after the Emancipation Proclamation, the Fugitive Slave Law was still being enforced. In the summer of 1863, the law seemed obsolete, but legally remained until June 28, 1864, when it was repealed. The slaves who were displaced from the south into the north were not welcomed in some cities, such as Chicago, Illinois, because local politicians felt the southern states should care for their own people.21 .The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 lasted for fourteen years. Initially the law fostered hatred in areas of the north, while the south believed that if the law were not enforced, secession was a legitimate retalia­ tion. From 1852 to the law's repeal in 1864, enforcement of the law was effective, and the initial resentment that had started in the north deteriorated. By 1852, the south felt that northerners who obstructed the seizure of their property violated their rights as slave owners.

The states that seceded partially attributed their action to the lack of respect northerners demonstrated towards the Fugitive Slave Law. In actuality, the number of fugitive slaves was minimal compared to the overall slave population in the slave states. Thus, the Confederate south's explanation of secession on the grounds of non-enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law was hardly justified.

ENDNOTES. 1 Campbell, Stanley W. The Slave Catchers. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1968) 28.

2 Campbell, 28.

74

3 Campbell, 49.

4 Campbell, 50.

5 Campbell, 52.

6 Campbell, 62.

7 Campbell, 66.

8 Campbell, 84.

9 Campbell, 85.

10 Campbell, 88.

11 Campbell, 95.

12 Filler, Louis. The Crusade Against Slavery. (New York: Harper and Row, 1960) 294.

13 "Case of the Fugitive Slave, John Bolding, Before U.S. Commissioner Nelson," Poughkeepsie Eagle; 6 September 1851, 2.

14 "Case of the Fugitive Slave, John Bolding, Before U.S. Commissioner Nelson", 2.

15 "Case of the Fugitive Slave, John Bolding, Before U.S. Commissioner Nelson", 2.

16 "Fugitive Slaves," Poughkeepsie Eagle; 29 December 1860, 2.

17 "The Anti-Slavery Movement," The Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook, 28, 1943, 58-59.

18 Campbell, 110-112.

19 Campbell, 114-115.

20 Campbell, 189.

21 Campbell, 193-195.

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76

Invisible People, Untold Stories: A Historical Overview of the Black Community in Poughkeepsie Lawrence H. Mamiya and Lorraine M. Roberts Much of the history of the black community in Poughkeepsie is in frag­

mentary form or remains unwritten. In his history of Poughkeepsie Edmund Platt, for example, treats black people largely as slaves. 1 This present historical overview will focus primarily on the period since the mid-nineteenth century and on the topics of labor, education, religion and the attempts to establish some black organizations. We begin with a brief summary of slavery in the Pough­ keepsie area, and especially some problems in Platt's treatment of slavery, and conclude with the phase of civil rights activism. Limitations of space, time, and sources prevent the authors from mentioning every person or organization that contributed to the development of local black history, especially in recent years. 2

Slavery in the Mid-Hudson: The "Peculiar Institution" in the North Slavery existed in New York throughout the colonial period. By the first Federal census of 1790 New York's black slave population of 21,324 was the largest of the slave holding northern states and only 7 thousand below Georgia's total of 29,264. About one third of New York's slaves lived and worked in the Hudson River Valley, from Westchester to Albany. 3 The African slaves were brought to the Valley by the Dutch West India Company between 1625 and 1663; in 1664 the British captured New Netherlands, changed its name to New York, and allowed the Royal African Company to monopolize the slave trade. The first slaves probably arrived in the village of Poughkeepsie not long after its founding in 1687 by Dutch and English settlers. The first village census of 1714 showed 30 slaves among a population of 445. By 1771 there were 1,360 slaves in Dutchess County and 1,954 in Ulster, with much larger numbers in the upper and lower valley. 4 Lawrence H. Mamiya, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Religion and Africana Studies at Vassar College. He is the co-author of a previous volume of oral histon; interviews in Poughkeepsie's black community.

Lorraine Marie Pettie Roberts is Chairperson of the Occupational Education Department at Poughkeepsie High School. A graduate of Hampton Institute and Columbia University, she is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and is listed in Outstanding Edu­ cators in America and Who's Who in Black America.

77

Platt' s treatment of the history of slavery in Poughkeepsie and Dutchess County tends to look at the slaves from the point of view of the slave masters, as objects that are acted upon. Very rarely does Platt examine the slaves as actors, as sub­ jects, as creators of their own history and as human beings with feelings of their own. Furthermore, Platt tends to emphasize the benign and benevolent side of slavery. He does not examine the brutality of the institution nor the general social and legal climate of the fear of retribution by the slaves for that harsh treat­ ment, which was expressed in the "slave codes" of New York and in actual slave rebellions that took place in nearby areas like New York City, Albany and Kingston. Although he refers to the advertisements in the newspapers describ­ ing runaway slaves, Platt does not mention the fact that these acts of escaping and running away also represented the slaves' judgment about their own condi­ tion in physical and symbolic terms.

During slavery, there were a few recorded incidents where Negroes them­ selves owned slaves. Platt's account of slavery in Poughkeepsie gives an unex­ plained and somewhat misleading reference to "Toney Fox, a colored man" who manumitted a slave in 1804.5 It makes him appear as one of the few Negro slave owners. However, the records indicate that the slave Margaret Fox was actually owned by the "Overseers of Poor" and Toney Fox, a colored laborer, applied for his wife's manumission from them on October 29, 1804, which apparently was granted.6 There are several major lacunae in Platt's history of slavery. First, he does not mention the breaking up of slave families, which was perhaps the most painful and sorrowful act endured by slaves. For example, in 1715 on the Livingston Manor, a slave named Ben killed his owner John Dykeman for selling his daughter off the manor. In the hearings, presided over by Robert Livingston, Sr., it was determined that the murder was the sole act of a heartbroken and revengeful father. Second, Platt fails to examine the missionary and educational work of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel of the Anglican Church begun in New York in 1701 among the slaves and Indians, which intended not only to Christianize them but also to make them more docile and obedient. In 1750 there was an Anglican mission operating in Poughkeepsie and in 1773 the Christ Episcopal Church was founded.7 Finally, Platt does not deal with the slaves' attempt to fuse African religious traditions in to Christian ones as it was exemplified in the Pinkster Festival. In a perceptive article, Williams-Myers has shown quite conclusively that the Pinkster Festival, which was celebrated for a week during Spring in the cities and towns of the Hudson Valley in.the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was a syncretism of Dutch and African religious traditions. "Pinkster" probably was a Dutch corruption for "Pentecost."8 Africans, free and slave, looked forward to the festival and its carnival atmosphere. As long as the institution of slavery existed, the Negroes celebrated Pinkster.

Slavery in the Mid-Hudson Valley affected all areas of social and personal rela­ tionships between blacks and whites. Even with the end of slavery in New York State in 1827, the residential and social segregation of Negroes remained as an accepted social fact throughout the nineteenth and into the twentieth centuries.

Poughkeepsie's Black Community in the Nineteenth Century: Religion, Education and Labor

Towards the end of the eighteenth century and during the early decades of the 78

nineteenth century, a number of all black areas or settlements were gradually formed in Dutchess County. At first they were composed of the few free blacks and runaway slaves and later these residents were joined by the newly manu­ mitted people who no longer wanted to live on their owner's farms and manor estates. The areas of Fishkill Landing and "Baxtertown" had the largest number of Negroes in the county prior to the emergence of Poughkeepsie as a city after 1854. Apparently there were two settlements, one in Fishkill Landing and one in the area of Baxtertown Road, since both became the locations of two A.M.E. Zion churches. Stories of Fishkill-Baxtertown recount its beginning in the inter­ marriage between freedmen and escaped slaves and the native Wappinger Indians who lived there.9 During the first half of the nineteenth century in the village of Poughkeepsie, the black population was located in several clusters: first, on the fringes of the central business district bounded by Washington and Market Streets where some working class whites and recently arrived German immigrants also resided; second, on "Long Row" by the Almshouse; third, in the area of Catharine, Cottage, and Pine Streets.10 Abolitionist activity and religion were closely tied together in most areas of the United States and this proved to be true in the Mid-Hudson as well. Although Christianity was used to justify slavery to produce docile and obedient slaves, it also became a major moral challenge to the institution and a spur to abolitionist activity. In the eighteenth century, Quakers were well known for their early sup­ port of abolition and for their courageous participation in the Underground Rail­ road to help escaped slaves move to Canada. A Dutchess Quaker, Alfred Moore and his wife used their mill as a station on the underground railroad.11 From 1790 onward, the abolitionist movement was largely supported by Methodists and Congregationalists in the North and some Methodists and Baptists in the South.

In the Mid-Hudson Freeborn Garretson, a Methodist circuit rider from Rhinebeck, not only helped to establish Methodism in the area, he also preached strongly against slavery. 12 Bishop Asbury, who was the prime American figure in the establishment of Methodism, once said of Poughkeepsie in 1800, "This is no place for Methodism," after several futile attempts to introduce the faith. 13 Ironically, a Methodist class was soon established in 1803 in a private home and by 1805 there were enough members in the village to found the Washington Street Methodist Episcopal Church. In Poughkeepsie and Dutchess County, Methodism also spread rapidly among the black population. Within a few decades of the aboli­ tion of slavery in New York State, three black Methodist churches were in existence, one in the village of Poughkeepsie, another on Baxtertown Road (Fishkill), and the other in Fishkill Landing (Beacon).

Mutual aid societies and churches were among the first social institutions created by black people. They existed in a symbiotic relationship; sometimes mutual aid societies gave rise to black churches and at other times churches helped to create mutual aid societies.14 In a period before the creation of a federal welfare system, black people banded together to pool their meager resources to provide for their own sick, widows and orphans, and decent burials. Although the reasons are not fully known, the 47 colored members of the predominantly white Washington Street Methodist Church withdrew en masse and on November 12, 1837 formed the United Society, a mutual aid group that met for worship services for several years in the old Lancaster School (now Germania Hall). 15 Whether the withdrawal was sparked by a racial incident in the church, 79

by a more widespread feeling of second class treatment within worship services or by the desire for independence is not known. In 1840 the United Society pur­ chased a one-story frame building at 102 Catharine Street and also voted to affiliate with the newly-formed independent black denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. The Poughkeepsie church was organized under the name of the "Catharine Street" African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. The first elected trustees were Ezekiel Pine, Uriah Boston, and Peter Lee. 16 The name of the founding pastor is not known for certain, although his name is given as the Rev. Jacob Thomas or Jacob Thompson in different documents.17 The Zion denomination, which was organized in July 1822 in New York City, illustrated the close linkage between religion and abolitionism among black people. Although many black churches served as stations for the underground railroad for escaped slaves and other black denominations were active in aboli­ tionism during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it was the Zion denomination that became the church base for a number of legendary black abolitionists who were either preachers or staunch church members: the Rev. Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and the Rev. Jermain Louguen, Catherine Harris, Eliza Ann Gardner and the Rev. Thomas James. 18 Soon after its founding, the denomination expanded rapidly in New York State, organizing black churches along the path of the underground railroad and transportation routes up the Hudson Valley and northward into Canada. Besides the Catharine Street Church in Poughkeepsie, the St. James A.M.E. Zion Church (now in Beacon) was established in 1844 and the Baxtertown A.M.E. Zion Church was also founded during the nineteenth century. 19 One can usually assume that wherever large concentrations of black people existed, escaped slaves and underground railroad stations would be found there too, since the slaves could mingle and be less noticeable. However, the role which these three black Methodist churches played in the abolitionist period can only be speculated about since there is no extant documentary evidence. In his study Blithe Dutchess, Henry MacCracken does speak about the "vigorous church life" that arose in Fishkill-Baxtertown and the fact that the settlement was a station on the under­ ground railroad, "probably working with Quaker groups." MacCracken's exam­ ple may well apply to Poughkeepsie too.20 Even with the aboliton of slavery in New York State, the Dred Scott decision of 1847 and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 still made it dangerous for escaped slaves to be in northern cities like Poughkeepsie as the story of John Bolding in 1851 illustrated. As a former runaway slave from South Carolina, Bolding finally set­ tled in Poughkeepsie as a tailor. Unfortunately, he was recognized by his former owner Mrs. Dickinson and eventually arrested by the United States Marshall's office, which had to enforce the law. The Dutchess County Anti-Slavery Society and leading Poughkeepsie citizens raised $1700 to purchase his freedom.21 During the decade of the 1840s and through the Civil War years, abolitionist activity also stirred intense opposition and overt hostility among some residents, especially among the newly arrived Irish immigrants. At times mobs of whites disrupted anti-slavery meetings in churches.22 There also were a number of riots and fights between whites and blacks from 1847 to 1850. There were several dimensions to this ethnic conflict. First, the Irish saw Negro laborers as a threat to their own jobs, especially when Negroes were used by employers as "strike breakers" during labor negotiations at the brickyards, railroads, and other 80

places.23 Second, even though the Irish were oppressed and discriminated against because of their Catholicism, the racism of the larger society rendered the Negro even more vulnerable and thus a convenient scapegoat for mounting frus­ trations. Finally, the anti-draft riots of the 1860s in New York City, Poughkeepsie and elsewhere were caused largely by newly-arrived immigrants and other whites who saw the Civil War as a conflict on behalf of the Negro and not in their own interests. In Dutchess County in 1863, the Governor of New York called in the Vermont Volunteers to keep order24 and the black men of the Catharine Street Church had to stand guard with rifles in order to prevent their church from being burned down during the mob frenzy.23 The Civil War was largely welcomed by Poughkeepsie's black community.

While President Abraham Lincoln initially saw the war only as a means to "pre­ serve the Union," his Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863 and his Second Inaugural address made clear that the war was also fought to abolish the evils of slavery. On January 7, 1863 one week after a group of intoxicated soldiers attacked the Catharine Street Church and did a "good deal of damage" to its prop­ erty,26 members of the church held a special meeting to commemorate and cele­ brate the Emancipation Proclamation. Isaac Deyo, a long time Poughkeepsie resi­ dent, church member and community leader, presided over the meeting. The major address was given by James DeGarmo of the City Council, congratulating the colored members. 27 From that day on until the Civil Rights period, black churches in Poughkeepsie celebrated the first Sunday in January as "Emancipa­ tion Sunday." Even prior to the proclamation, the colored people of Pough­ keepsie supported the war effort by sending Victor Hugo as a delegate to Washington, D.C. on 5 March 1862, "offering ten thousand men of color, to be called the Fremont Legion."28 Although that legion never materialized, by 1863 President Lincoln was persuaded by black leaders like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman to allow colored soldiers to fight in the war in order to help turn the tide. In December 1863 and throughout the following year, articles in the Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle reported on the recruitment of colored soldiers, whose total probably reached several hundred in Dutchess County.29 Although they had to serve in segregated units commanded by a white officer, they signed up eagerly because they also received some of the cash bounty paid to new recruits.

At a time when most of the black community was impoverished, the military was quite appealing to young men. These squads of colored troops were often given a parade by proud members of their own community. As they marched off to the trains, a martial band composed of colored musicians led by Mr. J. H. Jaycox accompanied them, sometimes playing "Dixie."30 The white community was divided on the war with the majority supporting the Union's side. Some sympathetic whites in Poughkeepsie's churches also rallied to the cause of aiding the newly emanicpated slaves in Southern states.

There were appeals in the Eagle regarding fund raising benefits and also ads soliciting "cast off clothing for the Freedmen. "31 The Reconstruction years from 1866 to 1876 witnessed a meteroric rise in political activity by black people across the country as they exercised their right to vote, guaranteed by the Fifteenth amendment. President Lincoln's association with the Republican Party inspired most blacks to become members of that party. In Poughkeepsie a "Colored Men's Republican Club" was formed in the late 1860's and it continued to be active in the early twentieth century.32 In May 1870 the colored community held a celebration of the Fifteenth Amendment and 81

among the invited distinguished guests were nationally known figures such as the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, the clergyman-politician and first black elected to Congress, United States Senator Hiram Revels of Georgia, and the writer Horace Greeley. 33 While blacks gained a new political prominence after the war, they continued to be described by others in pre-war stereotypes, notably in the minstrel show, the most popular form of stage entertainment during the mid-nineteenth cen­ tury. The minstrel shows, where white actors painted on black faces and imper­ sonated Negro characters in comic fashion in song and dance, were very impor­ tant culturally because they helped to form the major stereotypes and percep­ tions of whites about black people. In Poughkeepsie during the Civil War years, various touring ministrel companies visited the city almost monthly. Names like Sharpe's Ministrels, Campbell's Ministrels, Newcomb's Ministrels, Tony Pastor's Ministrels, and Dupree and Green's Ministrels appeared in the Eagle's announcements. The Eagle said the following about the Dupree and Green's Ministrels: "Their position among the negro delineators of the present time is first class. Whoever witnesses their performance once is sure to go again. "34 Apparently, the Eagle's editorial writer was also influenced by the minstrel shows as evidenced by the numerous supposedly humorous incidents using Negro dialect which are interspersed throughout the paper. One example of this is entitled "Not A City Darkey, which tells of the arrest of a black man during the night. It concludes, "He was a farm hand and not a 'city niggah.' "35 The in­ fluence of ministrelsy stereotypes was increased by the unofficial segretation in northern cities in places of residence and schools and by the taboos against social contact which prevented most other forms of communication.

Through the first three quarters of the nineteenth century black people in Poughkeepsie faced numerous struggles and many disappointments in obtain­ ing public education. Early forms of education for blacks consisted of denomina­ tional catechetical schools for the few free blacks and learning from the nightly devotions of the master's family for most slaves. However, the earliest record of any type of formal education for blacks was the African School which operated in Poughkeepsie in 1829. The African School was probably a private school set up by the New York Manumission Society; its schoolmaster was the Rev. Isaac Woodland, a black minister from Baltimore. 36 Woodland was followed by Nathan Blount in 1830. Blount was a black abolitionist and an active member of the Dutchess County Antislavery Society. 37 During the latter half of the 1830s, Blount's school was taken over by the Lancaster School Society, Inc. which operated a school for white children on the first floor of a Church Street building that also housed Blount's school in an upstairs room. Throughout these early years there was a strong preference that the teacher be a "teacher of letters and of gospel percepts. " 38 After Blount, the Rev. Samuel R. Ward, who was educated in the black school of the Manumission Society of New York City, came to Poughkeepsie to teach at the black Lancaster school in 1839. Like his predecessor, he also was an aboli­ tionist and served on the executive committee of the principally white Anti­ slavery Society. Ward probably remained with the black school until it closed in 1844. After leaving Poughkeepsie he became a nationally known abolitionist and a prominent church pastor.

In 1843 the unified public schools of Poughkeepsie were established, providing educational opportunities for the city's white children. As a part of Pough11

82

keepsie's common school district, the Board of Education created a separate school for black children in 1844. The school was called the Poughkeepsie Colored School No. 1. During the thirty year life of the Colored School, it was an elementary, one-room facility. The school was first housed in the Primitive Methodist Church on Church Street from 1844-1855. Then, it was moved to Cottage Street where it remained until 1863. For three years, 1863-1866, the school was conducted in the old A.M.E. Zion Church building on Catharine Street. Its final home was in another building on Catharine Street.

Pupil attendance averaged about 20 students at the Colored School, although the registration reached as high as 70 children in some years. The first teacher was Thomas Brower, a white man. Jane A. Williams was probably the first black teacher; she taught from 1853 to 1856. She was followed by other black and white teachers who taught singly in ensuing years at the school from one to three years. Each teacher was also appointed as a principal by the Board of Education.

A Committee on Teachers report to the Board of Education, dated November 1, 1870, gave an indication of what teachers were paid: "Miss Thayer is unwilling to leave her place in the 4th ward and take the Principalship of the Colored School for less than $450 [per year]."39 Hostility toward the meager education available to Negro children surfaced around the late 1860s and early 1870s. These children in Poughkeepsie had no educational opportunities beyond elementary schooling. Before 1870 there is no record of a Negro student attending Poughkeepsie High School and both Vassar College and the Eastman Business College did not admit Negroes.

Isaac Deyo, an active member of the local A.M.E. Zion Church, called a Mid­ Hudson area educational convention in Poughkeepsie in September, 1870. The purpose of the meeting was to address the educational concerns of the colored population. Mr. Deyo was elected president of the convention. Out of this meeting came the proposed idea to establish a Negro college in Poughkeepsie.

This idea was in keeping with the times, especially in the South where the recently freed slaves' deep desire for education led to the establishment of several prominent Negro colleges like Fisk, Howard, and Hampton. Five black men from neighboring counties along with three from Poughkeepsie (Abram Bolin, Charles Cooley and Isaac Deyo) and Samuel Jones of Fishkill were the original trustees. This group named the proposed school Toussaint L'Ouverture College in honor of the famous leader of the Haitian Revolution. In 1871 the trustees were instrumental in getting state Assemblyman Stewart to introduce a bill in the New York State Legislature to incorporate the college. It is said that Bolin, Rhodes, West and Deyo walked to Albany lobbying for the passage of the bill.

Although L'Ouverture College was incorporated as an institution to be located in Poughkeepsie, "especially designed for the education of young men and women of African descent in science, art, language," it never became a reality.

The Jack of finances as well as moral support, coupled with the rising anti­ segregation movement throughout New York State, doomed the project to failure. Even though local black Poughkeepsians were enthusiastically sup­ portive of the college, the coup de grace to the project ironically was admin­ istered at a meeting of the New York Annual Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, which convened in Poughkeepsie at the Catharine Street Church in May 1871. The opposition was led by the Rev. William P. Butler of New York City, a powerful orator and former pastor of Zion 83

churches in Hudson and Poughkeepsie. Butler argued, "Let the colored people of the state stand together and ask for equal rights, and they would get it. They wanted no separate college. "40 Abraham Bolin, a gardener, janitor and community leader, spoke on behalf of the college plan but he could not prevail. In 1872 the project also ran into opposi­ tion from a state black convention and it died. 41 The major thrust among Negroes in New York State became clear: to desegregate public education and not to set up separate schools. But this goal was not achieved in Poughkeepsie without fur­ ther struggle and personal costs.

After the failure of the college project, the leadership of the black community focused their efforts on the task of desegregating Poughkeepsie schools. On September 1, 1873 Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Rhodes personally led the way by pre­ senting a test case to the Board of Education of the federal civil rights law, which provided for no distinction on the basis of race. Rhodes, who ran his own Eagle Dyeing Establishment, attempted to enroll his two daughters, Josephine, 15, and Marietta, 9, in the Fourth Ward Primary School. Miss Carey, principal of the school, reluctantly seated the children. The youngest child Marietta was sent home after lunch by a teacher because someone had hit her. The Board of Educa­ tion also decided that Josephine would be sent to the Second Ward Grammar School because of her age. 42 Poughkeepsie's first major "civil rights question" sparked a long series of meetings and decisions by the Board of Education throughout the year.

At first, Judge Egbert Q. Eldridge, President of the Board, claimed that since the city was one school district, it had fulfilled the law by establishing the Colored School. Therefore, said Eldridge, the children were to refrain from attempting to attend any city school other than the Colored School until the Board reached a decision. He also said that the children were attending a school outside of their district.43 However, Mrs. Rhodes squelched any delaying tactics of the Board by continuing to insist that her children would attend the city's public schools and that she didn't want to send her children to the colored school. On September 4, 1873 Marietta was sent to the Bayeaux Street School where she was warmly received, although all of the public attention had made her uncomfortable. 44 After visiting and inspecting the Colored School, Eldridge recommended to the Board on September 10 that the school should be closed because he found only 20 children in attendance out of the more than 70 that had been enrolled. He felt that this low level of attendance did not justify the $750 annual budget which the city spent to support the school. The matter was tabled until a hearing could be held with the colored people. 45 During the period three more colored children entered the Fifth Ward School; they probably included Abraham Bolin's son Caius. In May 1874 the Board ruled that the teachers should allow any students who lived outside of their school districts to remain in their schools until the end of the academic year. 46 Poughkeepsie's case was not an isolated one; all over the State colored students attempted to enter the all-white public school systems. In 1874 the New York State legislature made these civil rights cases moot. Under pressure from black groups, it passed the legislation to abolish segregation in public schools.

Although the Colored School continued for one more year, by 1875 the public schools in Poughkeepsie were completely desegregated. Josephine Rhodes became the first black graduate of Poughkepesie High School in 1879. Four years 84

later Caius Bolin, Sr. was the second colored student to graduate from the high school. After spending two more years studying Latin and Greek at Professor John R. Leslie's Select Classical School on Academy Street, Caius was accepted at Williams College and became its first black graduate in 1889. In 1892 he passed the bar and practiced law in Poughkeepsie where he became part of a small group of leaders in the black community to bridge the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.47 The story of the desegregation of Poughkeepsie's public schools did not end in a clear-cut triumphant victory, especially for Joseph Rhodes and his family, who probably paid a high personal price for their efforts. Although a direct cause and effect case cannot be established in determining business losses and failures, there is a strong probability that Rhodes suffered severe economic losses for stir­ ring the waters of Poughkeepsie's milieu of de facto segregation. In their fine history of opportunity in Poughkeepsie during the mid-nineteenth century, the Griffens point to this possibility. . . . whether Rhodes paid for his challenge through a subsequent loss in prosperity cannot be ascertained. In 1873, the year of his dramatic public gesture in taking his daughter[s] to one of the city's previously all white schools, a credit reporter described his dyeing shop as a "good business, making a little money" and Rhodes himself as a careful, close man who paid cash for what he bought and owned his house. By 1877 all his effects had been mortgaged to the Poughkeepsie Savings Bank and from then on he was described as worth nothing. 48 For a careful and frugal man who only paid in cash to lose everything within a few years underlines the suspicion of economic retaliation.

Rhodes, of course, was one of a small handful of Negroes during the Recon­ struction period to achieve the status of self-employment or a skilled occupation.

Over a period of forty years, 1840 to 1880, only nine blacks achieved self­ employment and R.G. Dun and Company, the credit evaluators, only listed seven black businessmen: three in barbering and hairdressing and three in clean­ ing and dyeing. The owner of a clothing store had failed and left town in 1849. 49 Among the wealthiest black people during this period were two stewards who worked on the steam boats. One of them, who also operated his own concession, had his worth estimated at $20,000 upon his death in 1874. The other had his property assessed for $400 in 1880, one of the few blacks who owned property.50 As the Griffens noted in their comparative analysis of labor and race, whites comprised 59 percent of the teamsters, carmen and carters - occupations with opportunities for self-employment - but only 36 percent of the drivers and coachmen, 16 percent of the gardeners, and none of the waiters. Blacks moved in the opposite direction with 5 percent as teamsters, carmen and carters; 23 per­ cent as drivers and coachmen; 7 percent as gardeners; and 77 percent as waiters.

More than 90 percent of black males who were employed worked in unskilled jobs (primarily common laborer) or in service positions.51 At this time factory jobs were not open to blacks. While the Irish immigrants suffered from some forms of employment discrimination, their rates in the lowest occupational cate­ gories could not match that of the black population as a whole.

The majority of Negro women worked but they also had fewer occupational choices. From 1850 to 1880, over 90 percent of employed black women worked as domestics. In the late nineteenth century, before the advent of washing machines, doing the laundry was among the hardest of chores. Being a laundress 85

was the other occupational choice for colored women. As the Griffens pointed out, One fourth of the working black women in the sixties and in the seventies persisted in the labor force, a much higher rate than for white women of any nationality. In 1880 a mere 3 percent of white wives reported jobs, but in 1860 a third of the black wives worked and in 1880 one fourth worked, mostly as laundresses. 52 Since economic values have been primary and predominant in American society, often used to determine social status and social relations, the severest forms of racial discrimination that black people have encountered have usually been economic in character. A close study of economic mobility in Poughkeepsie in the late nineteenth century has shown that even with the passing of several generations, black workers did not experience that mobility and were often trapped in the lowest occupational rungs.53 Immigrants like the Germans and even the Irish fleeing the famine who arrived in the Mid-Hudson in the 1840s and 1850s could expect job mobility within a generation or two. But for large numbers of black people the myth of Horatio Algier remained a myth rooted in pigmentation, which even the strongest educa­ tional aspirations and hard work could not overcome. Except for a small handful of successful people like Gaius Bolin, Sr., the vast majority of black people in Poughkeepsie in the late nineteenth century did not experience intergenerational upward mobility. Most black women remained in domestic and laundry work and most black men were common laborers or in service occupations like waiter.

Several of Bolin's brothers, for example, were waiters at the Nelson House and the Morgan House. 54 During the last decade of the nineteenth century, the black community in Poughkeepsie began to experience some of the changes that would radically alter its character in the twentieth century. In 1891 a combination of newcomers and long time residents from the Mill Street Baptist Church decided to organize the first Negro Baptist church in the city. Under the Rev. Charles E. Fairess's leader­ ship and after a series of prayer meetings in homes, the mission group moved to the Leslie School building on Academy Street and organized the Ebenezer Baptist Church with the Rev. Fairess as its first minister.55 After several moves, the church members built a permanent home at Smith and Winnikee in 1905. The black Methodists at the Catharine Street Church, which had dominated the com­ munity for over fifty years, began to experience some competition for members and influence. On May 20, 1894 at the 73rd Session of the New York Annual Conference of the A.M.E. Zion Church held at Catharine Street, Bishop James Hood ordained Mrs. A. J. Foote as the first black woman deacon, the first break­ through by a woman, black or white, in any Methodist denomination. 56 This pluralism in religion and progress in sexual equality were only harbingers of the changes to come in the twentieth century.

The Black Community in Poughkee psie in the Twentieth Century: A Capsule Summary

The history of the black community in Poughkeepsie until the mid-twentieth century was affected by two major demographic events: the waves of black migrations from the South to northern and western states, and the move of the International Business Machines Corporation to the Mid-Hudson area in the 1940s. Both events radically altered the character of the black community and the 86

Caius Charles Bolin, Sr. 1865-1946 First black graduate of Williams College in 1889.

In 1945 he was elected president of the Dutchess County Bar Association.

Photograph courtesy of Williams College

Smith Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church (Oldest Black Church in Poughkeepsie) Founded in 1837, it was first named the Catherine Street A.M.E. Zion Church in 1840.

Photograph courtesy of collection of C.B. Magill 87

Bessie Harden Payne Born Januan; 16, 1895 Community activist and volunteer in numerous human services agencies. Elected presi­ dent of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, Inc. Photograph courtesy of Pou ghkeepsie Jo11mal

88

city of Poughkeepsie. They led to a gradual increase in the size of the black popu­ lation from 500 in 1870 to 5,876 in 1970. They also changed the character of the leadership structure of the community from one dominated by long-time resi­ dents to a mixture of natives and newcomers. The demographic changes also meant a dramatic increase in the pluralism of black social organizations and insti­ tutions, especially among the churches. Most of these changes, however, occurred after World War II. In the early decades of the twentieth century, the leadership of the black com­ munity remained fairly stable, composed largely of natives or long time resi­ dents. The sons and daughters of leaders in the late nineteenth century took over. For example, Gaius Bolin, Sr., the only black attorney in Poughkeepsie, replaced his father Abraham as a leader in the community and the Zion church.

Mary Matilda Wood Harden and her daughter Bessie Mae Harden Payne were also community activists and members of the Ebenezer Baptist Church which Mrs. Payne's husband, the Rev. Herbert Payne served as pastor for a few years.

The few black professionals included Dr. Garrett A. H. Price, a physician and a leader in the Ebenezer Baptist Church in the early 1920s and Dr. Robert Wesley Morgan, a dentist who came to Poughkeepsie about 1932 and was active in the Smith Street A.M.E. Zion Church. This small elite group of leaders of the black community also included the pastors of the A.M.E. Zion and Ebenezer Baptist churches, particularly those who resided in Poughkeepsie for 10 years or more.

Pastors who were very active in the pre-World War 11 period included: the Reverends Charles S. Fairess, Thomas Jenkins of Ebenezer Baptist, and Charles Byrd who served several Baptist churches in the County; and the Reverends Thomas Judd and Arthur E. May of the A.M.E. Zion Church. 57 All of these com­ munity activists also comprised the leadership core of the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which was founded in 1931. 58 While the Southern states practiced official "de jure" segregation through Jim Crow laws, northern cities like Poughkeepsie condoned unofficial "de facto" segregation in many areas: in housing and places of residence, jobs, education, in public accommodations like restaurants, hotels, and lodging houses.

Although there were no blatant signs indicating "white" or "colored" as in the South, by social custom, tradition and practice everyone understood implicitly where the racial boundaries lay. On January 25, 1910 when the Rev. Dr. Booker T. Washington, the founder of Tuskegee Institute and the acknowledged national Negro leader, lectured on "The Negro Race" at the Vassar Institute, he could not stay overnight at the Nelson House or the Morgan House even if he wanted to.59 As a Baptist clergyman he probably was a guest at the home of the Rev. Fairess of Ebenezer Baptist. The same things happened to other famous black people who came to Poughkeepsie to perform. In the early 1920's Langston Hughes was an overnight guest of the Zion minister after reading his poetry.

Roland Hayes was refused accommodations at the Nelson House. Marian Anderson had to go to catch a train back to New York City while the crowd was still applauding her performance at the Bardavon Opera House.60 Ironically, blacks worked as waiters at both the Nelson and Morgan Houses but they could not stay there as guests. For example, John W. Harden, Bessie Payne's father, worked as head waiter at the Nelson House for thirty years.61 In 1913 Mrs. Mary Harden and her daughter Bessie gathered a group of 10 women to start the Poughkeepsie Neighborhood Club. 62 Mrs. Harden served as 89

President of the club until her death in 1948. The purpose of the club was to help women do civic work and to help uplift womanhood in general. It brought outstanding Negro speakers to Poughkeepsie for lectures. It also encouraged churches and community groups to observe Emancipation Day and Negro History Sunday. In 1917 the club sponsored its first Lincoln-Douglass dinner.

During the first week of every April, the club supported Negro Health Week. The Poughkeepsie Neighborhood Club became a member of the United Federation of Negro Women, which was organized by the famous educator and college presi­ dent Dr. Mary McCleod Bethune. The club also played an informal role in social change by encouraging black professionals like Dr. Price to relocate to Poughkeepsie. 63 Throughout the twentieth century there was a small but steady flow of migrants from the Caribbean Island nations, especially Jamaica. The migrants came in search of better employment and educational possibilities and to escape depressed economic conditions. For example, Dr. Robert Morgan was one of the early West Indian migrants who came for advanced educational opportunities.

Many other West Indians came to Poughkeepsie as a result of employment as migrant laborers in the apple orchards and farms fo the Mid-Hudson. After the 1950s Poughkeepsie developed a significant Jamaican sector in the black community.

From World War I into the 1920s Poughkeepsie and other cities along the Hudson River received an influx of Southern migrants, largely a spillover effect from the large numbers that headed for New York City and Harlem. Many of these early migrants came from nearby states like the Virginia Commonwealth and most of the post-World War II migrants came from Deep South states like the Carolinas, Georgia and Louisiana. The existence of these migrants put additional pressure on the small group of leaders to seek ways to open up the job market for Negroes in Poughkeepsie. Leaders like Mrs. Harden, Gaius Bolin, Sr., Dr. Morgan, Dr. Price, Miss Lucy Graves and clergy like the Rev. Arthur May began to work quietly behind the scenes, negotiating with the owners of factories and hospital administrators and doctors. Dr. Morgan had also organized a Colored Citizens Committee in the 1930s to investigate the abuses which Negroes suffered in housing. The employment scene for black workers began to improve gradually by the late 1930s and early 1940s when the factories and hospitals started hiring them. Hannah M. Johnson became the first black public health nurse in the Dutchess County Health Department in 1940 and Dorothy L. Edwards was the first black nurse hired at the Vassar Brothers Hospital in 1946. 64 With the growing numbers of black migrants to northern cities like Pough­ keepsie and with the bloody racial riots of the "Red Summer" of 1919 in cities across the country, the Ku Klux Klan also began to organize in the North and was active in the Mid-Hudson area in the 1920s and 1930s. On August 24, 1924 the Klan held a massive membership rally in the old Driving Park or Ruppert Park which was the site of the Dutchess County Fair from 1888 to 1929. An estimated 3,000 people were in attendance and hundreds more tried to get in without invi­ tations. After the meeting crosses were burned in the town of Milton. Other activities included parades in full regalia, attempts to influence local elections and "charitable visits" to Black churches as part of their campaign of intimida­ tion. In 1925 Poughkeepsie Klan No. 237 visited a Negro church in the eastern part of the county. They entered the service in hooded robes, singing "Onward Christian Soldiers." Upon leaving they gave a $50 donation to the pastor.65 90

In spite of these attempts at intimidation and enormous racial discrimination in employment and in other areas of life, black people created and maintained institutions parallel to those in the larger white society. As the dominant black institutions, black churches had often functioned as community centers, audi­ toriums for large meetings, concert halls, art galleries, and schools. However, the growing complexity of urban society required a specialization of functions and a separation from specific religious requirements. In Poughkeepsie some key members of the Poughkeepsie Neighborhood Club along with the clergy and other community leaders were instrumental in founding the Catharine Street Community Center in 1922. The Center had begun earlier as the YWCA's North Side Branch for Negro Girls, which taught sewing skills and sponsored recrea­ tional activities. The YW had received the center property on Catharine Street as a gift of Dr. and Mrs. William Bancroft Hill. Mr. and Mrs. Albert Smith were the first directors of the community center in its first location at 69 Catharine Street.

In 1936 Miss Lucy Graves became the Center's Director and an influential com­ munity activist. In 1945 the Board of Management of the YWCA voted to deed the center over to the black community as an endorsement of the work of the Catharine Street agency. In that same year Dr. Morgan, President of the Catharine Street Board, and City Judge Corbally led to a $50,000 fund raising campaign to build a new and better equipped center.66 Another set of parallel institutions, which has a long and illustrious history in the black community, is comprised of the fraternal orders and lodges like the Masons and the Elks and their female counterparts such as the Daughters of the Eastern Star. The Mount Moriah Masonic Lodge existed in Poughkeepsie as early as 1855 and by 1876 it had 34 members when George P. West was the Worthy Master.67 However, the growth of the fraternal orders and lodges in Pough­ keepsie's black community did not occur until the post World War II period when the migrations resulted in a bewildering array of these organizations. 68 The black college fraternities and sororities also were another set of organiza­ tions created by the college-educated sector in the black community. As a result of the migrations, a number of these fraternities and sororities have been established in Poughkeepsie. 69 In addition to supplying a pool of volunteers for community human service activities, they have played a major role in giving col­ legiate scholarships to minority students and in emphasizing the need for achievement.

Colored baseball teams existed in the Queen City in the late nineteenth cen­ tury. In 1883 the Eagle reported on a game between Poughkeepsie's "colored baseball club" and a visiting colored team from Connecticut. 70 During the 1930s and 1940s the Imperials and the Mohawks of Poughkeepsie and the Millbrook Giants were colored baseball teams that competed against other ethnic teams in Dutchess County leagues. There was also an Imperial basketball team that challenged other teams from Albany to New York City from 1938 to 1946. Wilbur Thompson, father of Dutchess County legislator Sherwood Thompson,7 1 played for the Mohawks and was elected to the Dutchess County Baseball Hall of Fame.

One of the most well-known Negro athletes during this period was Robert S. Magill. Magill worked for the Post Office and played on and coached almost all of the colored teams in all of the major sports, including the semi-pro football team the Poughkeepsie All-Americans. Magill was also instrumental in forming the Poughkeepsie Net Club to promote Negro interest in tennis and his club spon­ sored a city tournament as well as played in the New York State Colored Tennis 91

Association. 72 Besides Magill, Morgan Reed, dubbed "Mr. Black Sports of Dutchess County," Ray Bradford and Pete Anthony also played for the colored teams and later were inducted into the Dutchess County Hall of Fame, Old Timers Baseball Association.

Another sporting event for which Dutchess County and Poughkeepsie earned considrable fame was in race horse breeding and trotter racing. The only mile long track in Dutchess County was located at the Hudson River Driving Park, which was also known as "Ruppert Park" from 1879 to 1923. 73 Among the black people who earned their livelihood from this sport were Wyatt Jones, a horse owner, and Vincent "Skinny" Jackson, a local Poughkeepsie jockey.74 The religious character of the black community continued to change during the twentieth century. By the end of World War II, the earlier dominance of the Zion Methodists in the Mid-Hudson was ended by the rapid growth of black Baptist churches, which still constitute the largest black denominations in the United States. The Holiness-Pentecostal movement, which developed out of Methodism in the late nineteenth century, also stressed an emotionalism that appealed to many black migrants, particularly during the Depression and post war years.

Father Divine's Peace Mission movement, which attracted many Holiness followers, mushroomed in New York City with spillover effects in the Mid­ Hudson. Divine had a vacation mansion at Krum Elbow near President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's estate in Hyde Park and seven "heavens" or communal farms in Ulster County. There is evidence that in 1934 about 150 local residents attempted to begin a Peace Mission in the former building of the Poughkeepsie Bicycle Club at 176 Mansion Street.75 Apparently, that effort failed since there is no listing of the church or other evidence of the influence of Father Divine's movement in Poughkeepsie.

In 1934 the Rev. Eustace McMurrine started a black Pentecostal church on Tulip Street, and in 1936 he established the United Pentecostal Church, a church of children. 76 After the death of her husband, the Rev. Marie McMurrine Watter­ son established more permanent quarters by founding the Church of the Living God United in 1943. Black members of the Seventh Day Adventists faith also attracted a core following that was large enough to establish Trinity Temple and the predominantly black Victory Lake Nursing Home in Hyde Park. In the early 1970s the Nation of Islam, a militant black nationalist group, had a small follow­ ing in Poughkeepsie. Later the group changed to orthodox Sunni Islam and established a Muslim masjid or place of prayer in the city in 1976. Chart 1 gives an overview of the religous pluralism that developed among black churches and religious groups in Dutchess County.

92

CHART 1 Black Religious Groups of Dutchess County Founding Minister

Church or Group

Date Organized

Smith Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Poughkeepsie St. James A.M.E. Zion Beacon (formerly Fishkill Landing) Ebenezer Baptist Church Poughkeepsie Star of Bethlehem Beacon Mt. Zion Baptist Church Green Haven Central Baptist Church Salt Point Beulah Baptist Church Wappingers Falls Beulah Baptist Church Poughkeepsie Second Baptist Church Poughkeepsie Springfield Baptist Church Beacon Church of the Living God United Poughkeepsie Holy Light Pentecostal Poughkeepsie Green Chapel Overcoming Church of God Poughkeepsie Faith Temple Church of God in Christ, Beacon Bethel Missionary Baptist Church Wappingers Falls Bethel Church of God in Christ Poughkeepsie St. Mark A.M.E. Zion Poughkeepsie Trinity Temple Seventh Day Adventist, Poughkeepsie Masjid Ut Mutakabbir Poughkeepsie Mount Olivet Fire Baptized Holiness Church, Poughkeepsie

1837

The Rev. Jacob Thomas (?)

1844

The Rev. Joseph Pascal Thompson (?)

1891

The Rev. Charles Fairess

1900

The Rev. Barnum

1902

The Rev. Brown

1919

The Rev. F. H. Wiggins

1928

The Rev. Williams

Sept. 12, 1933

The Rev. J. H. Wright

July 19, 1946

The Rev. Thomas Jenkins

1946

The Rev. Mattie Cooper

1943 1952

The Rev. Marie McMurrine Watterson Bishop Mack McClinton

1960

Elder A. Green

1961

The Rev. James E. Hunt

1966

The Rev. Oarence Carson

1966

The Rev. James E. Hunt

Dec. 8, 1971

The Rev. Ralph McGhee

93

1964

The Rev. Judge A. Brummel

1976

Imam Sabir Alaji

1980

The Rev. Magdalene Patterson

If the Great Depression was difficult for whites, it had a devastating impact in the black community. The discovery by Eleanor Roosevelt of the extremely depressing and squalid conditions of hundreds of impoverished black families living near the brickyards at Brockway and Dutchess Junction became a catalyst for social welfare programs under the national recovery acts sponsored by FDR. n Oral history interviews with local black residents indicated that there was extreme impoverishment. Hunger was the word which summarized their experi­ ences. A number of volunteer relief agencies sprang into existence in the city.

The federal government sponsored WPA projects and work corps to help ease the massive unemployment. The Rev. Herbert Payne, a former pastor of Ebenezer Church, became an administator for WPA projects in New York State.78 After the Depression years, Mrs. Bessie Payne became the first principal of the Little Red School House, a forerunner of the Rehabilitation Programs, Inc. The United States did not fully recover from the Depression until the world war in Europe and the Pacific. The social conditions of the 194-0s set into motion even larger waves of migrations of black people from the South and paved the way for the emergence of the Civil Rights movement from 1954 to 1968. During World War II more than 200 black men from Dutchess County entered the military services. Walter Patrice, a graduate of Poughkeepsie High School who attended Howard University, became the first black Poughkeepsian to be com­ missioned an officer, first lieutenant in the U.S. Army, and the Rev. Charles Byrd served as a military chaplain of the Air Force with the rank of lieutenant colonel. In October 1941, the Women's Service Club of the Catharine Street Center was organized and it published a monthly magazine called "The Patriot," which contained excerpts of letters and news about the men serving in different countries. Headed by Mrs. Robert Morgan as President, the club also sent Christmas gifts and other gifts during slack periods to keep the morale of the men up. It also sponsored talks at the center by returning servicemen. 79 Although there were glimmers of hope for black people in the 1940s, most of American society remained closed to them and that condition was reflected in Poughkeepsie.

In a bold and prophetic address to the annual American Brotherhood dinner, sponsored by the city in 1944, the guest of honor and principal speaker, Judge Jane Bolin Mizelle, the daughter of Gaius Bolin, Sr. and the first black woman judge in the United States, eloquently summarized the situation for Negroes in the city. She charged that there were no Negroes on the staffs of the District Attorney's Office, on the City Council, in the Fire and Police Departments, or in the local hospitals as doctors and nurses. There were also no Negroes as teachers in the schools or as skilled workers in the industrial plants. Even the local YMCA and YWCA engaged in the racial hypocrisy by not allowing Negroes as members and thus "degrade the word Christian." She asked plaintively: . . . America, which has reached its present stature only by the contributions of its various minority groups, can it afford not to utilize the abilities and aptitudes of these citizens? Can America stand the human waste? . . . You forward-thinking people have not only the opportunity but the duty to begin immediately to break down the traditions of this city and to begin the practice of democratic principles. 80 Judge Jane Bolin also pointed to the need to revise the textbooks used in schools because they neglected the contributions of minorities. Having left the comforts of her father's home 12 years ago in order to fulfill her aspirations, she said that 94

declarations of "brotherhood" were pointless until the city of Poughkeepsie ended its intolerance and racial discrimination. 81 In 1941 Thomas Watson, Sr. began the expansion of his company's operation from Endicott, New York to the Mid-Hudson region when an International Business Machine subsidiary, the Munitions Manufacturing Company bought 215 acres along the River. Then, IBM gradually purchased more property until Watson relocated his research and engineering laboratories to Kenyon House in 1944. 82 These early moves into the Mid-Hudson signaled the growth of the com­ pany into a national and multi-national corporation. However, it was not until the early to rnid-1950s that the first professional blacks were hired by the corpora­ tion. 83 In 1952 Harry Cochrane was the first black professional hired ·at the Poughkeepsie facility; some other early blacks hired during this period include: Calvin Waite, William Crawford, Fleming Alexander, Clifton Kearney, Harry Wilkinson, Columbus Stanley, Victor Morris and John Cooper. 84 The vast major­ ity of black professionals were recruited to IBM after 1963. The arrival of the black IBMers became a significant factor in the history and development of the local black community. They came with a sense of optimism, vigor, college education, skills, and most important, a political savvy that had been honed in the heartland of Jim Crow segregation. Their fresh insights and energy were important to the local community. Together with the local black leaders, they helped to challenge and to change the closed society of Poughkeepsie.

The expeiences of these first black IBMers confirmed the insights of Judge Bolin's brotherhood speech. They found a "rigid residential segregation" in Dutchess County and they saw a city that was completely circumscribed by a suburban town with all of the blacks "trapped in decaying census tracts in the city."85 Housing became a major issue for the early IBMers because all of them were denied the opportunities to live where they wanted to because of their skin color. Even the Housing Office of their giant corporation could not help them and only continued to hand out lists of houses which would not rent or sell to black people. IBM's Welcome Wagon, which was set up to meet and help employees in the process of relocating, only met with white families. So the first black IBMers developed their own informal version of the welcome wagon and their own housing lists to help those who came later.86 Furthermore, they found a public school system that had no Negro teachers. That confounded many of them because even in the de jure segregation of the South, they themselves had grown up with Negro teachers as role models in the public schools and even in college. Except for a few places, they also found that there were no black clerks and no black workers in the small grocery stores, nor in the larger stores on Main Street like Woolworth, Kresge, and Luckey Platt.

The Civil Rights Watershed

The 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. The Board of Education was the unofficial start of the Civil Rights era because it provided the legal legitimation for all of the tumultuous events and activities that followed.

The cracks in Poughkeepsie's silent wall of segregation began to appear gradually. On August 3, 1946 members of the Poughkeepsie Chapter of the United Negro and Allied Veterans of America sponsored a memorial rally at Mansion Square Park to protest the lynching of four Negro citizens in Monroe, Georgia.87 In 1947 Robert Vaughn became the first black to be hired by the Fire Department and by the time of his retirement in 1974 he had become the first 95

black captain in the Fire Department. In 1977 Vaughn was the first black appointed to the Dutchess County Legislature, 12th District, and later he became the first black Dutchess County Deputy Coordinator. In 1957 Mrs. Thelma Morris was the first black teacher appointed by the City of Poughkeepsie School District since the integration of the schools in 1874. 88 Mrs. Dorothy Stanley was a substitute teacher in 1956 and later she became the first black administrator of the school system.89 In 1957 Mrs. Eleanor Benjamin began her courageous volunteer work with the migrant farm workers in the Mid-Hudson region. For thirteen years she served on the Dutchess County Migrant Council.9° In spite of these first breakthroughs, the city did not experience the impact of the Civil Rights movement until the decade of the 1960s.

Housing became the issue that first rallied the Civil Rights forces in the city. A bi-racial committee started by black and white religious groups in Poughkeepsie and some individual citizens began the major push for State legislation to ban discrimination in housing. They succeeded with a Fair Housing Bill of 1961 which opened about 15 percent of the market and again in 1963 with a bill that opened the other 85 percent. Except in isolated instances prior to the 1960s, the majority of blacks experienced considerable racial discrimination in finding adequate housing. It was not until after 1963 that middle class blacks could freely move to suburbia in Dutchess County. 91 The next target became employment, especially to get the grocery and depart­ ment stores to hire black clerks and workers. Led by the Northern Dutchess Chapter of the NAACP and their president Wiley Jackson in the mid-1960s, a variety of demonstrations and pickets occurred at stores like Woolworth's. A few Vassar College students joined in the demonstrations. Mrs. Earline Patrice, a long time community activist, recalled warning her friends and neighbors not to cross the picket lines.92 Activist black clergy during this period included the Rev. Belvie Jackson of the Zion Church, and the Rev. Robert Dixon of the Central Baptist Church, who ran for mayor unsuccessfully. In 1963 the Rev. Jackson, Cecelia Magill and Rupert Tarver were appointed to serve on Poughkeepsie's first Human Rights Commission.

The public schools, however, still remained a major problem because racial tensions rose with the growing influx of black migrants, especially among the lower income families who were attracted by the County's economic prosperity.

In 1940 Dutchess County's nonwhite population was 3.6 percent and in 1960 it grew to 5.8 percent. Of the 9,917 Negroes in the County in 1960, the city of Poughkeepsie had the largest number, 3,601. 93 In the two decades after 1960, Poughkeepsie's black population more than doubled to 7,606 or 25.6 percent of all citizens in 1980. With this significant growth in the black population, some of the city's white residents reacted as they have in other parts of the nation with a flight to suburbia. 94 The growing number of minority students was an important factor which contributed to the creation of a separate, predominantly white Spackenkill High School in 1970.95 Prior to that time Spackenkill students attended Poughkeepsie High School. In 1964 Mrs. Marie Tarver, a native of Louisiana, was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Board of Education. She not only became the first black on the Board but in 1965 she was elected to it, the first to win a public election, and later also the first to become the Board's president.

In 1966 Lorraine Roberts became the first black teacher to chair an academic department in the Poughkeepsie City School District and in 1982 Mr. James Clarke, Jr. became the first black Superintendent of Schools for the same school 96

district.

In 1965 Dutchess County's first Human Rights Council was formed with Victor Morris as its chairman. Morris was also instrumental in becoming the editor and publisher of the first two black newspapers in the Hudson Valley. In 1957-1959 he started the first paper, the Antler Digest and between the years 1969 and 1979 he edited the Mid-Hudson Herald. 96 Following the Newark and Detroit riots in July 1967 Poughkeepsie also experi­ enced several days of disturbances from July 28 to July 30. Fed by rumors, bands of mostly black teenagers roamed the streets breaking store windows on Main Street. Members of the black clergy and other community leaders like Ruppert Tarver, Harold Anderson and Morris mediated with the youths to help stem the spread of trouble. 97 The activism of the 1960s also led to the creation of numerous community organizations and self-help groups. During President Johnson's War on Poverty, Ruppert Tarver became the executive director of the Neighborhood Services Organization, while his wife Marie directed Poughkeepsie's Model Cities Agency.98 Harold Anderson was the director of the Poughkeepsie Opportunity Center of the Dutchess County Committee for Economic Opportunity. Mrs. Ethel Vaughn was the only woman and the first black person appointed to the Poughkeepsie Urban Renewal Agency Board in 1965. The Lower Main Street Association was formed in 1967 after the July disturbances under the leadership of Wiley Jackson and Earline Patrice. 99 The Hudson Valley Opportunities Indus­ trialization Center was organized in 1968 with Edward Johnson as its executive director. The Cultural Progress Oub was organized by Mrs. Robert Dixon in 1968. Other cultural breakthroughs were achieved by Vivian Gaines Tanner, Carol Crawford, William Duke, Jr. and Myra Morris. 10° For a period of time in the late 1960s and early 1970s there existed a coalition of groups for political purposes, the United Black Council Executive Committee. 101 The 28th Congressional District Division of the New York State Voters League Association supported black candidates for mayor and other municipal offices. In the mid-1970s the black community achieved a significant breakthrough in the previously closed society when Stewart Bowles became the first black Chief of Police of the City of Poughkeepsie. Also in the 1970s, the Jamaican Concerned Citizens was formed by Clement Parkinson, Wiley Jackson and Earline Patrice to address the issues and concerns of Jamaicans and other West Indians in Poughkeepsie. Other community activists from Jamaica included Winston Bailey, who served on the Board of Education, and Rodney Douglas, who created the first black repertoire and acting company in the Mid-Hudson. Jeh V. Johnson was the first black architect in Poughkeepsie with design credits that in­ cluded: the Dutchess County Mental Health Building (1969); St. Simeon (1970); Interfaith Towers (1973); Tubman Terrace (1974); Catharine Street Center (1979).

There were numerous other "first" breakthroughs that cannot be mentioned completely in this text.102 Conclusion An overview of 300 years of black history in the Mid-Hudson, Dutchess County, and the city of Poughkeepsie reveals not only the strugggles and accom­ plishments of black people from slavery to freedom, but it also acts as a mirror that refracts the strengths and weaknesses of the larger society. Racism remains America's great unsolved problem. W.E.B. DuBois once said that "the problem 97

of the twentieth century is the color-line." 103 Foreign observers like Alexis DeTocqueville in the nineteenth century and Gunnar Myrdal in the twentieth have also puzzled over this "American dilemma" of having the highest democratic ideals but of failing to put them into practice. The authors of this arti­ cle can only concur with these observations and urge greater efforts on the part of all Americans in the continuing struggle to resolve this dilemma.

98

SLAVEHOLDING ON LIVINGSTON MANOR AND CLERMONT, 1686-1800 Roberta Singer • A concise history of slavery in colonial New York precedes a discussion of the slave's place in the labor force� his living conditions and the degree of freedom permitted him. Roberta Singer� librarian at Mt. St. Mary's College� is a local historian.

Many people are surprised to learn that slavery was prac­ ticed in colonial New York and in New York after it became a state until the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Many history l:xx:>ks pass over the subject in silence or give it short shrift.

This "peculiar institution" was not peculiar to the

South, however.

It occurred in all of the original colonies

and persisted in the North for a time after independence, espe­ cially in New York and New Jersey.

Consider these examples, none of which would have been exceptional to our colonial ancestors: 1.) In 1735 John Van Zandt of New York City was prosecuted for lashing his slave to death.

The Coroner's Jury decided

that the slave's demise was an act of God and therefore acquitted him.

2.) In the 1740s a Negro slave was convicted of arson and burned at the stake in Red Hook.

3.) In 1748 the following notice was placed in the New-York Post-Boy: "Run away from John Pell of the Manor of Pelham, a Negro wench named Bell, a Boy named Janneau, a Girl named Tamer, another named Dinah, and another named Isabel; also a Negro man named Lewis."

4.) In 1762 Chancellor Livingston's grandfather compiled a "shopping list" of items he wanted his agent to procure for him in New York City.

The list included wine, coarse salt, tea, and

sundry other things including "2 Negro young men from 16 to 20 years not above JL60 a head ... " 99

100

Roberta Singer 5.) In 1773 Johannes D. Schertz of Livingston Manor made the following bequest in his will: "I leave to IT¥ wife Anna three horses and two Negroes."

Slavery flourished in both urban and rural parts of colo­ nial New York.

In 1790 there were, in the suplX)sedly free and

independent State of New York approximately 21,000 black slaves.

Slaveowners were from all social classes except the destitute. .M:>st masters were quite ordinary middle-class folk: farmers, craftsmen, clerks, and shopkeepers. As for the bondsmen, they were considered a species of property.

They were a cornrrodity

that could be bought and sold, used to settle debts, and bequeathed to heirs. When they expressed displeasure about their enslavement, the law regarded slaves as dangerous crim­ inals.

Sometimes draconian punishments were inflicted on them

to frighten them into submission. Witches were not burned at the stake in colonial Massachusetts but rebellious Negroes were burned at the stake in co;I.onial New York.

Most studies of slavery in New York focus on the New York City area. Relatively little has been written about slavery in the rural regions. and Cle:mont.

This paper concentrates on Livingston Manor

These large estates, part of which were in

Dutchess County before 1 71 7 , cover an area nCM the southern third of present-day Columbia County. Before describing the slaveholding practices of the Livingston-family and the people who rented land f:rorn them, it will be necessary to briefly explain how slavery arose in New York in the first place and to describe the foirnS it took.

Background and Foreground.

The Dutch, who founded the colony, were largely a corrmer­ cial :i;:ower , _ nore interested in obtaining desirable corrm:xlities such as beaver pelts than in settling families. Even so they needed a work force to suplX)rt the small lX)pulation of traders and merchants.

Since nost of the settlers came to join in this 101

Slaveholding 1686-1800 great enterprise, a severe labor shortage resulted.

'Ihe Dutch

were during that period heavily involved in the slave trade and so, a ready solution was at hand.

'Ihe first slaves in New Netherland arrived in 1626 under the aegis of the Dutch West India Company, whose property they were.

'Ihey worked on fanns owned by the Company and on such

public works as roads and forts. out to settlers.

'Ihe company also rented slaves

'Ihe lot of a Company slave is often described

as "mild" because of the semi-emancipation system instituted in the 1640s.

A slave could be freed after a lengthy period of

service provided he agreed to pay an annual tribute in grain and livestock.

'Ihe number of individuals affected was small. More­

over, their offspring were still considered to be slaves.

'!his

''mild" system of slavery was the basis of an entrenched system of racially-based bondage.

'Ihe white populace became accustomed

to being a master class.

During the last years of Dutch rule, slave ownership was opened to the ordinary settler.

'Ihe Company directors reasoned

that trading in slaves would be profitable and that making them rrore widely available wouid be a boon to settlement (a matter of belated concern) .

Slaves were sold at public auctions.

Tenns

were made easy so people of rrodest means could afford them.

After the English conquest, the legality of slavery was upheld and the practice grew.

'Ihough the English were far rrore

interested in settling families than the Dutch, the f.X)pulation did not grow as rapidly as the authorities had hoped.

Sluggish

population growth was the rule in the English colonies but the situation was especially severe for New York.

Prospective

settlers found much of the land tied up by large landowners and opted to buy cheap land outright elsewhere. the frontier between two rival empires.

Also, New York was

Periodic warfare broke

out and the prospect of all-out invasion by the French and their Indian allies discouraged settlement in the upper Hudson and MJhawk Valleys.

Settlement increased in the frontier regions 102

Roberta Singer after the French and Indian War concluded in 1763.

Similar reasons probably contributed to the relatively sparse number of indentured servants in New York.

Thus New

Yorkers became rrore dependent on slave labo� than settlers in other Northern colonies.

The concentration of ·slaves in the

colony reached a peak of 15% in 1723.

In sane areas, notably

New York City and its environs, the number of slaves reached as high as 25%.

Most of the slaves were put to work on fanns. The cultiva­ tion of cereal crops and the raising of livestock were the chief agricultural activities in New York.

Neither requires a con­

stant contingent of large numbers of laborers.

While farmers

relied on family labor there were some important occasions, notably harvest-time, when they found themselves short of help.

Hired hands were few and commanded a high wage.

Therefore, the

purchase of a slave or two was a worthwhile investment for a fanner even of rroderate means.

Contrary io some accounts,

Negroes were able to adapt to the climate and were kept busy much of the tirne, especially if the family practiced a craft.

Undoubtedly there were periods of unproductive idleness during the winter rronths but on the whole the slaves were considered a profitable comrrodity.

On large estates laborers were needed to tend the home fanns and assist in rural industries such as the milling of grain. Where the proprietors engaged in corrmerce, men were needed to transport goods. of domestics.

Their large houses required staffs

A New York man of substance might have ten to

twenty slaves to fulfill these labor needs. This was consid­ ered a ver:y large holding by northern standards. By way of contrast some large southern plantation owners possessed more than one hundred slaves.

In New York, slaver:y was especially pervasive in urban areas.

Urban slaver:y was rrore info:r:mal than rural slaver:y.

They had rrore personal autonorqy, rrore unsupervised free time, 103

Slaveholding 1686-1800 and a greater opp:,rtunity to socialize with one another, with free blacks, and with lower-class whites.

Urban slaves also

had some economic independence.

'!hey cultivated gardens and

sold the produce to the public.

'!hey sometimes rented thern­

selves to persons in need of extra help.

In these instances the

slave was able to keep part of the rental fee.

In rural areas

supervision tended to be closer and the slaves' social contacts were rrore lirnited.

Supervision was not total, however, for

slaves were often trusted to run errands alone.

On such occa­

sions the slaves did have some chance to meet other slaves in the conmunity.

An elite family like the Livingstons was famil­

iar with both realms since they had residences and business enterprises in both city and country.

Everywhere slavecy was practiced, some means of social control was necessary. drawn up.

In a society of laws a "slave code" was

New York's slave code had much in cormon with similar

legislation elsewhere.

Many of the regulations restricted the

personal autonorrw- of slaves in the towns.

Trading with slaves,

selling them liquor, allowing them to go about in groups of three or rrore without supervision were all against the law.

In

practice these laws were not enforced except sp:,radically, dur­ ing times of dire emergency.

Enforcement was impossible with­

out the cooperation of the white populace. 'Ihe masters found it profitable to trade with slaves. '!here were too many taverns to regulate.

Above all, the master class preferred not to devote

their time to manning slave patrols.

Other aspects of the slave code covered punishment of slaves convicted of crimes. publicly whipped. bondsmen corrunitted.

Slaves, like other offenders, were

Masters were held liable for crimes their If a slave was convicted of a capital

offense, such as murder or arson, he stood to be executed, fre­ quently in barbaric fashion. the owners.

'Ihe law provided for compensating

Masters were given legal sanction to use corporal

punishment on their slaves but they were not to maim or kill 104

Roberta Singer them.

In spite of this, obtaining convictions of excessively

brutal masters was difficult.

Throughout the English colonial period, owners of slaves were not encouraged to set them free. A master had to post a hefty security bond of 1,200 for each manumitted slave.

It was

widely believed that free blacks were a subversive, idle, and lawless element.

Prior to the Revolution manumissions were

rare.

New Yorkers like other Americans had ambivalent feelings al:x::mt slave:r:y. While outright opposition was rare and limited to certain despised religious groups (notably the Quakers), some people felt slave:r:y was a deterrent to the growth of the free white population.

The lal:x::>ring classes hated the unfair

cornpetition of an unpaid, unfree workforce.

On �e other hand,

they believed if the slaves were liberated, free blacks would work for a laver wage. Virtually eve:r:yone lived in· fear of slave uprisings. condition.

It was no secret that slaves resented their

Running away was the rrnst popular fo:rm of rebellion

but on occasion slaves nrurdered or assaulted their masters or burned and damaged their masters I property. There was in New York City a genuine slave conspiracy which took the lives of several whites in 1-712. In 17 41 there was a great hysteria when the activities of an interracial ring of thieves was believed to be a grand plot conceived by slaves to burn New York City. Many innocent slaves were executed or deported to the Indies.

Attitudes began to change with the coming of the Revolu­ tion.

Some of the leaders of the Revolution in New York and

elsewhere became painfully aware of the great contradiction between fighting for liberty and keeping black people in bond­ age. Such ab:::>litional thinking was controversial. At no time was there a mass rrovernent to free the slaves. Slave:r:y remained profitable to rrost of those who practiced it. Slaveholders were quick to clarror for their "property rights." Advocates of emancipation succeeded in legislating a system of gradual eman105

Slaveholding 1686-1800 cipation which corrpensated slaveholders by pennitting them the use of their slaves until age 25 for females and 28 for males.

In 1817 a law was passed declaring slavery illegal and ordering all slaves born before July 4, 1799 to be freed by July 4, 1827.

Slavery and the Rise of Livingston Manor.

The early history of Livingston Ma.nor is shrouded in ter:y.

Iey'S­

Litile in the way of documentary evidence from the first

twenty or so years has survived. Existing evidence does suggest efforts were made to develop and settle the vast tract of land.

If a lease from 1687 was typical of the teilI!S offered, it appears the chief agricultural activity during the early period was raising livestock.

The tenant's compensation was a p:)rtion

of the increase in the herds of cattle and sheep he raised.

As

part of the deal, the landlord, Robert Livingston, provided his tenant with "a strong young Negro of 14-15 years." The tenant was responsible for providing clothing for the slave.

Thus,

from the outset, additional labor was needed and the use of slave labor was the only solution.

It is not known how many

tenants there were during this early period.

It is not un­

reasonable to assume that there were several who found these teilI!S acceptable. Whatever progress the first lord of Liv­ ingston Manor had made in those days was probably lost during his exile after Leisler' s Rebellion.

Recovery came because he

was short of capital after that time.

The settlement of the Palatines did much to reverse this dismal situation. The Palatines themselves were a source of labor, especially skilled labor.

Slaves were still needed to

assist in the construction and maintenance of such facilities as the mills and darns, the bakehouse, and the brewery. home fann was started around this time.

Also a

Slaves were put to

work clearing land, planting and harvesting crops, etc.

A much

clearer picture of how the Manor functioned from 1710 to 1726 exists in the extensive corresp:)ndence between the first Robert Livingston and his wife Alida.

Alida was resp:)nsible for the

106

Roberta Singer day-to-day management of the estate while her husband was in New York. Her letters touch up::m many matters great and small including "servant problems."

Growing grain gained in irrportance over raising livestock.

As a result tenants were rrore willing to settle pennanently and raise families. Slaves were no longer provided to them. It was assumed they were able to provide their own labor needs.

Indeed, some of them were able to buy slaves. Robert shipped slaves to the Manor from New York, both to work on the estate under his wife's supervision and, on occasion, to sell to the fanners.

'Ihe task of supervising the slaves was initially over­ whelming to Alida. She lamented, in a letter to her husband on November 9, 1711, "It is too much for me to oversee so many Negroes." All indications are that she carried out this resp::,nsibility as effectively as anyone could under the circum­ stances. She dutifully rep::>rted to her husband any difficul­ ties which arose. Praise for a slave's good behavior is absent in the corresp::>ndence. Good behavior was expected.

If all

went well, she sirrply rep::>rted that a given task was being done: "We have sown 90 bushel of wheat, 8 bushel of rye."

''We

are now driving the hay out...and [are] busy repairing the floor in the bani as well as we can."

(Alida to Robert, September 26,

1711, and July 7, 1721). On the other. hand, problems were described in some detail: I am having trouble enough here with our people. Tom does not do anything and is fat and greasy.... I am afraid he will do something evil like setting something on fire� so I-wn sending him to be sold or to be sent away� for he is not working and refuses to look after anything. (Alida to Robert, November 5, 1720) Our Joe has been out of order so badly for 6 days that we had enough trouble with him. And he had been carried out of the forest purely mad.... And I gave him a vomit drink and made him bleed and then 107

Slaveholding 1686-1800 sweat so that he is now coming to his senses somewhat. (Alida t� Robert, June 13, 1722) Alida apparently had no difficulty feeding and clothing the slaves.

However, providing shoes presented problems, for

the services of a shoemaker were hard to come by.

Complaining

"our people" go barefoot, Alida requested Robert send the shoes he no longer wore.

Since several drafts of Robert Livingston's will are extant, it is possible to estimate how many slaves he owned at this time.

Slaves are listed by name, both those "now at ye

manor house" and those kept at his New York City residence.

There were ten to twelve slaves, nearly all adult males, at the Manor.

M::>st of the additional eight to ten "city slaves" were

women and young children.

None of the women who were sent to

work in the manor house worked out successfully.

Though slaves

were readily available, it was not always possible to obtain an individual with certain desired characteristics.

Evidently it

was hard to find a woman who could speak Dutch, do housework passably well, adjust to_the rigors of life in the wilderness, and, one might add, get along with the Lady of the Manor.

In Robert's will the aforementioned Joe is referred to as "Joe ye miller," the only slave to have an occupational epithet.

'When Joe is first mentioned in the letters, he is the object of Robert's wrath because the flour he made was too coarse.

In

tune such complaints ceased. Joe's bad perfonnance may have been due to inexperience rather than incompetence or deliberate sabotage. Eventually he mastered milling well enough to be entrusted with the responsibility of being in full charge of the gristmill.

There are three interesting incidents from the time of Robert and Alida that deserve to be presented in some detail.

The first concerns two slaves that ran away from the Manor in the fall of 1711.

At first Robert was optimistic that they

would return owing to the impending arrival of cold weather.

108

Roberta Singer Apparently Indians friendly to the French ultimately conveyed them safely to canada.

Robert was detennined to get them back.

He tried unsuccessfully to send other Indians to catch them.

In April of 1713 he had the governor write to the "Governor of canada" to plead for the return of his property�

In the fall

of 1713 his son Philip was able to get a pass to canada. While there he made inquiry about the runaway slaves and was even able to speak with them.

The results were dismal for his parents:

"[I] could not manage to get our Negroes to consent to go home.

They said they wanted to stay there [i.e., in Canada] and as long as they say that there is no means to get them from there but to have them abducted by Indians which will cost quite a bit for the Indians are quite afraid of the French."

Livingston to Alida, October 28, 1713)

(Philip

Interestingly theFrench

authorities allowed the slaves to decide their awn fate. desire to remain free men in canada was honored.

Their

It was not uncornrron for slaves to run away even if it meant the risk of fleeing through a wilderness toward an uncertain destination. The English authorities tried to deter slaves from running to canada for security reasons and .imp)sed the death penalty on any who were caught. Such legislation had little, if any impact.

Clearly, Robert was not about to surrender his

slaves to the gallows had he succeeded in getting them back.

The second incident concerned a ID:?re drastic expression of disaffection. In the winter of 1714/15, a slave belonging to Johannes Dykeman, a tenant of the Manor, made an atte:rrpt on his master's life. He was quickly apprehended. Despite this, Robert was fearful that there was nore to this incident and was anxious to learn if 'Ibm, the guilty party, had been in contact with his own slaves. A record of the interrogation of 'Ibm survives. It reads as follows: Leeendert Conyn� Constable� maketh the oath upon the holy Evangelists that being sent for by Mr. Livingston the 23rd day of January when Joh Dykeman's Negro was taken up and apprehended at 109

Slaveholding 1686-1800 his house� Mr. Livingston ask'd the Negro after he had confessed the fact whether his Negro Ben or any other of h{s Negros were privy to this barbarous murder� but J�hannes Dykeman's Negro made an answer that Ben nor any other of Mr. Livingston's Negros knew nothing of his design of killing his Master nor any other Person but that he had done it alone� that Ben had never said anything but that he was sorry his Master had sent his daughter to Mr. Vetch [Robert's son-in-law] And upon his tryall Maj. Wessells asked the Male­ factor Tom whether Ben or any other Negro were Privy to the Murder which he had re­ mitted [i.e., attempted] but he said that he had done it alone & that no Negro knew of it & further saith not.

Ben was unhappy because he was separated from his daughter.

Masters often disregarded family ties in their disposition of their human property. The resultant heartbreak brought by such destruction of family life was one of the least tolerable aspects of enslavement. It is interesting to note no further mention of Ben is found in any of the surviving records. Robert may have sold him so as to be on the safe side.

It is possible

that Ben was conveyed to Mr. Vetch and thereby reunited with his daughter but, alas, the historical record is silent on this point.

There is a family legend surrounding the "awarding" of the portion of the Manor that was to become Clemont to Robert's son Robert, Jr. Supposedly it was his ravard for foiling an Indian plot. Another version of this tale exists with Negroes in place of Indians. There is good reason to doubt the veracity of either version but there is a kernel of truth in the latter.

Enslaved Negroes had good reason to be unhappy and the Liv­ ingstons, like all slave owners, had cause to be fearful, even if rrost of their bondsmen did not run away, cause mischief, or try to kill them. One act of violence could not be compla­ cently dismissed whilst fear of conspiracy was in the air.

110

Roberta Singer Finally, there is an incident concerning a slave named Dego.

Robert received a letter from his other son-in-law,

Cornelis Van Horne, warning Robert about a story circulating about this slave: I have also been creditably inf;rme4 that there is one Thomas Cardlo of Long Islcrnd whom lately arrived from London crnd has been gone for 15 or 16 years crnd since his retu:r>n positively says that he has good evidence to prove that your Negro mcrn Dego to be his own for when he went away he left him in hcrnds of Mr. Fauconer till his retu:r>n crnd meeting with eapt. Congrove in some part of Europe gave said Con­ grove cm order for said boy on Mr. Fau­ coner delivered said boy crnd took the Note� crnd said Congrove was to keep this Negro for said Car[d]lo till his retu:r>n� crnd said Congrove� not expect­ ing said Cardlo to retu:r>n or being in wcrnt of money sold said Negro to you. {Cornelis Van Horne to Robert Liv­ ingston, March 10, 1723/4) Van Horne warned that cardlo might t:ry to take Dego back by force.

Robert did not take the threat seriously.

no such attempt was ever made to abduct Dego.

In the end

'Ihe unfortunate

cardlo committed suicide in the debtor's prison.

What was the truth in this matter? Was Dego really secu­ rity on a debt that cardlo failed to pay or was he disposed of illegally by captain Congrove? It would seem that if Cardlo had any solid claim on the negro he would sue Robert in a court of law rather than make threats.

Even so, no one could be quite

sure what one was getting in a private sale.

'Ihe incident

points up the sordidness of the entire business of slavery.

Slave Ships and Iron. 'lb gather material on New York slaves, the historian is obliged to si-ft through letters and accounts in search of evi­ dence.

When the sources are lacking or contain large gaps, the

story of slavery lacks detail.

Unfortunately relatively little 111

Slave.holding 1686-1800 survives from the time of Philip Livingston, Second I..ord of the Manor, and the first of two proprietors of Clerrcont.

It is

known he was heavily involved in the slave trade.

Until the 1740s the chief source of slaves for New Yorkers was the West Indies, especially Jamaica.

The leading merchants

of the colony regarded dealing in slaves as a profitable side­ line.

Philip was one of the nost successful merchants.

He, in

partnership with his sons or with other merchants, was the third leading importer, bringing some 219 blacks from the Indies to New York.

The ships involved in these voyages were small craft

such as the sloops that were used in the Hudson River traffic.

The slaves had shared the available cargo space with other goods.

Sometimes only a handful of slaves were imported in this

fashion but on occasion fifty or nore would be brought in during the course of a voyage.

It is not clear whether this was a re­

flection of the supply or the demand.

In the 1740s New York

merchants greatly increased their trade with Africa. ingstons participated in this trade.

The Liv­

Philip invested in four

Africa-bound slavers.

In the course of his far-flung enterprises, Philip did not neglect the develoµnent of the Manor.

A notable addition to the

estate was the iron-works established at Ancram in the 1740s.

This project required a great deal of labor.

Aside from the

workers involved directly with the manufacture of pig iron, castings, and bars, men were also needed to dig ore, make char­ coal, and to transport both raw material and finished products to required destinations. M:Jst of the workers were hired hands, principally from Connecticut.

They were housed at Ancram

during the iron-making season.

In iron-works elsewhere in the colonies, slaves were a principle source of labor. the case at Ancram.

This does not appear to have been

Philip was a latecomer to this business.

His competitors had a vested interest in keeping skilled slaves and free workers off the labor market.

112

Furtherrrore, he had to

Roberta Singer expend capital on the physical plants, namely the furnace, refine:i:y, and other facilities. The business was risky as well as expensive. He lacked the capital to acquire and train a large contingent of slaves. Although he constantly berroaned the dubious quality of his free workers, who bargained well for wages, the expenditure and risk was far less than investing in an all-slave labor force. Another consideration was that some of the operations, especially the manufacture of charcoal, were dangerous, and it was imprudent to risk the lives and lllilbs of valuable slaves.

This does not mean that there were no slaves at Ancram.

Philip introduced some slave labor at the works, :rrost likely to reduce somewhat his dependence on his unreliable and inexperi­ enced free laborers.

"I think I shall in ye spring," Philip

wrote to his son Robert, "have occasion for Dane to help the blacksrnith.

I hope you can spare him then.

I must continue to

have a Negro to learn somewhat about ye Iron Works.

I have now

5 at Ancram and want 10 :rrore with a good overseer" (Philip to Robert, January 30, 1744/5). In a subsequent letter (May 15, 1745) he informed Robert that "I want to buy two Negro boys of 16 or 18 years to put to a smith of hammerrnan."

It appears

slaves played a secondary role at Ancram, although a fSN of them did become skilled ironworkers.

The fragmentary records from this period provide only a little information about individual slaves.

In a letter dated

May 15, 1745 there is a glimpse at an uncooperative slave named caesar. Philip wrote: "I send you � Negro Caesar. He has been troublesome and quarrelsome with our Negroes and discontented.

[He] wanted to be sold out of the country. He is a good work­ ing fellow and has learnt the cooper's trade but is surly and ill-hurrored. Sell him if you can for :rrost you be able. He is worth uµvards of JL50 - but if you cant sell him nor send him to Madera, put him on board of any vessel at what you can agree for per :rronth."

113

Slaveholding 1686-1800 Rerroving troublesome slaves by means of sale or renting them seems to have been the preferred way .in the Ll.vingston family. While one cannot entirely rule out the use of cor:poral punishment because no mention of it is made in the family let­ ters, it is probably safe to say ,. the Ll.vingston family did not b:y to break the wills of slaves such as caesar. However there is one rather drastic exception.

In an April 22, 1721 letter to

her husband, Alida reported her son Gilbert had beat a slave severely to punish him for running away. The slave "died out of doggedness" and Gilbert had "a lot of damage by it."

It is a

curious twist to blame the slave for his own demise by attrib­ uting it to his stubborness. Nonetheless, her tone is hardly approving of her son's action.

Returning to Caesar, he may very well have knCMn. the exact effect of his actions. How else could a slave legally change his situation except by making his presence unpleasant for all concerned and making explicit his desire to be sold?

In a

situation where outright brutality was absent, such a ploy stood a good chance of success. The slave reasoned a new master might be rrore tolerable. At any rate, despite his father's warnings, Robert seemed inclined to keep Caesar for himself. caesar may have found the less restrictive climate of New York City rrore congenial than that of the Manor and therefore ceased misbehaving.

Unfortunately there is no clue as to whether this

was a pennanent change for caesar or not, and there the matter must rest.

Slaves and Tenants.

Between 1750 and 1775 both Livingston Manor and Clemont enjoyed a great influx of settlers. On both estates fannland was rented to tenants for a stipulated quantity of wheat, four fowls, and a day or two of labor annually. At the Manor two days of labor was required while at Clemont, one day was asked.

In practice the system was quite flexible.

Tenants were per­

mitted to substitute one fonn of rent for another.

114

If they fell

Roberta Singer behind, they could make up any arrears by agreeing to work.

Tenants who were skilled craftsmen sometimes paid their entire rent in labor. For example, a shoemaker named Jacob Saltoox agreed to pay LS cash annually for his ten acre Clenront fann.

Because he was unable to raise the necessary cash, he was allowed to pay in shoes.

Tenant labor grew in importance during this period. The traditional assignment was "riding," the transport of lumber or other iterns in a cart supplied by the tenant. Since Robert, the third lord of the Manor, having expanded the iron-works and number of furnaces and forges, expected his tenants to fulfill their labor obligations by transporting pig iron, carting hearthstones, sawing wood, etc. Those indebted to the manor store could pay by digging ore or by working at one of the gristmills.

At Clenront there were no iron-works but the grist and saw mills provided plenty of work. On one occasion Mathias C:ryslar was put to work "riding stones and timber" for a new mill.

Another time he was sent to Ancram to pick up a crari.k Chancel­ lor Livingston had ordered. Johannis Cooper made a partial pay­ ment of his back rent by working nine days at one of Clennont's mills...

However, the use of tenant labor did not diminish the need for slave labor. On both estates slaves continued to be em­ ployed as fann laborers on the proprietors' home fanns, as domestics in the mansions, occasionally as skilled craftsmen, and to fill in when other sources of labor were lacking or insufficient for a given job. A contingent of slaves always available made for a flexible work force. Although tenants were conscious of their dependent status, they did not serve the manor at the lord's whim as slaves were expected to do.

The teri..ants themselves found it worth their while to invest in slaves. At least a quarter of them were slaveholders, put­ ting their bondsmen to work as field hands, domestics and when 115

Slaveholding 1686-1800 needed slaves also ran errands.

For � time the daybook kept at the Manor Store in the 1770s recorded the items purchased, the

cost, the customer's name, and the person picking up the goods.

From this source is learned tenants sent out their slaves un­ supervised tD fetch a variety of purchases.

For example, Petrus

Shuts sent his Negro to pick up a quart of rum.

Jacob Petrie

asked his Negro to get a pound of ground ginger. beck sent his man out to get an empty hogshead.

Samuel Halen­ Casparus Kool

needed two pounds of nails and sent his slave to get them.

Abraham Shuts entrusted his slave with the task of picking up three combs, an almanac, and a knife.

On the roads ancestral

to today's county roads, one would have found anong the general traffic a number of slaves going hither and yon on such mis­ sions.

The slaves undoubtedly associated with one another,

although on the whole they were not as "free" as their urban counterparts.

When these estates became populated, some of the

isolated, frontier quality of the area diminished.

Glimpses of how the slaves' needs were met are scattered through the accounts of the Manor and Clemont in the invoices of tailors and shoemakers who made apparel and footwear for the slaves.

Both the Third lord and his Clemont cousins took pains

to provide their slaves with the best of medical care.

Both

engaged the services of Dr. William Wilson, who settled on Clemont sometime before 1785.

His records show that he was

kept busy bleeding, medicating, and operating on slaves and family members alike. The Third lord also dealt with a Lbctor Cooper of Rhinebeck. We have this account of the treatment given a slave named Jack: I last evening received yours of the 26th Inst. with a request to send Jack home if he was well or In a Mending wa:y. If you had not wrote I intended to hav[e] Sent him home in about eight Days. I send with him a Box of pills for him to take 3 Morn­ ing & evening and to Drink a Duoction of red-Elm Bark after them.... Besides the disagreeable eruptions� the same acrid 116

Roberta Singer Hwnour of the eruption had Fell on his Lwigs� coroded them� and brough[t] on the cough & spitting of Blood. I send him almost well. I hope with the pills & Directions above Mention� I will Compleat his cure. Inclosed I .send your Acct. [Postscript] I would advise that Jack is not put to any hard work to heat him much or Strain himself for fear of his Spitting blood again� till the parts have recovered Strength.

(Ananias Cooper to Robert Livingston, June 30, 1783) Not surprisingly there were l.irnits on how much of the good life masters were willing to provide.

Chancellor Livingston's

grandfather had a slave who (if the old gentleman is to be believed) was in the habit of getting all the clothing and other iterns he could and then seeking a change of situation. He instructed his agent to oblige him: "My Negro man Robin, it seems, lives too well..

w

IS Jell him for JLllO. He is a good

Srnith. His fault is he loves to change Masters often. He shall have no rrore than his cloths on his back, for when I 1:x:mght him he was quite naked.

Take him immediately in your custody.

If

you think the price too high, I shall give you your usual cormnissions."

(Draft of letter from Robert Livingston of Cler­

rront to Jacob Schennerhorne, April 8, 1760).

The price asked was high indeed, even for a good srnith.

Perhaps he thought to recover the losses in all he spent on this slave by crying to sell him at the highest price he could get.

The Legacy of the Revolution.

Rural New York was attracting settlers in the latter part of the eighteenth century.

Free labor was gradually becoming

plentiful and slaves were becoming rrore of a convenience and less of a necessity.

One could extrap:::,late from this that

slave:cy, if left to itself, would have weakened its hold and died a slow death. who partook of it.

The "peculiar institution" profited those Slaveholders had made a considerable

investment in their human property and were not likely to 117

Slaveholding 1686-1800 divest thernselves of it without a fight..

When New Yorkers, like other Americans, were caught in the struggle for Independence, thoughtful men became aware of the hypocritical position in which they found thernselves.

If the

minions of King George were figuratively enslaving Americans, what right did Americans have to literally enslave the sons and daughters of Africa?

If all men were created equal, why were

black men uniquely fitted to be the drudges of society?

Some

members of the elite grew to oppose slave:r:y on these grounds.

In 1785 several prominent New Yorkers, including Chancellor Livingston, fanned the New York Manumission Society.

Although

he and the other founders continued to own slaves, they ad­ vocated the abolition of slave:r:y.

They became posthunous

liberators.

'11he Chancellor, his rrother, and his rrother-in-law exem­ plified this new spirit by providing for manumission of their slaves in their wills.

The tent1S exemplify the tension between

the need for free labor in slaves and the pangs of conscience.

-:C.he Chancellor's will, dated 1796, directed the executors "to manumit all rey- slaves that may chuse it who have attained the age of thirty years within two years after rey- decease or as Imlch earlier as may be convenient to rey- dear wife. 11

The Chan­

cellor's rrother, Margaret Beekman Livingston, left the follow­ ing instructions in her will, also from 1796:

"And in consid­

eration of the faithful services of rey- slaves I direct rey­ executors to manumit those am::mg them above the age of thirty years who may desire it. And whereas Robin, Scipio, Mariah, and Nan are now far advanced in life and unable to support thernselves by their labour, rey- will is that it be at their option to chuse with whom of rey- children they prefer to live."

She also provided a legacy of twelve pounds per year for the elderly slaves.

Finally, the 1800 will of the Chancellor's

rrother-in-law Elizabeth Stevens directed: "'lb rey- daughter Ma:r:y Livingston I leave all rey- clothing except the cornrron ones which 118

Roberta Singer I leave to lT!Y black-women Nancy and Silvia to be equally divided between them.

I leave to Il1Y black-wornaI1: Dasny the

interest of forty p:mnds yearly during her natural life to be paid her half yearly by rrr_y Executors.

I also give and bequeath

to Il1Y black-woman Nancy fifteen acres of land.... and five p:mnds in rroney.

I leave all Il1Y slaves their freedom."

Bibliographical Essay

'Ihis paper is a revised version of a lecture I delivered on Labor Day, September 3, 1983, at Cle:rrront State Historic Park.

I am grateful to the staff at the Park for allowing me

to share lT!Y research with the public.

The study of slavery in Nav York is difficult because the relevant data are scattered widely in a variety of sources.

Since separate accounts were rarely kept for slaves, the investigator must sift through large quantities of family let­ ters, ledgers, and other items before finding material mention­ ing the slaves.

Since holdings were small, the expenses incur­

red in caring for slaves could be handled casually with other incidental business. T'ne infonnation that does emerge fleshes out the rather thin accounts we have of slavery in the rural parts of New York. Needless to say, rrore studies are needed for other localities.

For Livingston Manor the collection of Livingston family m3.terial, often referred to as the Livingston-Redmond Papers, housed at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Librru:y in Hyde Park, was a principle resource.

The early records and correspondence were

written in Dutch and researchers traditionally had to hire their own translators. A translation project funded by Mrs. Katheryn Johnson Lieurance provides for the translation of these papers

by Adrian Van der Linde. The translations of the Alida-Robert correspondence and of Philip's letter to his rrother have been used in this paper. The translation of the 1687 lease was made

by Mrs. Ruth Piwonka, and I amrrost grateful to her for sharing 119

Slaveholcling 1686-1800 it with me.

Material on Clenront (and a great deal of Manor material as well, notably the Livingston Manor Journal for 1770-1773) may be found in the Robert R. Livingston papers, a collection kept at the New York Historical Society.

Recently a set of

microfilm reels of that collection was purchased for the Research Library at Clenront State Historic Park with funds raised by the Friends of Clenront.

(The Friends also made

p:,ssible the purchase of microfilmed copies of the Livingston­ Redrrond Papers.) Ix:>cuments which are part of the Clenront State Historic Park's collection, notably the First I.Drd's final (1728) will and the Chancellor's Rent Book, which dates from the 1780s, was also used.

The texts of the wills of Chancellor

Livingston, his nother, and his nother-in-law are from Book B of Wills in the Columbia County Courthouse in Hudson, N. Y. Two conte:rrp:)rary first-hand accounts of slave:r:y in New York (marred by some sentimentality) may be found in Anne Grant's Memoi:r>s of cm Ame:r>iccm Lady (Ne.w York: Ibdd, Mead, 1909), which focuses on the Schuyler family, and St. John de Crevecoeur's Sketches of Eighteenth Century Ame:r>ica: Mo:r>e Lette:r>s f:r>om cm AmeT'ican PaP171e:r> (Nev Haven: Yale University Press, 1925), which focuses on life in rural areas generally.

The references to slave:r:y are scattered throughout both works.

A work which inadvertently reveals much about the lives of slaves in Ne.w York City is Daniel Horsman.den's account of the 1741 hysteria over a purported slave conspiracy. Horsrnandenwas one of the judges in the trials generated by the "plot" and his remarks also are quite enlightening on the attitudes of the master class.

The account has been published as '1.1he New Yo:r>k

Conspi:r>acy (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971).

The best study of slave:r:y in New York may be found in Samuel McKee, Jr.'s Labo:r> in Colonial New- Yo:r>k� 1664-1776 (Port Washington, N. Y.: Ira J. Friedman, 1965).

'Ihis work, orig­

inally published in 1935 has an entire chapter devoted to slave 120

Roberta Singer laoor, and provides a gcxxl, oomprehensive picture of the entire laoor situation.

The decline of slavery is oovered in the New

York chapters of Arthur Zilversmit's

(Chicago: University of

Abolition of Slavery in the North

Chicago Press., 1967) ..

The Fixast Ema:naipation: the

Zilversmit emphasizes ideological causes

rather than eoonomic ones.

Two rrore general studies of slavery that I have found use­ ful are David Brion Davis's cross-cultural analysis of Slavery in Western Culture

The Pr>ob.Zem

(Ithaca, N. Y..-: Cornell University

Press, l966) and Winthrop D. Jordan's

White Ovexa Black.: Ameri­

aa:n Attitudes Towar•d the Negro ., 1-5.50-1812

(Baltirrore: Penguin

Books, 1968) ,, which focuses on the racial attitudes which made possible the justification of Negro slavery and the oontradic­ tions of emancipation.

Am::mg the increasing number of IIDre specialized studies that have been published recently, the following provided infonnation for this paper: Thomas J. Davis 1 s analysis of the derrographics of slavery in New York, "New York's I.Dng Black Line: a Note on the Growing Slave Population, 1626-1790, 11 Amer>iaa:ns in New Yoxak Life a:nd History

Afro­

2:41-59, Januacy 1978;

Joyce D. Goodfriend s acoount of the consequences of even a 1

"rnild11 regime of slavery,

11

Burghers and Blacks.: the Evolution

of a Slave Society at New .Amsterdam, New Yoxak History 59:: 124144 7 April 1978·; Leopold S� Launitz-Schurer" Jr. 1 s study of Horsmanden's acoount 1 11 Slave Resistance in Colonial New York: 1 1

an Inte1:pretation of Daniel Horsmanden's New York Conspiracy,," PhyZon

41:137-152., June 1980; James G. Lydon·'s account of the

involvement of New York merchants in the slave trade, "New York and the Slave Trade, 1700-1774.,"

WiZZiam and Mary Quarterly,

3rd series, 35.:375-394, April 1978·; Carl Nordstrom's analysis of the slave legislation, "The New York Slave Code," Amer>iaa:ns in New York Life a:nd History

Afxao­

4'!7-25 (Januacy 1980) ;,

and Oscar R. Williams s study of the irrpetus behind and lack of 1

oonsistent enforcement of municipal slave legislation, "The 121

Slaveholding 1686-1800 Regimentation of Blacks on the Urban Frontier in Colonial Albany, New York City and Philadelphia," Jqurnal of Negro History 63:329-338, Fall 1978.

'Ihl.s last-named article also

posits the dichotorrw between rural and urban life for slaves.

An older study which contains many interesting tidbits on slaves' diet, clothing, medical care, recreation, and punish­ ments may be found in Edwin Olson's "Social Aspects of Slave Life in New York," Journal of Negro History 26:66-77, January 1941.

Finally I would like to mention Helen Wilkinson Reynolds's account, "The Negro in Dutchess County in the Eighteent...11. Cen­ tu:r:y,n- Yea:t'book of the Dutchess County Historical Society 26: 89-99, 1941.

'Ihl.s article is based on newspaper advertisements

and stories, court proce�gs, and family sources and gives a good, if brief, picture of slavecy in a rural county.

The 1714

census she cites on pages 89-90 lists four slaveowners who were residents of Livingston Manor.

Johannes Dyckman Sr. , Jacob

Vosburgh and Roelof Duyster each owned one slave.

Wesselse owned five slaves.

122

Dirck

THE FADING VENEER OF EQUALITY: '!he Afro-.American Experience in Poughkeepsie Between 1840 and 1860.

Joshua Gordon Hinerfeld During the period 1840 to 1860 the black population of Poughkeepsie experienced a significant decline in employment� educa­ tional and residential opportunities in contrast to the decades immediately preceding 1840. Reasons for this change are discussed in this SUllTITlarized version of Joshua Hinerfeld's 1983 senior thesis completed at Vassar College.

Irish inmigrants who settled in Poughkeepsie, New York, during the 1840's and 1850's must have wondered if their long boat ride over the Atlantic Ocean was worthwhile.

IDcal res­

idents in the predominantly Protestant community bitterly dis­ liked these destitute catholic refugees.

In retrospect, one

might suppose that the :Eapidly growing presence of t..he Irish PJSed a fonnidable threat to the economic livelihood of Pough­ keepsie's established citizemy, which in turn ala_rrred local residents.

Justifiably, native wnites probably feared that the

poor mmigrants would both depress local wage scales and make jobs difficult to come by. conversely, the established presence of the conmunity's small black p:)pulation meant that this group PJSed little threat to the white PJpulation' s well-being.

Although the black PJpula­

tion grew at a rrn.1ch faster rate during the 1850's than the rest of the city's PJpulation, their numbers were relatively insignif­ icant.

'!he 440 blacks who lived in Poughkeepsie in 1860 com­

prised less than three percent of the city's PJpulation.

Not

surprisingly, native whites were rrore favorably disposed tc:Mards the blacks than towards the Irish inmigrants.

In fact, before

1860, Irish immigrants.experienced even "less nobility uµvard from semi-skilled to non-manual errployrrents" than the persist-

123

Joshua Gordon Hinerfeld ently discriminated against local black p:>pulation.

1

Dissatisfaction with their plight in Poughkeepsie resulted in altercations between the Irish inmigrants and the local blacks, frequently leading to bloodshed. During the course of a cold, wintry night in late January, 1850, a group of Irish and black tavnsmen fought with each other at the foot of Church Street in Poughkeepsie.

The night constable on duty "took no

notice of the affair," even as the Irishmen retreated wounded, "some of them terribly mangled with clubs and slingshots."

'IWo

nights later, a gang of fifteen or twenty Irishmen collected in Union Street seeking revenge.

'Ihis time, three or four of the

individuals were armed with guns. After the gang chased and slightly injured a black woman, the sheriff intervened and or­ dered the raucous group to disperse.

Instead, the miscreants

chased him away. Meanwhile, curious bystanders approached to -observe the "excitement." Amid this confusion, one innocent on­ looker was shot in the chest by an Irishman. As word of this shooting spread quickly throughout the city, tempers flared and a riot ensued.

According to the local navspaper's account of the affair,the Irish, not the blacks, bore the brunt of the riot. A bell, sounding an alann throughout the to.vn, brought people running

l.Il

all directions. Within a short time, riflemen arrived on the scene and arrested all the Irish participants involved in the brawl.

In their train came a.nned guards, two milita._ry companies,

and between two hundred and three hundred citizens, who bran­ dished "pistols, slug shots, pickets, sword-canes, etc. ... " Finding nobody to arrest at the scene of the crme, the rrob went on a vigilante raid. They proceeded into town and dragged Irish­ mer1 "innocently" out of their beds and homes, beat them on their heads with clubs and marched them "barefoot" and "bleeding" in the snow to the hall of justice. A few days later, the editor of The Jou:r'nal a:nd Poughkeepsie Eagle corrplained that the targets of this rrob suffered the injustice of false arrests only "because 124

The Fading Veneer of Equality: they were Irish. 11

2

After 1860, matters changed in Poughkeepsie.

Children of the

Irish inrnigrants enjoyed rrore "respectful treatment" by the conmunity than that accorded to their forebears in the 1840 'sand 1850 's.

These second generation Irishme..ri also had access to

"better jobs." Blacks, however, suffered from the opposite trend. Whatever rrodicum of freedom they once had to pursue t.he "American Dream" disapp=>...ared before the start of the Civil War. Even the support given to the blacks in Poughkeepsie by local philanthropists in the past, became a fading merrory.

A bizarre

paradox thus resulted: as local philanthropic attention focused upon the victims of Southern slavery, the relative status of blacks in Poughkeepsie undeIWent a rapid and irreversible 3 decline. The pu.:qx>se of this article is to analyze ho.v the seeds of this socioeconomic retrogression actually took root in the two antebellum decades.

A thorough study of the trends in

educational, economic and residential opportunities made avail­ able to local blacks between 1840 and 1860 documents how this veneer of racial equality rubbed thin during this period.

Attitudes toward blacks to mid 1840: Attitudes toward the black residents of Poughkeepsie and perhaps toward blacks in general during the 1830's and early 1840's were syrrpathetic and supportive.

Both a rroral belief in

the basic equality of all men and a sense of Christian duty apparently rrotivated the work of philantlLropists, who helped local blacks in Poughkeepsie in the late 1830 's and early 1840 's.

When a group of these higbminded individuals fanned a local chapter of the Anti-Slavery Society, _they strove to: ...effect the ·?ntire abolition of slavery; also to encourage o:nd promote the intellectual� moral o:nd religious irrprovements of the colored people thereby endeavoring to remove all that prejudice which makes color o:nd not intellectual o:nd moral worth the criterion of character o:nd respectability. 4 For years, the local organ of the Anti-Slavery Society concentrated rrost of its efforts on .inproving the condition of 125

Joshua Gordon'Hinerfeld blacks, rather than seeking the end of slavery.

Each week,· for

example, the Anti-Slavery Society sponsored lectures, "for 'the 5

sole pw:pose of i.rrlproving (blacks) intellectually."

Consider­

ing a large number of the city's "cooperages, carriage shops,

and foundries depended heavily" upon trade with the South, the

unpopularity of local abolitionist activity should come as no ' . . surprise.6 Matthav Vassar, Jr., perhaps fearing that the eman-

cipation of slaves would undennine the financial security of his

Southern beer customers, personally broke up two meetings at 7 which abolitionists spoke.

Some philanthropists, who were not associated with the Anti­

Slavery Society, believed that Christian duty obligated them to help local blacks.

In a notice placed in t.he Poughkeepsie

Journal back in 18 39, local refonners called on the "friends of education" to congregate at the Methodist Episcopal Church for

the pw:pose of "devising means for the rrore general and thorough

education of the COIDRED FREE PEOPLE." After pledging no oonnec­ tion with the unpopular abolitionist society, the meeting's

sponsors stated that the "wretched condition of the colored peo­

ple" clearly derronstrated their need for instruction. 'Ihey added that regardless of what a person's feelings were for blacks, he

had a "Christian duty to enlighten their minds."

8

Tow2m:ls the latter half of the 1 850's, concern of philan­

thropists drifted away from matters_ concerning the condition of

local blacks, as it concentrated rrore upon issues surrounding 9 'Ihe Fugitive Slave Act of 1 850, designed to end the slavery.

trafficking of runaway slaves, particularly disturbed Poughkeep­

sie citizens.

For years, the city had been a station stop on l the underground railroad. o -Some runaways, in fact, settled in

the rrountairts just south of the city in a place appropriately 11 Over tine, therefore, the citizens of called Freernanville.

Poughkeepsie clearly understood that slavery assaulted the basic

hurran dignity of these fugitives. After Congress enacted the

Fugitive Slave Act, both the local papers and the citizens of 126

The Facling Veneer of Equality: Poughkeepsie actively supported and assisted the fugitive slaves.

The Daily Eagle, which became the Republican party's rrouth­

piece up::m its inception in

1860,

took delight in annou.11.ci.11.g the

successful passages of fugitive slaves.

Commenting on the

travels of one such individual who recently stopped in Pough­

keepsie, the paper remarked "(he) is probably nCM enjoying free­ On

dom in canada under the protection of the British Queen! 11

12

another occasion, when three "intelligent-looking" fugitives from

New Orleans stopped in the city "destitute and wit."11 hardly any clothing,

11

the paper reported one "kind hearted gentleman who II

noticed them, took them to a clothing store and fitted them "with

good wann clothing.

11

13

Poughkeepsie's rrost farrous fugitive slave

case witnessed the enthusiastic support of a large part of the

corrmuni ty. in

John Bolcling, born a slave in South carolina, fled his owner •

1846

and "sorrehCM" arrived later in Poughkeepsie.

Within four

years, the "mulatto" established himself in the corrmunity as a

hard-working individual, with a tailor shop located on Main St.

14

Distance and time, hCMever, did not help him to escape the shack­ les of slavecy.

Apparently, a young southern woman who lived for

a time in bis house divulged, without solicitation, his where­

abouts to his fonner master, Robert C. Anderson of Columbia,

South carolina.

One afternoon as the recent newlywed worked in his shop, a

carriage pulled up to the door.

Within minutes, its occupants

seized the unsuspecting Bolcling, whisked him away to the train station and placed him aboard a New York City bound train.

The

peculiar circumstances surrouncling the arrest outraged the 15 The Daily Eagle took corrmunity rrore than the arrest itself. exception to the nature of the apprehension, fincling it "un­

necessarily harsh in a comnunity where he might have been de­

tained for a week without the least danger of disturbance to . ..16 make parting arrangements.

The "great deal_ of syrrpathy" expressed by the comtULTJ.ity on 127

Joshua Gordon Hinerfeld Bolding' s behalf may have been in part due to the fact that he was "as white as a great many white men." Although there is no direct evidence available to substantiate this clairn, lawyers defending his, right to freedom in the U. S. Circuit Court in New York City based their case on just those grounds. They called on several witnesses to prove the tailor's innocence by dem­ onstrating his lack of African blcxxi. One "distinguished phre­ nologist" testified that Bolding had the "strong marks" of an "Indian" and that "he was no rrore than tw:)-hventieths...Afri-­ can."

The corrmissioner presiding over this trial ruled in favor

of the plaintiff. He infonned the tailor, with apparent corrpas• sion and regret, that his fo:rmer master, Anderson, still owned him lawfully. Despite the outcome of the trial, Bolding's supporters refused to allCM him to be forced back into slavery.

They agreed to raise funds to pay the slave owner $2,000 in ex­ 17 change for Bolding's freedom.

Within two weeks following his arrest, Bolding was legally a free man. John B. Grubb of Poughkeepsie took charge of the fund­ raising drive which bought Bolding's manumission.

Grubb

collected $1,000 in Poughkeepsie, $150 in Albany, and the rest from New York City. Hundreds of people contributed rroney in denominations ranging from a fraction of a dollar up to fifty dollars.

M:lst of Pough1<.eepsie's leading citizens supp::,rted the

cause. Arrong the rrost reknown contributors were the two Luckey brot.1-iers, Mr. Nelson, a-mer of the successful Nelson House, E. K. Olmstead, Daniel and Isaac Platt, Matthew Vassar, B. J. IDssing, and the p:iwerful banker, Joseph Hooker. 18 Despite the enomous philanthropy and concern derronstrated by the comnunity in the Bolding affair, the condition of local blacks rarely attracted much concern in the years imnediately preceding the Civil War. A thorough consideration of the subtle factors which affected the material and social well being of blacks there suggests a great deal about the nature and effects of white racial attitu.des in the corrmunity. The declining number 128

The Fading Veneer of Equality: of educational, economic, and residential opp::irtunities made a available to Poughkeepsie's blacks between 1840 and 1860 under­ scores a bitterly ironic fact; "freedom" did not necessarily constitute freedom of choice for Afro-Americans living in ante­ bellum Poughkeepsie.

Educational opp::irtunities: As already noted, during the height of the humanitarian refonn rrovement in the late 1830 's and 1840 's, charitablephilan-­ t.hropists presented both rroral and religious justifications for 19 Although refonn activity was p:)pular in assisting blacks.

Poughkeepsie, the activities did not carry on without dissent.

The Poughkeepsie Telegraph, probably reflecting the hushed up opinions of a substantial number of the city's whites, complained in 1837 that educating blacks would make them "insolent" and as a result they might forget "cormon consent" made them "hewers of 20 The spirit of t.1-J.e times prevailed, wood and drawers of water. 11 nonetheless, and for the foll0\',.7lllg decade Poughkeepsie citizens involved themselves directly in the education of blacks.

Until 1844, when Poughkeepsie adopted a new unified public school system, black children received their education at the Lancaster Society's Charity School for blacks.

Funding for t.his

privately subsidized school cane from benevolent whites and the local municipal goveniment.

For exarrple, a young, white Quaker

who taught at one of t.li.e town's all--white, private nonnal schools, raised funds for the Lancaster Society's School by lec­ turing at rroney--raising events. Even the Poughkeepsie Telegraph Supp:)rted the school's quest for private donations because the school helped to produce a rroral and intellectual improvement in 21 the black p::>pulation which it found "degraded indeed."

Children who attended the Lancaster School had the opp::irtun-­ ity to learn from both p::ilitically and socially active blacks.

The school's trustees apparently had no misgivings about main­ taining a flexible hiring p::ilicy.

Ads in the local paper, which

searc..li.ed for qualified teaching candidates, made no specifica-129

Joshua Gordon Hinerfeld lions about a race requirement for the job.

22

As a result the

fonner slave and abolitionist Samuel R. Ward taught at the 23 Before long, however, the progressive nature of black school. education in Poughkeepsie suffered an interminable loss.

A city­

wide referendum pro:rrpted the establishment of a public school system in the city.

This action in turn forced the closing of

the privately run Lancaster School.

A "one room" black, public school opened up, which forever remained unpopular arrong blacks in general and white taxpayers.

Attendence averaged only 20 students a day in 1843, and the rate failed to i:rrprove over the years.

In 1871, for example, only 40

percent of the students attended on a typical day.

Consequently

the school, which drew black children from all sections of the city, was uneconomical to operate.

Never+-.heless, school l:oard

officials and white parents successfully fought to keep the ra­ cially segregated building open m1til the 1870 's, to ensure that wtiite and black children would not mix together in the class24 room. 'lb what exb=>..nt, the segregated school system fostered racial segregation at the workplace, is a question which deserves fur­ ther attention by local historians.

One is led to believe, how­

ever, that racial discr:irnination in the schools pre-e:rrpted blacks from many skilled and semi-skilled jobs. Irrmigrant children, conversely, who were able to attend t.lie all--white schools, received superior educations in co:rrparison to their black peers.

Logically, one would expect that the children of :irmtigrants were able to displace blacks from the latter group's traditional semi­ skilled and skilled e:rrplo11IT1eI1ts. :&rployrnent opportunities: In 1860 females outnumbered males in the black population 242 to 198.

But the latter group grew at a faster rate ix1 the last

antebellum decade.

over that ten year span, the number of black

males grew 32 perC;ent, while the number of black females in­ creased by 22 percent in Poughkeepsie.

130

This difference suggests

The Fading Veneer of Equality: that prospective black male residents of the city vested consid­ erable faith in the economic outlook of the City on the Hl1dson.

11

1 1

If that was the case, disappointment awaited them. Samples drawn from individual cer,.sus sheets and city directories indicate as time progressed blacks found fewer opportunities to perform semiskilled jobs, and other jobs which allowed some degree of in­ dependence. The nost serious deterioration in their employment 25 opportunities occurred between the decade of 1860 and 1870.

At mid-century, foreign imnigrants increasingly sought and displaced the Poughkeepsie black worker in skilled and semiskilled work. During the l850's and 1860's, rrore than 40 percent of the blacks who sta_rted each decade in semi-skilled jobs, such as tailors, carpenters and sash-blind manufacturers slipped into unskilled labor ten years later. Even the Irish immigrants, who

had little to look forward to in Poughkeepsie did not suffer such 26 extensive downward nobility.

Individual examples clearly illustrate this trend towards downward economic nobility for blacks in Poughkeepsie. John Wil­ lianis rose from the ge.Tleric classification of laborer in 1850 to a boatman in 1855-56, and finally to the pilotsriip of the steam­ ship S'heI'TTlan in 1860. After the war, the city directo:ry once again listed hlm as a laborer. William Francis, Jr., likewise experienced declining fortunes in the job market. Listed as a silversmith in the 1860 census, he slipped to the :r;osition.of porter in a hotel by 1870. Fortunately, in his case, his job prospects improved in later years. jewel:ry store on Main Street.

By 1890, he owned his own

Between 1840 and 1860, Poughkeepsie's blacks rrost often w:::irked as laborers of one sort or another. Of the men sampled, at least 30 percent were classified as laborers in each of the three census listings.

In 1850, a significant number of black

men worked as coachmen, waiters and carters, too. By the follow­ ing decade, less desirable jobs opened up to them, such as sweat labor work on neighboring far:ms and on the Hudson River boats.

131

Joshua Gordon Hinerfeld Two examples derronstrate the black's loss of their rrore preferred place in the work force to the newer immigrant groups.

In 1850

43 percent of the coachmen were black while 3 percent were Ger­ man.

In 1880 the number of blacks declined to 18 percent while

the n� of Germans increased to 19 percent. Also in 1850,

55 percent of the waiter's jobs were held by blacks as compared to.25 percent held by Irish.

In 1880 97 percent of these jobs

Irish were listed as waiters in 1880. (See Table I) . A list of the kinds of occupations in which blacks were errployed during the period of 1850 to 1870 is found in Table II.27

were held by blacks.

Perhaps because black men worked at the rrost menial and low­ paying of jobs, a much higher prorortion of their spouses worked than those of their white counterparts. Probably intending to supplement their husbands' meager incomes, 32 percent of the black wives rerortedly worked in 1860. Overall, rrore than one­ half of - the black females were errployed in 1860, and at least 90 .

28 percen,� of them toiled as domestics.

Table I* Nativity of workers in five service occupations at four censuses

Occupation

White of native parentage Black Census (%) (%)

13

9 5 5 5

18 30 24 50

9 15 8 2

20 37 56

24 22 16 22

4 7 3

34 38 44 41

10 15 14 20

29 20 18 13

41 76 105 111

74 52 59 53

2 5 5 1

15 26 25 27

2 8 8

7 7 2 6

46 87 126 109

1850 1860 1870 1880

36 35 41 29

Gardener

1850 1860 1870 1880

Teamster, carter, or

1850 1860 1870 1880

Barber

Cannan

( Continued)

27 15 19

Number Irish German British of Cases (%) (%) (%)

13

*Reprinted by pennission 132 (see footnote 34)

11

The Fading Veneer of Equality: ContLrmed, Table I: White Census (%)

CX::cupation

Black (%)

Number of Irish Gennan British cases (%) (%) {%)'

Coachman or driver

1850 1860 1870 1880

34 56 36 30

43 15 23 18

14 24 37 31

Waiter

1850 1860 1870 1880

20 18

55 82 77 97

25

3

3 5 1 19

35 41 87 77

6 2

1

20

8

11

8

13

36

Table II Black Enployrnent in Poughkeepsie, 1850-1870 Based on p::>pulation samples.

1850 Number % Barber

2

Blacksmith

1860 Number %

1870 Number %

3

8

1

1

Boatman

1

8

Butcher

6.5 7 1

1

Carpenter

.5 1.5

Clergyman

1

3

1 1

Clothes Cleaner

1

7

15.5

6

6.6

2

Cook

11

2

Dyer

1

1

Fanner

5

.5 2.5

Gardener

3

1

Engineer

Harness Maker

9

1.5

Ix:>mestic

Hostler

6.5

1

Clerk Coachman (driver)

6.5

5.5

3 1

1

1

(Continued) 133

11

9

Joshua Gordon Hinerfeld Continued, Table II: 1860 Number %

1850 Number % 17

Laborer

28

38

31

7

9

Laundress

1870 Number % 30 37 1

Mason

.5

Milk Peddler

1

Pauper

5

Porter Pot Baker

2

Servant

1

Shoemaker

1

Silversmith

1

Sash & Blind .Maker

1

Tailor

1

TeaTTI.Ster (carter)

3

6.7

4.5

5

8

6.5

Waiter or Steward

3

6.7

6.5

7

10.5

8.3

4.5

5

3.5

Whitewasher 4

No Listing 'Ibtal males wit.h jobs of Male fOP• rep.

9

9

10

91/138 46

45/150'30

11 13 45/13

3.5

21 91/25

3

2.4

123

91

45

'Ibtal females Males per job ratio: -total job types -ratio

2

1

123/272 45 8

4.33

23 123/23

5.3

Residential patterning: Leonard Curry, an historian who studied the conditions of blacks in antebellmn, urban America, indicated increased p:Jpula­ tion density alone did not precipitate the rise of crowded black housing in the largest northern cities of the mid-nineteenth ce.11.tury. He concluded that other factors "perhaps economic and 29 Blacks in

perhaps cultural doubtless" had an effect, too.

Poughkeepsie, faced with similarly worsening job prospects and a declining relative share of the region's wealth, rapidly con134

The Fading Veneer of Equality: verged up:m the same streets, and in many cases, up:m the same houses.

(See Table III).

In 1850, the six streets rrost heavily p::>pulated by black residents accounted for 55 percent of the total black p::>pulation sampled.

Ten years later, this figure jumped to a staggering 71 30 percent.

Main Street, the hub of carrmercial activity, and coincidently the street rrost p::>pulated by blacks in 1850, placed fifth arrong black residents sampled in 1860.

In its stead rose

Mansion Street, which alone contained 19 percent of the sampled blacks in 1860.

That the black p::>pulation in Poughkeepsie became

residentially rrore concentrated between 1850 and 1860, is fur­ ther confirmed by the ratio of the total black p::>pulation sampled to the total number of streets on which at least one black res­ ident lived.

The ratio rose from 2.0 people per street in 1850

to 5.8 people in 1860. Unquestionably, part of this phenomenon is explained by the crowding of many blacks into multi-family houses.

Cun:y noted similar results for the period just after

1850 arrong the blacks he studied in the nation's fifteen largest " " 31 Clti es.

Table III Residences Where Blacks Lived in Poughkeepsie, 1850-1870 Based on p::>pulation samples.

1850 Number AcadeIT\Y

l

Bridge

l

%

1860 Number

1870

%

l

cannon

%

4, l

catharine Church

2

College Hill

l

Cottage

2

3

5

4

14

17 l

East Avenue Gate

Number

l

( Continued) 135

15

9

Joshua Gordon Hinerfeld Continued, Table III: Number

1870

1860

1850

Number

%

%

1

Harrison Holmes Jay

1 1

Jefferson Main Mansion

7 3

Market

2

Mechanic

1 3

North Clinton

1

Pine

2

Prospect

1

Smith

1

16

4

1

l 8

7

9

6

8

22

19

46

30

10

9

15

8

1

1

5

2

6

5

4

9

1 5

19

13

16

11

Washington

2

Water

1

2

2

4

l

3

1

West Winnekee 'Ibtal Sarrpled

40

Streets in Sarrple

20

Blacks per Street Represented Ratio

6

5

TalJnadge

White

9.7

3

3

South Avenue Union

10

18

Mill r-bntgornery

%

1

1

Hamilton

Number

2.0

1 2

116

155

20

24

5.8

7

1

6.5

Conclusion: 'Ihrough the subtle workings of institutionalized racism, an underlying phenomenon in whites denigrated and segregated.blacks, Poug0.keepsie developed a definable underclass in the years :imne136

'Ihe Fading Veneer of Equality: diately preceding the Civil War. As we have seen, blacks became victims of a vicious cycle which began at childhood. As young­ sters, black c1'ildren were denied access to the city's secondary schools.

'Ihese uneducated youths grew to raise their own fam­

ilies, while they remained trapped in the rrost menial and un­ skilled jobs. 'Ihe poor blacks congregated in ghetto-like neigh­ borhoods , where these individuals gradually learned that they needed to rely up::m themselves to effect social and political change. No longer did the local black comnunity have the gen­ erous financial and rroral support of white philanthropists. By 1860, many of the city's blacks resolved to work toget_her to counter their mutually shared problems.

In 1837, after blacks separated from the predominantly white Washington Street congregation of the Methodist Church, they built their own structure on catharine Street between Mansion and Cottage Streets. Fe.v at t_hat time could have foreseen the role this rrove would have in solidifying Afro-American unity in the 32 region in the years to come.

'Iheir ne.v church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (A.M.E.Z.) served as both the religious meeting hall of Poughkeepsie's blacks and their comnu­ nity hall, too.

Often, Isaac Deyo, a longtime Poughkeepsie res­

ident and cannan by trade, pressed his fellow black citizens in to action from the pulpit there.

During the 1860's, when local whites either harassed or completely ignored local blacks, Deyo and other vocal leaders in the black conmunity strove to make the city's blacks rrore self­ reliant. Standing alone outside the election poll in 1860, Deyo himself helped to usher in the decade of increased black social awareness and action. As the all-white voters passed in and out of the voting chamber, Deyo handed them leaflets regarding black 33 suffrage.

1

ENDNOI'ES

clyde Griffen and sa.i1y Griffen, Natives a:nd NeliJcomers (cam­ bridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978), pp. 24-25, 214.

137

Joshua Gordon Hinerfeld 2Journal and Poughkeepsie Eagle, 2 Februaxy 1850.

3

Griffen and Griffen, Natives and Newcomers, p. 31; Leonard P. Curry, The Free Black in Urban America 1800-1850 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), p. xix.

4

Am<.z Pearce Ver Nooy, "The Anti-Slavery M::>vement in Dutchess County, 1835-1850," Dutchess County Historical Society Year Book 28 (1943): 64.

Ver Nooy reprinted the charter of the local chapter of the Anti-Slavery Society in her article.

5Griffen and Griffen, Natives and Newcomers, p. 12.

6Frank Hasbrouck, ed., The History of Dutchess Cou�ty, New York (Poughkeepsie: S. A. Matthieu, 1909), p. 246.

7

ver Nooy, "Anti-Slavery M::>verrent," pp. 58-61, passim.

8

Poughkeepsie Journal, 10 April 1839.

9 :Edmuna Platt, The Eagle's History of Poughkeepsie (Pough. keepsie: Platt & Platt, 1905), pp. 133, 172; Daily Press (Pough­ keepsie), 3 May 1852; The Daily Eagle (Poughkeepsie), 4 Decerrber 1860.

Abolitionist activity won little p::>pular supp::>rt in Pough­ keepsie until 'war fever' consumed t..rie minds and passions of the town's citizens around 1860. Until that time, abolitionists found difficulty in conveying their rressage, for, those who vo­ cally called for the end of slavery ''were generally denounced by the party papers. " The city's newspapers pru:lently avoided the controversy over slavery for many years. :Not until the late 1850 's did they begin taking strong p::ilitical and rroral stands on the .issue. The Daily Press, a p::ilemical and mudslinging supr:orter of the DenD­ crats in the 1860's, clairred that it would "have nothing to do with p::ilitics" in its inaugural issue in 1852. The Poughkeepsie Telegraph eventually took up the cause of the Free Soilers,while the Daily Eagle became a strong exp::>nent of the Republican party's p::isitions. The latter paper vowed up::>n its inception i.n 1860, to pursue a liberal course "in regard to everything except tyranny and oppression."

10 . . . Kaurouma, Lawrence Marniya and Patricia eds., For The-z..r • CoUJ:>age and Their Struggles: The Black Oral History Project of Poughkeepsie, New York (Poughkeepsie: Vassar College, 1978), p.3: 1�hillip B. Smith, General History of Dutchess County: 16091876 (Pawling, New York: Phillip B. Smith, 1877), p. 135.

138

The Fading Veneer of Equality: • 7 7 Poug.hkeeps�e Eag&e, 5 September _ 1857; The Da�&Y • 7 Eag&e, 4 December 1860.

12

13 Poughkeepsie Eagle, 29 December 1860.

1411 oh A. Bolding, 'Fugitive Slave, '" Dutchess County J n Historical Society Yea:r•book 20 (1935) : 51.

15

Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, 30 August 1851.

16Ibid.

17

Ibid.; Daily Eagle, 6 September 1851.

18 Daily Eagle, 13 September 1851; "Bolding, 'Fugitive Slave,'" Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook, 20 (1935): pp. 53-55.

19 7 W. E. B. Du Bois, B&ac �n (New . k Reconstruct�on • • Amenca .

York: Atheneurn, 1973), p. 22.

20 carleton Mabee, Black Education in New York State (Syra­ cuse: Syracuse University Press, 1979), p. 30.

Mabee quoted The Poughkeepsie Telegraph.

21

Ib·d l ., pp. 30, 75 •

22 Poughkeepsie Journal, 3 April 1839.

23Mabee, Black Education in Nei,; York State, p. 33.

24 carleton Mabee, "Separate Black Education in Dutchess County," Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook, 65 (1980): 6-7; Mabee, Black Education in New York, p. 79.

25

Griffen and Griffen, Natives and Newcomers, pp. 12, 217.

'Ihe Griffens utilized many useful charts in this book. In one of them, they noted that the percentage of male, black unskilled workers jumped fro.TU 65 percent in 1850 to 80 percent (of the total black male population) by 1860.

26

Ibid., pp. 172, 209.

27

Much of the infonnation studied for the preparation of this article comes from census materials and city directories sarrpled at five year intervals between 1845 and 1870. Popula­ tion sarrples for 1860 and 1870, for example, yielded infonnation for about 46 percent of the black males in Poughkeepsie, while they provided data for only an average of 10 percent of the city's black females. 'Ihis lack of randomness in the data 139

Joshua Gordon Hinerfeld cannot help but corrproIPise its usefulness. Havever, the sarnples did provide excellent information about the occupations and res­ idences of the city's black household heads.

In many cases, the local city directories and the census documents gave two different job listings for a particular person. When this occurred, the entry which seemed erroneous­ based on the person's past and future employment experiences was excluded. Of course, there were many cases where this distinc­ tion could not be made. For these individuals, I credited one­ half point for each of the two jobs they were listed. For exam­ ple, the census of 1870 and the city directory for that year listed Ed Sanders as both a milk peddler and a boatman, respec­ tively. Each of these jobs were credited with one-half point.

Specific job listings were chosen when .available over a non-specific listing. For exarnple, the census listed Elzay Pot­ ter as a laborer while the directory described him as a coach­ man. I chose the latter title for analysis purposes.

When I compiled the six nost corrnon employments for a given year, (Table II), I divided lT\i' total sa-rnple pool (minus females and those who had no job listings) by the number of men working in each of the listed job categories. For exarnple, there were 6.5 waiters in lT\i' 1860 sample. This constituted sev­ en percent of lT\i' population sarnple.

28 Griffen and Griffen, Natives and Newcomers, p. 30.

29 eurry, The Free Black, p. 53.

30 31

see Table III (Residences).

eurry, The Free Black, p. 53.

32 Platt, Eagle's History, p. 147; James H. Smith, History of Dutchess Coimty, New York (Syracuse: P. Mason and Corrpany, 1882), pp. 426-427.

33

.Mabee,

Black Education, p. 173.

34 Table I is reprinted with permission from the authors and publisher from Clyde Griffen and Sally Griffen, Natives and Newcomers (carnbridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 1978).

140

ANTE-BELLUM DUTCHESS COUNTY'S STRUGGLE AGAINS.T SLAVERY • Susan J. Crane* Attitudes toward the issue of slavery in eighteenth and nineteenth century Dutchess County are dis.aussed. Anti­ sZavery Zaw in New York State is reviewed. Reaction of local newspapers and a discussion of the underground railway is included.

John A. Bolding, a black slave from South Carolina, escaped to Poughkeepsie in 1847 and became a tailor.

When his owner discovered the ·whereabouts of the run­ away, Bolding was apprehended and taken to New York City by train. H�s trial, held in i851, was subject to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.which imposed heavy fines on assistants to runaway slaves.1· Blacks at that time were presumed to be free unless proven otherwise. To return a runaway to slavery the claimant had to prove that the accused was of African descent, was born of a slave mother, and was the prop­ erty of the alleged owner. Although some supporters of Bolding contested that the defendant was a combina­ tion of Caucasian and Indian blood, the court conclud­ ed that he was a mulatto and the legitimate slave of Robert C. Anderson. They authorized the owner to take Bolding back to South Carolina.2 After the trial Anderson announced that he will­ lingly would sell the slave to Bolding's northern friends if they so desired. A committee of outraged Poughkeepsie residents, including Matthew Vassar, raised the requested fifteen hundred dollars for this "likeable Negro." Bolding returned to Poughkeepsie to spend the rest of his life as a free man.3 Black slaves came with the first settlers to Dutch­ ess County early in the seventeenth century. At that time white labor was exorbitant and black labor was not being imported from Africa. The Dutch West India Company continued to supply the colonists with slaves from captured Spanish ships.4 A Dutchess County census of 1714 determined that twenty-nine of a total of four hundred forty-five inhabitants were slaves. Within a few decades slave *The author, a 1980 graduate of Vassar CoUege, wrote this paper while attending the coZZege.

141

Oblong Meeting House. From D.C.H.S. Year Hook; 1971, p. 48.

Nine Partners School, sketc h ca. 1820. From D.C.H.S. Year Book, 1935.

142

Susan J. Crane holding became much more common and Jacob Evartson of Ameni�, for example, was the sole owner of forty slaves.5 The first organized action towards the �mancipation of the slaves in Ne� York State was instigated by the Oblong Monthly Meeting at Quaker Hill in Dutchess Coun­ ty.6 In 1767 this congregation of Friends announced that slavery opposed the Quaker doctrine that there is "that of God in every man." Eight years later the New York Yearly Meeting declared that anyone who did not grant freedom to their slaves would be expelled from Quakerism. Dutches·s County had a large Quaker popula­ tion and members of the Nine Partners Monthly Meeting thereupon manu�itted seventeen slave�.7 . An act was passed in Poughkeepsie in 1788 that stip­ ulated that slaves under fifty years old could be law­ fully manumitted. One had to obtain certificates from the overseers of the poor and from two Dutchess County Justices of the Peace who would vouch for the slave's ability to sustain himself if free.8 Although the emancipation laws would soon take effect, slavery con­ tinued to thrive. An operation was still prospering on Union Street in Poughkeepsie where slaves were bathed before being auctioned.9 Congress passed the first of the Fugitive SlaveLaws in 1793. Under this law, a ·five hundred dollar fine would be imposed on anyone who hinder�d the arrest of a runaway or who aided the escape of a known fugitive.10 This did not gain the approval of the New York State Legislature which passed a law in 1799 that provided for the gradual manumission of New York slaves. Every male slave born in the state was to remain the servant of his master until twenty-eight years old and every female until twenty-five years old.11 By 1820 there were two hundred eighteen free blacks in Poughkeepsie and nineteen slaves. This marked a tremendous decline in the slave proportion of blacks which may be attributed to the actions of the Quakers, the New York State laws, and the antislavery sentiments expounded by the Missouri Compromise.12 In response to the 1819 question of Missouri's admission to the Union, James Tallmadge, Jr., a.-Dutchess County congressional representative, purported that all children born in Missouri after it becomes a state ·should be exempt from bondage. Tallmadge's actions were a statement of his county's contemporary antislavery testimonies.13

143

Ante-Bellum Dutchess Co. 's Struggle Against Slavery In the latter part of the eighteenth century at­ titudes towards blacks and slavery were diversified in Dutchess County. Blacks were often confined to special sections in white churches and graveyards, yet paradox­ ically the conviction that slavery prevented the con­ stitutional expression of liberty was becoming more common. An editorial in a 1795 Poughkeepsie Journal demanded a reconsideration of the injustice to human nature that the slave holder was imposing upon the black man.

All men are created equal� that they are endow­ ed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life� liberty� and the pursuit of happiness. 14

The Poughkeepsie chapter of the American Anti-Slav­ ery Society was established in 1835. The second ar­ ticle of the new society's constitution stated that "slavery is a stain upon national character." Members asserted that it was their purpose to arouse the aware­ ness that it is the obligation of every citizen to up­ hold the right to freedom and equality of all men. Ra­ cial prejudice should be obliterated and ·the intellec­ tual, moral, and religious climate of the black popula­ tion should be upgradect.15 Antislavery preachings in Dutchess County were . rarely met with blatant hostility. A response to a lecture given· by a Mr. Gould proved to be an unfor­ tunate exception. During his speech annoying back­ ground noises culminated when objects were thrown at the podium. The Poughkeepsie Journal sided with the antagonists by accusing abolitionists of unnecessarily arousing violence and upheavals in an attempt to force their views upo� the world.16 In April of 1838 the Dutchess County Anti-Slavery Society was organized. Its first meeting was held at the courthouse and Henry B. Stanton was among the speakers. The signatures of 164 Poughkeepsie residents who attended the meeting were receivect.17 Previous to the widely publicized efforts of the communal antislavery societies, several covert opera­ tions founded on the same principles came into exist­ ence duiing the early decades of the nineteenth cen­ tury. It was at that time that the Underground Rail­ way was established in Dutchess County.18

144

Susan J. Crane In 1796 the Orthodox Quakers founded the Nine Part­ ners Boarding School in South Millbrook. Jacob Willetts, one of the first graduates, became the principal at age nineteen and opened up his home as a Railway station.

Among the school's many other associations with the Un­ derground Railway was the alumna Lucretia Coffin, a vo­ cal antislavery supporter. After Coffin's marriage to James Mott, she and her husband taught at the school and influenced the student Daniel Anthony who was later to become the father of Susan B. Anthony.19 In the Millbrook Meetinghouse, which was five hun­ dred feet from the Nine Partners School, freed slaves came to the Quakers for protection in the 1830s. A colony of huts was built near the church to house those who had escaped from slavery.20 Stephen Haight lived around the corner from the Nine Partners School and was an active conductor of the Railway. His daughter reported that in her fa­ ther's home slaves were supplied with food, money, and a place to hide. At night fugitives were taken to Valentine Hallock's house, which was to the south of Poughkeepsie along the Hudson. After a one day stop­ over, the runaways were rowed across the river by night to the next station on their way to Buffalo en route to Canada.21 Quaker Hill was another Dutchess community that actively participated in the Underground Railway. The resident David Irish always opened his house to slaves coming �rom Jacob Willetts' station .in South Mill­ brook.2 Although an ardent protester of slavery, Irish refused to join an antislavery society for fear of compromising his personal views. His contribution was to provide a refuge for fugitives along the Rail­ way and to abstain from slave-made products.2 3 In 1812 the town of Moore's Mill was founded when Alfred Moore erected a millhouse into which runaways were welcomed. The building was later converted to a boarding house called "Floral Hill" and then later the town hall.24 These select examples are among a myriad of others that illust�ate Dutchess County's active participa­ tion in the Underground Railway route north from New York City. Poughkeepsie became increasingly more firm in its stand against slavery. During the decade preceding the Civil War, the Underground Railway of-

145

Ante-Bellum Dutchess Co. 's Struggle Against Slavery ficer George W. Sterling was elected to the Second Assembly District.25 In 1857 Poughkeepsie held an Anti-Slav�ry Convention at which Susan B. Anthony spoke. During her speech there was a·disturbance from anti-abotitionists. The Poughkeepsie Te·legra·p h critized the antislavery speak­ ers for being radical agitators who only could succeed in stimulating violence with no possible gains.26 An editorial appeared in an 1857 Poughkeepsie Eagle that contained an adamant statement against slavery in rebuke of a Norfolk Her·ald account of the sale of four free blacks in payment of taxes. The author made an analogy to European feudalism and facetibusly called this the American "Democracy. 1127 In 1860 an incident occurred when an "intelligent looking" fugitive from New Orleans got off the train in Poughkeepsie. He crossed the frozen Hudson to Louis­ burgh and walked into a shop to get warm. There he was offered refreshments and eagerly told the townspeople of his escape from the South in a vessel with two other destitute runaways. Dressed in rags, they arrived in New York City and were taken into . a store by a philan­ thropist who bought them warm clothing. The runaway explained that he was passing through Louisburgh on his way to visit his father in Marlborough. He had been a free working man ten years earlier but was seized while loading a trunk onboard a southern ship.

From there he was illegally sold to a New Orleans trad­ er and eventually escaped his plight as a slave.28 In the last few years of the ante-bellum period, the Eagle published far fewer editorials in support of slavery than those of an opposing view. Although the general tone in Dutchess County at that time was de� cidedly against slavery, the newspaper refused to take a firm stand. A sermon was printed in 1860 that de­ nounced abolitionists as cowards with beliefs mptivated by a selfish desire to save their souls.29 The gradual increase in Dutchess County's abolitionist activity reflected a growing interest and compassion for the slave that was preponderate on the eve of the Civil War. Since the eighteenth century the County had been a major instigator of the antislavery movement in New York State. Concerned men and women of Dutchess County continued their efforts until slavery had been successfully abolished throughout the Union with the termination of the Civil War.

146

Susan J. Crane Footnotes 1New Columbia Encyclopedia, 1975 ed., s.v. "Fugitive Slave Laws."

211Case of the Fugitive Slave, John Bolding, Before U.S. Commissioner Nelson," Poughkeepsie Eagle, 6 Septem­ ber 1851 , p. 2 .

3"Freedom at 129 Pine Street," Poughkeepsie New Yorker, 26 July 1953.

4Henry Noble MacCracken, Old Dutchess Forever! (New York: Hastings House, 1956), p. 123.

5Philip H. Smith, General History of Dutchess County from 1609 -1876 (Pawling, New York: Philip H. Smith, 1877), p. 127.

6The Quakers had been known as antislavery advocates as early as 1688 when those of Germantown, Pennsylvania denounced human bondage as animalistic. The first rec­ ords of systematic fugitive protection in the North are in letters written in 1786 by George Washington who was distressed that Philadelphia Quakers had successfully aided a runaway.

7Dell T. Upton, "Dutchess County Quakers and Slav­ ery," in Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook, vol. 55 (Poughkeepsie: Dutchess County Historical Soci­ ety, 1970), pp. 55�57.

8Edmund Platt, The Eagle's H"istory of Poughkeepsie, 1683-1905 (Poughkeepsie: Platt & Platt, 1905), �� 63.

9 Denise L. Johnson, Black Migration (Poughkeepsie: Poughkeepsie Bicentennial Forum, June/July 1976), p. 6. lOWilbur H. Siebert, The Underground Railway from Slavery to Freedom (New York: MacMillan Co., 1898), p. 22 .

11Platt, The Eagle's History of Poughkeepsie, p. 63.

1211The Public Career of James Tallmadge," in Dutchess County Historical Society Yea·rbook, vol. 45 (Poughkeep­ sie: Dutchess County Historical Society, 1960), p. 75 .

13Platt, The Eagle's History of Poughkeepsie, p. 96 .

147

Ante-Bellum Dutchess Co.'s Struggle Against Slavery 1411Enquire of the Printer," Poughkeepsie Journal, 23 September 1795, p. 3.

15 Henry Noble MacCracken, Bl·ithe Dutche·ss (New York: Hastings House, 1958), p. 2.

1611The Anti-Slavery Movement in Dutchess County," in Dutchess Count"y Historical Society Ye·a·rho·ok, vol. 28 (Poughkeepsie: Dutchess County Historical Society, 1943), pp. 58-59.

17Ibid., p. 62.

18The Underground Railway transported fugitive slaves from the South to Canada or to other areas that afforded the black man freedom. The Railway operated· at night and sent slaves from station to station, employing the "grapevine telegraph" to pass the word to the next conductor along the line. The organization largely was financed by Quakers and philanthropists. W. M. Mitchell estimates that an average of two thousand fugitives reached Canada annually. Out of about ninety thousand attempts, approximately one half were successful in attaining fr-eedom. See Larry Gara, The Liberty Line (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1961), p. 162.

19Frank Hasbrouck, ed., History of Dutchess County New York (Poughkeepsie: S. A. Matthieu, 1909), p. 490.

20Dutchess County, American Guide Series (Philadel­ phia: William .Penn Association of Philadelphia, 1937), p. 100.

21Hasbrouck, History of Dutchess County New York, p. 490.

22 Ibid.

23Phoebe T. Wanzer, David Irish, A Me·moir., pamphlet #2 of the Quaker Hill Series of Local History (Quaker Hill, New York: Quaker Hill Conference Association, 1902), pp. 10-11.

24MacCracken, Blithe Dutchess, p. 53.

25p1att, The Eagle's History _of Poughke·epsie, p. 172.

2611 Anti-Slavery Convention," Poughkeepsi·e Telegraph, 31 March 1857, p. 3.

148

Susan J. Crane 27Poughkeepsie Eagle, 5 September 1857.

2811Fugitive Slaves," Poughkeepsie Eagle, 29 Decem­ ber 1860, p. 2.

2911Moral Courage," extracts from a sermon delivered

by Rev. Henry Ward Brecher, Poughkeepsie Eagle, 28 Ap­ ril 1860, p. 1.

Selected Bibliography "Anti-Slavery Convention," 31 March 1857, p. 3.

Poughkeepsie Telegraph,

"Case of the Fugitive Slave, John Bolding, Before U.S. Commissioner Nelson." Poughkeepsie Eagle, 6 Septem­ ber 1851, p. 2.

Dutchess County. American Guide Series. Philadelphia: William Penn Association of Philadelphia, 1937.

"Enquire of the Printer." Poughkeepsie Journal, 23 September 1795, p. 3.

"Freedom at 129 Pine Street," Poughkeepsie New Yorker, 26 July 1953.

"Fugitive Slaves."

1860, p. 2.

Poughkeepsie Eagle, 29 December

Gara, Larry. The Liberty Line. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1961.

Hasbrouck, Frank, ed. History of Dutchess County New York. Poughkeepsie: S. A. Matthieu, 1909.

"John A. Bolding, Fugitive Slave." in Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook, vol. 20. Poughkeepsie: Dutchess County Historical Society, 1935.

Johnson, Denise L. Black Migration. Poughkeepsie: Poughkeepsie Bicentennial Forum, June/July 1976.

MacCracken, Henry Noble.

Hastings House, 1958.

Blithe Dutchess.

New York:

MacCracken, Henry Noble. Old Dutchess Forever!

York: Hastings House, 1956.

149

New

Ante-Bellum Dutchess Co.'s Struggle Against Slavery "Moral Courage." Extracts from a sermon delivered by Rev. Henry Ward Brecher. Poughkee·psie Eagle, 28 Ap­ ril 1860, p. 1.

New Columbia Encyclopedia, 1975 ed. s.v. "Fugitive Slave Laws."

Platt, Edmund. The Eagle's Hi.story of Pou·ghke·epsie, 16-S-3-i-905. Poughkeepsie: Platt & Platt, 1905.

Poughkeepsie· Eagle, 5 September 1857.

Siebert, Wilbur·H. ery to Freedom.

The Underground Railway from Slav­ New York: MacMillan Company, 1898.

Smith, Philip H. Gen�ral History of Dutch�Ss County from 1609--1876. Pawling, New York: Philip H. Smith, 1877.

"The Anti-Slavery Movement in Dutchess County." in Dutchess County His·tor1caT Society Yearbook, vol. 28. Poughkeepsie: Dutchess County Historical Society, 1943.

"The Public Career of James Tallmadge." in Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook, vol. 45. Pough� keepsie: Dutchess County Historical Society, 1960.

Upton, Dell T. "Dutchess County Quakers and Slavery."

- in Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook, vol.

55. Poughkeepsie: Dutchess County Historical Soci­ ety, 1970. ,..

Wanzer, Phoebe T. David Irish. A Memoir. Pamphlet#2 of the Quaker Hill Series of Local History. Quaker Hill, New York: Quaker Hill Conference Association, 1902.

150

SEPARATE BLACK EDUCATION IN DUTCHESS COUNTY: BLACK ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AND A PROPOSED BLACK COLLEGE Carleton Mabee* Dr. Mabee discusses black primary and secondary black education and educators in nineteenth century Dutchess County. An attempt to establish a separate black col­ lege� Toussaint L'Ouverture College� in Poughkeepsie� met with resistance from the black and white communities.

In the 1820s and 1830s in New York State, many children, black and white, did not attend school at all. Public schools were not yet well developed. In both public and non-public schools, blacks were often refused admittance, or if admitted, they might be made so uncomfortable they would prefer to leave.

Blacks were often considered to be degraded -- after all, slavery had been fully abolished in the state only in 1827. Under these circumstances, to help more blacks secure an education, blacks themselves, as well as philanthropic whites, helped to found separate schools for blacks.

The earliest school for blacks in Dutchess County of which a record is available was the African School in Poughkeepsie, evidently a private school. It was taught in 1829-30 by Isaac Woodland, a black preacher from Baltimore.1 Following Woodland, from about 1830 to 1839 Nathan Blount, a young black educated in a Presbyterian · school for blacks in New Jersey, taught a black school in Poughkeepsie. At first Blount's school was prob­ ably private, but eventually it was taken over by the Lancaster Society, a white-organized charity society which already operated a school for poor whites on Church Street; it simply put Blount's school for blacks upstairs in the same building. In 1838 the Poughkeepsie Telegraph appealed for contributions to the Lancaster Society to keep Blount's school open because it had helped to produce an "extraordinary moral and intellectual improvement of our colored population," many of whom had been "degraded indeed. 2 11

While teaching in Poughkeepsie, Blount helped to *The Pulitzer Prize-winning author is Emeritus Professor of History at S.U.N.Y. New Paltz. Dr. Mabee has recently published (Syracuse University Press) Black Education in New York State From Colonial to Modern Times.

151

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152

Carleton Mabee found the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZ).3 He also was furiously active as an aboli­ tionist, being on the executive committee of the predominantly-white Dutchess County Antislavery Soci­ ety, 4 attending national abolitionist conventions, and serving as an agent for such abolitionist papers as the New York Colored American and the Boston Lib­ erator.

Following Blount, in 1839 the black Samuel R. Ward taught the black Lancaster school,5 and he was also active on the executive committee of the Dutchess County Antislavery Society. He had been educated in New York City in the black schools of the New York Manumission Society, an abolitionist agency, and afterwards he became a pastor, an editor, and one of the most prominent black abolitionists in the nation.

At about this time in New York State, as elsewhere, leading whites, including both churchmen and politi­ cians, usually regarded the abolitionists as fanatics for advocating equal rights for blacks; instead, lead­ ing whites, believing that blacks would never be accepted as equals in America, often supported the colonizationists in assisting blacks to return to Af­ rica. The Poughkeepsie Eagle of April 13, 1839, de­ clared that colonization�the noblest work of philanthropy that distinguishes the present age."

Considering such prevailing white views, it is an intriguing question why white New York State school trustees would allow Blount, Ward, and many other abolitionist crusaders to teach in black schools.

In the 1840s public schools were growing stronger in New York State, and in many places public school boards were creating separate black public schools wherever the number of black pupils seemed to be enough to fill one room. In 1844 , just after Pough­ keepsie had created for the first time a unified pub­ lic school system for the whole city, the Lancaster Society ceased to operate its charity schools, both white and black, and the new public school board created a separate black public school. For this pur­ pose, the board rented a room in the Primitive Meth­ odist Church on Church Street.

The Poughkeepsie black public school was always a one-room school. In 18 4 8 it had an average attendance of 20. In 1865 the school board president recommended

153

Separate Black Education in Dutchess Co. that the black school be closed because attendance was was poor, but the school stayed open. In 1871, while the enrollment ·was 75, the average attendance was 30.6 The teachers in the school were sometimes white, sometimes black. They included Thomas Brewer, white, 1844; Jane A. Williams, black, 1853-56 (she had experi­ ence teaching black schools in Manhattan and Williams­ burg, L.I.); Artemisi� Halloway, white, 185 9 -60; Char­ lotte V. Usher, black, 1860-61 (she had studied at the state normal school in Albany); Rev. James W. C. Pen­ nington, a prominent black pastor and abolitionist of New York City, 1863 (in July, 1863, during the Civil War, while Pennington was teaching in Poughkeepsie, anti-draft rioters broke into his home in Manhattan and scattered his family); Jennie Fowler, black, 186366; Sarah Taylor, white, 1871; and Helen Cornell, white, 1873-74. Like many black activists elsewhere in the state, many Poughkeepsie black activists, but not necessarily most black'parents, preferred black teachers for black schools. In 1872 a delegation of Poughkeepsie blacks including Isaac Deyo, Abraham Bo­ lin, Joseph Rhodes, and Charles Cooley -- all of whom figure later in this article -- asked the Poughkeepsie school board to appoint a black rather than a white teacher to the school.7 In the early 1850s Poughkeepsie's black public school was still on Church Street; in the later 1850s, on Cottage Street near Catherine. From 1863, the old AMEZ Church building on Catherine Street having been moved to the rear of the lot on which it stood and a new church building having been built on the site of the old one, the old building was used to house the school. A few years later a black �astor called the use of the old building a disgrace.

In early 1873 a black campaign for equal rights in the state came to a head. Led by William H. Johnson, a loquacious black Albany barber, blacks worked in this campaign with their political allies, the Repub­ licans, and succeeded in securing a new state law which gave blacks equal rights in hotels, restaurants, and schools. Under the impact of the new law, public school boards -- which were still all-white everywhere in the state in the 1870s even where they administered black schools 9 -- reacted differently in different places. In Newburgh, Troy, and Albany, the school boards promptly closed their separate black schools and admitted blacks into their white schools. In

154

Carleton Mabee Poughkeepsie, when schools opened in September, 1873, the previously mentioned black parent, Joseph Rhodes, the owner of a business for dyeing cloth, made an is­ sue of insisting that the law gave him the right to send his children to white schools, and in fact sent them there day after day, causing an uproar in the city. The school board finally compromised by decid� ing to let black children into the white schools, but also to continue to keep the black school open for those who wished to attend it. By June, 1874, how­ ever, so many blacks were attending the white schools and so few blacks were attending the black school that the board finally decided to close the black schoo1.10 The only other known black public school in nine­ teenth century Dutchess County was in Fishkill Landing (now Beacon). It was probably established about 1859.

In 1863 it had 10 to 15 pupils. In 1873, after the passage of the new state equal rights law, some of the black parents objected to sending their children to the separate school, but the school board kept it open, as the state courts eventually decided was legal for a school board to do as long as the school provided "equal" education. In 1883 this Fishkill Landing black school was a separate "department" in the white school building. In 1890 the school met in the "color.ed annex" .of the white school building. This school survived until 1890 when the school board decided that the usual attendance of five or six pupils was so low that the school did not justify its cost. The board transferred both the teacher and the pupils to the white schoo1. ll While blac.k public schools continued to exist elsewhere in the state into the 1940s, they no longer did so in Dutchess County.

Meanwhile, in 1870 when black public schools were about as numerous in the state as they ever were to be, the idea of establishing a school for blacks on a higher-than-elementary level arose in the mid-Hudson region. This was a region where, compared to much of the rest of upstate New York, blacks had long been concentrated and whites had long been hostile. All the black public schools in the region were only elementary schools, as in Poughkeepsie, Fishkill Land­ ing, Newburgh, Goshen, Haverstraw, Catskill, Hudson, and Kinderhook. Up to 1870 probably no blacks had attended Poughkeepsie High School. In New York State at large few blacks had attended secondary school or college -- few blacks were sufficiently prepared academically, few had the necessary funds, and few

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Separate Black Education in Dutchess Co. such schools, except for abolitionist-oriented ones like Oneida Institute near Utica and New York Central College near Cortland, would accept blacks anyway. In Poughkeepsie, Uriah Boston, a hairdresser who fre­ qu�ntly wrote fulsome letters to abolitionist papers, is an unusual example of a black who had sent one of his children to a secondary school, the academy of New York Central College.12 Many Northern whites were still doubtful that blacks were capable of higher education. Black intellectual achievement was little reported in magazines, newspapers, or school texts, and thus was kept out of popular consciousness.

Several times attempts had been made to found sec­ ondary schools for blacks in the state -- as by blacks in New York City in the 1830s and 1840s, and by white abolitionists in Peterboro in Madison County in the 1830s -- but they had all failed to produce lasting institu�ions. Several times also blacks and their white abolitionist allies had tried to establish a black college in or near New York State. They had done so in the early 1830s when a black national convention proposed to establish a black college in New Haven, Connecticut. They had done so again in the 1850s when Frederick Douglass led in planning to establish an "industrial college" in Rochester or within one hundred miles of Erie, Pennsylvania. They had done so again in both 1859 and 1866 when they hoped to revive the abolitionist-oriented New York Central College by transferring it into a black col­ lege. None of these proposals had succeeded.

Yet even in the black elementary schools it was difficult for teachers to develop motivation in their pupils when they knew that, unlike white pupils, they were likely to be cut off from more advanced education.

Moreover, the quality of the black teachers in the black elementary schools depended on their getting education somewhere.

In the decade of the 1860s, with the closing of the two abolitionist-oriented colleges -- Oneida Institute and New York Central College -- it was a question if there were any longer any colleges in the state which fully welcomed black students as equals. There was still no black college in New England, New York, or New Jersey.

In 1870 Eastman Business College, located in Pough­ keepsie, refused to admit blacks, as its president

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Carleton Mabee afterwards explained, because its many Southern stu­ dents would not like it. The recently established Vassar College, also located in Poughkeepsie, did not admit blacks either; as late as 1900 a Vassar official declared that "the conditions of life here are such" that we "strongly advise" Negroes not to ente�.13 Down the Hudson from Poughkeepsie at West Point was the fabled United States Military Academy. Though opened in 1802, it had never admitted a black cadet until in May, 1870, under the impact of Reconstruc­ tion, the Republican administration in Washington directed that it do so. Like many of the first Negroes admitted to colleges, the first Negro cadet, J. W. Smith of South Carolina, was nearly white. But other cadets, anxiotis to preserve the prestige of their academy as they understood it, taunted him for having any African ancestry, and even the faculty often seemed hostile. Smith sometimes retaliated -- in a famous incident he hit another cadet with a dipper.

Eventually the issues raised by Smith's.presence seemed to threaten the stability of the academy it� self. A. Democratic paper in Poughkeepsie declared that Cadet Smith, "with the aid of a few fanatics, has well nigh ruined the discipline of the Academy -­ [which is] worth more than the enti�e negropopulation and Radical [ Republican] demogogues thrown in." • But Frederick Douglass' newspaper in Washington decided that unless the academy was able to stop the persecu­ tions of Smith, "the sooner Congress abolishes the institution the better.1114 It did not seem likely that such noise over the presence of blacks on the castellated campus overlooking the Hudson would encourage other colleges in the state to admit black students.

Meanwhile in early 1870, the Republican administra­ tion in Washington succeeded, over Democratic opposi­ tion, in securing the ratification of the 15th United States Constitutional Amendment. At last New York State blacks -- as well as Southern blacks -- were promised the equal right to vote. With this encour­ agement, New York State blacks felt a new impetus to push for equal opportunity. While clamor over the admission of blacks into West Point rang loudly in their ears, black leaders of the mid-:-- Hudson region pushed to create a Negro higher educational institution for themselves.

In September, 1870, they called an educationai convention in Poughkeepsie. Those signing th� call 157

Separate Black Education in Dutchess Co. included blacks from three Hudson River counties: Dutchess, Orange, and-Columbia. When the convention met, it chose as president the black Isaac Deyo of Poughkeepsie. Being the father of eleven chiltlren, he was a leader among blacks·. - He had attended at least three state.or national black conventions. He was active in his locil African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church where the convention was being held. At the election of 1860, he had stood all day at the polls handing out ballots for equal suffrage; and now that equal suffrage had at last been won, was active as a Republican. Yet it was an ironic commentary on both the educational and occupational opportunities for blacks in the state that the president of this educational conventfon was himself oniy a laborer and cartman.

With a touch of bitterness, Deyo asked the conven­ tion, have Negroes "not been hewers of wood and draw­ ers of water long enough? Have they not blacked their master's boots and stood behind his chair until their hearts were sick and sore?" The means to elevate blacks above such menial occupations ,. he sai'd, was education.

The convention wished to establish a school for blacks on a higher level than the usual black public schools. The convention voted to create such a school -- they called it at this stage variously an academy, seminary, high s6hoo1; or college �- to be located within two miles of the court house in Poughkeepsie.

The convention appointed a committee, all blacks, to estimate what its cost would be.

A month later, in October·, 1870, a convention of b1acks met again in Poughkeepsie, with cartman Isaac Deyo presiding as before.· This time they decided to call their proposed.institution a college· only. Their plans were modest compared to those of Vassar College which had been established in Poughkeepsie nine years before. On the advice of their committee, they decid­ ed that the new college should have 15 or more acres of ground, while Vassar had 200 at its founding; and that.the new 6ollege needed $300,000 for initial costs and endowment, while Vassar had already received gifts of nearly $800,000 from brewer Mathe� Vassar alone.

While such a recently founied black college as How­ ard, in Washington, D.C. had only a few black trus� tees, and Lincoln University, in Oxford, Penrisylv,ania,

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Carleton Mabee had no black trustees at all, the trustees the conven­ tion chose for this new college were all blacks. They came from five Hudson River counties as follows: Dutchess County: Isaac Deyo, Poughkeepsie (cartman and laborer) Abraham Bolin, Poughkeepsie (gardener and janitor) Charles Cooley, Poughkeepsie (laborer) Samuel P. Jones, Fishkill Landing (laborer)· Orange County Rev. Jacob Thomas, Newburgh (minister) Rev. W. H. Decker, Newburgh (minister) Columbia County Chauncey Van Heusen, Hudson (laborer) Ulster County Hanson Harley, Kingston (barber) Greene County 15 John Goetchess, Catskill (steward)

The fact that these trustees were all black, and often of lowly occupation as well, hardly suggested that they would be able to raise the necessary funds.

Moreover, in February, 1871, the promoters chose a prickly name for their proposed institution: it was to be called "Toussaint L'Ouverture College" after the leader of the Haitian Revolution. Toussaint had long been a hero to blacks. In 1854 the black abolitionist, William Wells Brown, who was eventually to become a Toussaint College trustee, had compared two revolu­ tionary heroes, Toussaint and Washington, to the advan­ tage of Toussaint: "Toussaint liberated his country­ men," said Brown, while "Washington enslaved a portion of his. 11 16 By choosing the name of this black revolu­ tionist for their college, the trustees might be in­ gratiating themselves with some potential donors among blacks, but hardly with conservative potential donors among whites. Yet the promoters of the college must have known that black colleges -- whether blacks liked it or not -- were likely to be heavily dependent on white donors.

In early 1871 the college promoters arranged to have a local Republican Assemblyman introduce a bill into the New York legislature to incorporate the col-

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Separate Black Education in Dutchess Co. lege. In the bill, in listing the names of the trus­ tees , they added new names. It is possible that the promoters were induced to add the new names by friends who believed that otherwise the college had little chance to come into existence. The name of at least one of the new trustees, the much respected barber William Rich of Troy, who had been president of the colored state convention at least four times, was added by the initiative of a friendly Assemblyman who obtained the consent of the originators of the bill.

Among the other new trustees were the black pastors Jermain W. Loguen of Syracuse and Henry Highland Gar­ net of New York City; Williams Wells Brown, author and lecturer, of Boston; John M. Langston, dean of the law school of Howard University; the black Jonathan Wright, a recent Reconstruction appointee as South Carolina Supreme Court Justice; and Hiram Revels of Mississippi, the first black to serve in the United States Senate.

The greater prestige of these new trustees, and the wider geographical area from which they came, seemed to improve the chances that the proposed college would actually open. Still, the name of the college could be regarded as defiant, and the new trustees, like the original ones, were all blacks. Moreover, the extent of the commitment of the new trustees to the college is uncertain. No record is available that they a·ccept­ ed their appointment as trustees except for Garnet who was later scheduled to attend a meeting of the trus­ tees in Poughkeepsie.

The bill of incorporation which the trustees placed before the state legislature declared that the college was designed especially for young men and women of Af­ rican descent. But as in the plans for the industrial college in the 1850's, and in the plans to revive New York Central College as a black college in 1866, and as was true of many of the new black colleges being created at this time in the South, the college was not to refuse whites. After all, Toussaint himself, as president of the black republic of.Haiti, had not been a racial exclusivist; he had placed whites in leading government positions. Still, as everyone knew, a col­ lege intended primarily for blacks was likely to have few, if any, white students.

The bill also provided that the trustees were permitted to receive for the college up to a million dollars -- evidently the financial goals of the col­ lege promoters had grown.

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Carleton Mabee While the bill was pending in the legislature, a Poughke�psie Republican paper, which was usually sympathetic to black aspirations, appealed for con­ tributions for the proposed college from whites. "It is to be hoped that our people will give this institu­ tion a helping hand," the Da.ily Eagle, said, "as it will go far toward settling the vexed question of the mixture of the races in our schools and-colleges."

This paper seemed to be asking for support for the college in part because it would help to keep blacks out of the state's white schools and colleges.

On the other hand, a Poughkeepsie Democratic paper, the Daily Press, was hostile both to the establishment of a black college and to admitting blacks into white colleges. The Press suggested, with its usual rid­ icule of Negroes, that Poughkeepsie Negro voters were expecting to contribute to the college the money they received as bribes for voting Republican. "Only one more election," said the Press, "and the college will become a fixed fact. 11 17 --There was no excitement in the Democratic control­ led legisl�ture over passing the bill to incorporate the college. The Senate summarily reduced the value of the property the college could hold from one mil­ lion dollars to half a million, made minor changes, and then adopted the bill unanimously. In April 1871, the Assembly concurred, also unanimously.18 However, the Poughkeepsie city government didn't push to make the college a reality. Just after the college was incorporated, the go-getter Harvey East­ man -- the head of the all-white, four hundred-student Eastman Business College in Poughkeepsie -- was inau­ gurated as Republican mayor of Poughkeepsie. In a speech on the opportunities before the city, he said that he favored inviting more first class schools to Poughkeepsie, "especially a Literary College for young men " but made no mention of the black college propos­ al. i9 Poughkeepsie, having prestigious white acad� emies and military schools, as well as the white Vassar and Eastman colleges, was already known as "the city of schools"; it didn't seem anxious to be known also as the site of the only black college in the Northeast.

Moreover, the college project was running into stiff opposition from some blacks. This became evident at the New York Annual Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZ) -- the strongest black

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Separate Black Education in Dutchess Co. denomination in the state -- which happened to meet in 1871 in Poughkeepsie.

The conference represented forty black churches reaching from Northern New Jersey to Long Island and up the Hudson Valley. During its week-long sessions, the conference received generous daily coverage in the local Republican paper, and on Sunday various Pough­ keepsie white Protestant churches invited black pas­ tors who were attending the conference to preach as guests in their pulpits.

At the conference, the education committee endors­ ed the proposed black college. But the blunt Rev­ erend William P. Butler of New York City, a former pastor in Hudson and Poughkeepsie, objected heartily, and he was one of the most powerful men in the conven­ tion. He opposed separate schools. "Let the colored people of the state stand together," Butler said, "and ask for equal school rights, and they would get it. They wanted no separate college."

Poughkeepsie gardener and janitor Abraham Bolin,20 one of the trustees of the proposed college, was pres­ ent as a lay delegate from the AMEZ Church in Pough­ keepsie. Though three other of the college trustees were also present, all ministers, Bolin was the only person present who was reported to have spoken up in defense of the college. The arguments against it as a separate black institution are not logical, Bolin said, because the college would be open to both blacks and whites.

But the members of the conference were sure that the college, regardless of intent, would become in effect exclusively black, and Bolin was drowned out by a wave of feeling against separate black schools.

The conference deleted the section of the education committee's report endorsing Toussaint College. In addition, a pastor offered this resolution, which passed: "in this enlightened day, as ministers, we discountenance any scheme or plan that has ·for its object the establishment of separa�e schools �r col­ Iron­ leges for the colored people of this state."2 ical as it was, a separate African church was opposing separate African educational institutions.

Following this overwhelming indication of key black opposition to the separate black college project, openly demonstrated in the city where the college was

162

Carleton Mabee to be located, the chances for the realization of the project dropped. Moreover, a black campaign to abol­ ish separate black schciols was beginning to make head­ way in the state. In 1873 this campaign was to lead, as we have seen, to the adoption of a state equal rights law that seemed to prohibit separate public schools. The thrust of this anti-segregation cam­ paign, already strong in the Hudson Valley, was con­ trary to the �stablishment of a separate black college.

In 1872, about a year after the AMEZ conference, when blacks in the Poughkeepsie region met to choose delegates to a state black convention, on the motion of Isaac Deyo they instructed their delegates to bring the claims of Toussaint College before.the convention.

The delegates they chose were Deyo, Jones, and Bolin, all trustees of the college. At the state convention, held in Troy, three other of the trustees were all present, barber Rich of Troy, Reverend Loguen of Syra­ cuse, and Reverend Thomas, now of New Y-0rk City.

Available reports of the convention give no sign of any discussion of Toussaint College. But they do report that Reverend William F. Butler of New York City, who had helped lead the AMEZ conference to refuse to endorse the college, also led this state black convention to take a stand against separate schools for blacks. The convention, eager to cap­ italize on.the gains it believed that blacks were mak­ ing during Reconstruction, was urging that blacks, instead of creating more black institutions, should work to open more white institutions to blacks.22 Trying to establish a black college under these circumstances was like trying to build a sand castle in front of an advancing tide. While the black lead­ ers in the Poughkeepsie region remained loyal to the college cause, and they continued to have the support of Poughkeepsie's Republican newspaper, they lacked even the perfunctory endorsement, much less the active support, of both the major black denomination in the state and the black state convention; and they lacked the support of any significant body of white philan­ tropists. Without such support, the Toussaint Col­ lege cause gradually died. ln the 1870's and 1880's, in keeping with the national trend, the number of blacks attending New York State colleges showed a marked increase, reducing the need for a black college.

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Separate Black Education in Dutchess Co. Blacks in nineteenth century New York State were often successful in launchlng and sustaining rel­ atively inexpensive private elementary schools for blacks. They were also successful, with some white help, in launching more experisive private secondary sch6ols for blacks, but not in sustiining them ovei a significant peiiod. They were ncit successful �ven in launching a black college.

Nevertheless, after the attempt to launch Toussaint College was abandoned, a few special black schools were launched in New York State,· particulaily voca­ tional schools. Among these were three schools of nursing: the Lincoln Hospital school, founded in the Bronx in 1898 under white ·charitable ·auspices; the McDonough Memorial Hospital school, founded on West 41st Street in Manhattan in 1898 especially by black physicians; and Harlem Hospital school, founded in 1923, aftei strong black urging.by the city of New York. Among them also was a farm.school established in 1910 in Verbank, in Dutchess County. It was found..:. ed by the New York Colored Orphan Asylum, a white­ controiled institution located in Riverdale, in the Bronx. The Asy·lum purchased a farm in Verbank, and placed orphans there to learn farmini. Among the farm teachers there at various times were graduates of Tuskeegee Institute, Alabama, and of Hampton Institute, Virginia; all the known 'teachers were black. Thi� farm school survived only until about 1919.23 How­ ever, the long survival of the Lincoln and Harlem Hospital schools as quality institutions shows that with white backing it was possible to create success­ fully, in the state, higher schools for blacks -- at least for special vocational purposes.

Long term reasons for the failure of the attempts to establish a black college in or near New York State in the nineteenth century were the indifference and poverty of many blacks, and the indifference and hostility of many whites. More particular reasons were significant from time to time. Th� failure of the attempt in the 1830's to establish a college in New Haven appears to have been in considerable part because of white fear of educating blacks, while in the 1850's the failure of black college schemes was more nearly due to division among blacks on whether separate institutions would increase prejudice. From this time on, major black leaders in the state, like Garnet and Frederick Douglass, waveied on the wisdom of creating a black college. Before the Civil War, the concentrat-ion

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Carleton Mabee of Northern white abolitionists on the struggle to abolish slavery was a factor in the failure to create a black college; and after th� Civil War, the concen­ tration of Northern white philantropists on the educa­ tion of blacks in the South was a factor. In the 1870 1 s belief by both blacks and whites in the prac­ ticability of educational integration helped to prevent the creation of Toussaint College, and has contributed ever since to preventing the establishment of a black college in the state.

Perhaps it is a tribute to the efforts of predom­ inantly white Northeastern colleges to improve educa­ tional opportunity for blacks that, despite a marked increase in the proportion of blacks in the population of the Northeast in the 20th century, a separate black college has never yet been established in New England, New York, or New Jersey.

Notes In the research for this article, the author acknowledges the help of many people, particularly Wilhelmina B. Powers of Adriance Memorial Library, Poughkeepsie. This research was part of a larger study which was published as Carleton Mabee, Black Education in New York State: From Colonial to Modern Times, Syracuse University Press, 1979. The part of this article on Toussaint College was originally published in fuller form in Afro-Americans in New York Life and History, Jan., 1977, and is republished here in revised form by permission.

1Poughkeepsie Journal, May 26, 1830.

2New York Colored American, June 1, 1839; Pough­ keepsie Telegraph, Aug. 9, 1837, May 9, 1838.

3Poughkeepsie Telegraph, May 9, 1838; Gaius Bolin, Sr., in Rollin Masten, ed., "Dutchess County· ·church­ es," (MS, 1938?), V, p. 76, at Adriance Memorial Library.

4Dutchess County Antislavery Society, Executive Committee Minutes, 1838-39, New York Public Library.

5New- York Colored Anieric:an, Sept. 28, 1839; Pough­ keepsie Journal, June 5, 1839; SamueI R. Ward, Auto­ biography, New York: 1968 (orig. 1855), p. 50.

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Separate Black Education in Dutchess Co. 6Historical Sket·ch ·of the Poughkeep·si·e Public Schools, Poughkeepsie,· 1894, -p. 19; New York St.ate.

Superintendent of Schools, An·n·u-a:-1 Report, for 1848, p. 12; for 1865, p. 150; Poughkeepsie na·i1y Eagle, Nov. 7, 1871.

7Mabee, BTack Educati·on· in New York State, pp. 100-101.

8Poughkeepsie city directories; James H. Smith, History of Dutche·ss Cou"n-ty, Syracuse, 1882, pp. 426427; Poughkeepsie Da"ily Eagle,· May 20, 1871.

9The only place in the state known to have blacks on its public school board in the nineteenth century w�s Brooklyn, in the 1880s-1890s. In Poughkeepsie, the first black on the school board is believed to have been Marie N. Tarver in 1964, and in Beacon, William Curry in 1963.

10Mabee, Black Education in New York State, ch. 14.

One of the Rhodes children, Josephine, was the first black to graduate from Poughkeepsie High School, in 1879. She was not invited to the graduation party.

Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, June 25, 1879; New York Times, June 25, 1879.

11New York State Superintendent of Public Instruc­ tion, Annual Reports, for 1859-63; Newburgh Dai·ly Journal, Sept. 2, 1873; Fishkill Landing Fi·sb.kIIT Sta·ndard, Aug. 16, 30, 1873, Feb. 24, Oct. 13, 1883, Feb. 8, Apr. 12, 1890.

12uriah Boston to Asa Caldwell, May 5, 1854, Cort­ land County Historical Society.

13New York Times, Feb. 10, 1881; New York Freeman, June 12, 1886�E. B. DuBois, The· College-Bred Negro, Atlanta, 1900, p. 34. Vassar announced that it was ready to accept blacks in 1934. New York Amsterdam News, Dec. 22, 1934.

14 Poughkeepsie Daily Press, Jan. 16, 871; Wash­ 1 ington New National Era, Jan. 19, 1871.

15Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, Sept. 22, 23, 24, Oct. 19; New York Times, Sept. 24, 1870.

16william Wells Brown, St. no·mingo, Boston, 1855, p. 37.

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Carleton Mabee 17poughkeepsie Da:ily Eagle, Feb. 11, 1871; Pough­ keepsie Da'iTy Press, Nov. 14,. 1870.

18New York State 'Senate ·Jou·rna1, 1871; Assembly Jour·nal, 1871. The text of the original bill is in Assembly, Legislative Bi'lls,• 1871, no. 128; as passed it is in New York State Laws··, 1871, ch. 257.

19Poughkeepsie Dail1 Pr�ss, March 15, 1871.

20Abraham Bolin's son Gaius became the first black graduate of Williams College in 1889. He afterwards practiced law in Poughkeepsie, was president · of the Dutchess County Bar Association, and a.founder of the Dutchess County Branch of · the NAACP. Willi.ams Alumni Review, Fall, 1979� pp. 2-6.

21Poughkeepsie Dail1 Eagle, May 20, 1871.

22Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, Apr. 27; Troy Daily Times, May 8, 9; Troy Daily Press, May 9; Troy Daily Whig, May 9, 10, 1872.

23Association for the Benefit of Colored Orphans, Annual Reports, 1910-1919; Carleton Mabee, "Charity in Travail: Two Orphan Asylums for Blacks," New York History, Jan., 1974, pp. 55-77.

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JuZy 4 ., 1925

THE OLD PLANTATION

By Burton Coon "AZZ up an' down re whoZe creation SadZy I roam StiZZ Zongin' for de oZ' pZantation an for de oZ' foZks at home."

I felt something like that when my boys and I start�d out this morning to search for "Judge" Jackson's old cabin.

I had not been there in 40 years, so I was not very sure of finding it; but as it happened we had no trouble. We went up across the fields, looking at the corn and the pastures and our neighbors' crops. When we struck the other road we took to the woods below Mike Borich's and followed a wood road for about half a mile until we came to an open field.

I was not sure where I was, but we went on in the same gen­ eral direction until in the near distance I saw some old cherry trees and two or three old apple trees. I said to the boys, "Here we are," and so it proved.

Forty years ago my uncle and I went up to see Judge, and I still remember how he came out to meet us with the same old twinkle in his eyes and the same puckery smile playing about his mouth. But today he was not there. The roof of the cabin was gone--nothing but the bare stone walls standing in mute testimony of a human habitation. Nearby was the inevitable clump of lilac bushes--the one universal mark of civilization for a hundred years. Wherever you find them you may know that somebody has lived. The whole place was overgrown with an old-fashioned garden flower the name of which I have forgotten. We found the old well now filled with stones; the old pear tree by the potato patch; and the foundation of some kind of an out building. But we could not find the graves on the hill back of the house where the smallpox victims were laid. Probably they were never marked.

We came back down the little lane and out through the clear­ ing by the path that �udge had travelled so often in his journeys to and from the outer world. I was lothe to leave the place, for the man who lived there and his sister were connected with the earliest recollections of my childhood.

I can yet see "Black Sarah" cleaning my grandmother's pantry in the old house on the farm where my mother spent her early womanhood and where she often used to take· me as a child.

As we left 11 the old plantatiqn" we went up along the edge of the meadow and suddenly came upon another old house place. I think it is where Peter Patrick used to live. It is a more extensive ruin than Judge's cabin. It fronts on the meadow·, and there is a narrow lane leading over toward the highway, down which I imagine he often came, with his children running out to meet him, and the dog barking at their heels, while his wife stood expectantly in the door­ way. As we stood looking into the old cellar I said to the boys "Somebody once lived here, and they lived the same human life that we now live. They had the same human pas­ sions and temptations--the same loves, hatreds and preju­ dices--the same hard struggle to make ends meet that we have. And their moments of joy and of sorrow were as keenly felt." How I wish that I might have a picture of them 169

and of the life that they lived 75 years ago. Where is the rooster that crowed in the morning; and the cow that mooed by the pasture bars at night, and the cat that rubbed her­ self against her mistress' dress coaxing for her dish of milk? Where are the horses that plowed the velds and the birds that sang in the trees? Gone, gone all gone! In fact the earth is one vast sepulchre--the graveyard of cre­ ation.

Well, we followed the road out to the highway, where we found another old cellar and chimney of more recent human occupation. John Myer used to live there. The grass in the road was a foot high, yet there was a comparatively fresh automobile track which suggested a curious blending of past and present. What will be the mark of the future? I wonder.

We followed the road on up the hill, around a small pond, then more lilac bushes but no visible ruins--only a little fenced in piece of ground which had evidently been a garden and potato patch.: Then we came to where Freeman Teator lived and raised his family; where Arthur Phillips spent his later years and died; where Henry Tallman and his parents were the last human occupants. We spent some time· here wandering through the forsaken rooms and recalling the past. Then we made .our way over the hills·homeward. I looked at the thermometer. It was 94 in the shade. Yet I felt refreshed and ·invigorated because memory, the only thing that will connect us with this earthly life in the·great hereafter, had been rejuvenated within me.

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April 4, 1925

UNCLE TOM

By Burton Coon

When Harriet Beecher Stowe created the character of Uncle Tom, she did a distinct service to the world. In him; as a representative of his race and people, she showed us the kindly, generous, childlike heart of the black man and we have loved him better ever since.

I went to his cabin yesterday, up among the Milan hills where he lives with his sister that simple, rustic life.so characteristic of his people. He came out to meet me with a broad smile, a strong handshake, and a hearty welcome. We put out the horse in the little stable and then weht into the house. We talked of all the common things of life--the little things that make such a big difference in one's com­ fort and happiness. We talked of the past and the changes that had come over the neighborhood--of this one and that one who had dropped out--of the churches and the farms--and of Rhinebeck and its people. "Uncle Tom's" memory is longer than mine, for he is much older, and it was interesting to hear him tell about the village and its business men and the great fire which happened before my time. Presently dinner was ready--a chicken dinner,· of course who would expect any­ thing else at "Uncle Tom's"? A chicken dinner laid on a snowy, white cloth, and all that goes with it of good trim­ mings, good cooking, and good fellowship .

Dear reader, I wish you might have been there and so lost your taste for hootch and cabaret and counterfeit society. After dinner I went out into the yard and looked around. There was every evidence of peace and contentment.

The house banked with leaves and boughs of cedar, the rustic fence, the little garden, the old grape vine by the smoke house, the plum trees, the comfortable wood pile, and the old well with its long sweep, just over in the lot. Some chickens and four or five turkeys were strolling about, glad for the warm sunshine of returning spring. In the barnyard were .two Guernsey cows contentedly munching their noon feed, and I knew that old Bill, the black horse, was well cared for in the stable. Up on a little knoll, among the locusts, "Uncle Tom� had built a playhouse for his nieces children, who come up to see him every summer from the city. It is a wonderful building, set on tiles, with a roof, and seats and a railing around and steps leading up to it. And I can im­ agine the children sitting there of a summer afternoon, listening to the song of birds and the humming of the bees, and smelling. the fresh scent of the woods; or as the evening shadows begin to lengthen, they climb on "Uncle Tom's il knee and listen to his stories of the cows, and �he turkeys, and the chickens, and the old horse. Happy childhood. And thrice happy in such a spot as this.

When I came back into the house we sat and talked again, a long while, of God, and how to be good, and of the wicked­ ness of the world. And then we had music and singing. Music, of course! You would not expect anything else in "Uncle Tom's" cabin. Not a. violin or a banjo, it is true, but a fine, old organ; and as "Uncle Tom's" fingers ran over the keys, and his heavy rich voice rang out through the room; it sounded to me better than all the jazz in Christendom. We· sang together some of the old devotional heart songs of a generation ago--songs that make 171 people think, and feel, and

get ready to die. And, you know, it is only when you are ready to die that you are reqdy to live. Well, we sang on and on until a neighbor came on an errand that introduced some of the more prosaic elements of life, but which only served to show the innc;1te kindliness of "Uncle Tom's" heart.

Then, as the sun began tq lower in the Western sky, our thoughts turned homeward. We must leave this peaceful spot c;1nd return to the workaday world. So we said goodbye in the little front ya,rd "hard by the cabin door," where the after­ noon sun pours its glorious flood of mellow light through the naked trees, glad for the opportunity·of having spent one more day with these children of nature and of grace, in their home among the Milan hills.

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DUTCHESS COUNTY QUAKERS AND SLAVERY, 1750-1830

by Dell T. Upton* Although many people are unaware of it, Dutchess County was an important center of Quakerism in New York State during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Among the many contributions of Dutchess County Quakers to the County, and to their Religion was that of goading the Society of Friends ( the official name of the Quakers) into taking a firm stand against slavery.

After the issue of war, slavery was perhaps the most important prob­ lem confronting Friends in this era. They came to see that slavery violated the Quaker principle of the Inner Light, "that of God in every man," by infringing upon the freedom which the presence of God granted to every man, black or white. But they did not reach this position easily, as this paper will attempt to show.

In the earliest years of Quakerism, Friends thought little of the problem, but as early as 1688, some uneasiness began to stir the sect. In that year, in the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, a question about the justice of slawry was expressed in the form of a concern ( the Quaker term for "a deep in­ terest in some spiritual or social matter, an interest so deep and vigorous that it moves to action"). In 1711, the Chester ( Pennsylvania) Quarterly Meeting passed a minute discouraging the further enslavement of blacks

by Quakers. 1 There the matter rested until John Woolman, the famous New Jersey Quaker preacher, began agitating the question in the 1750's. By 1755, the meetings in America had taken a stand prohibiting slave trading by Quakers.

This is made clear by the fact that the meetings felt free to deal with those who did so. Woolman's contribution to the development of anti­ slavery feeling among Quakers was to show them that it was no less evil to hold slaves than to buy and sell them. As a result of his efforts, a few Quakers of tender conscience began in the early 17 60' s to send apologies or "acknowledgments" to the New York Yearly Meeting for their holding slaves, although that body had as yet taken no stand on the issue.2 The next important step was taken in Dutchess County. In 1767, Oblong MontHy Meeting held at Quaker Hill, N. Y., adopted a minute expressing its feelings, on the matter, and sent it to the Quaterly Meeting at Purchase for consideration. The minutes of Purchase Quaterly Meeting report that In this meeting the practice of trading in Negroes, or other slaves and its inconsistency with our religious principles was revived, and the inconsiderable difference, between buying slaves, or keeping " Dell T. Upton, a member of the Dutchess County Historical Society, is a resident of Pleasant Valley, N. Y. A graduate of Colgate University, at present he is a graduate student at Brown University. Mr. Upton's article is an excerpt from a longer work "A History of the Quakers in Dutchess County, New York, 1728-1828", which was written as an honor thesis in History at Colgate University.

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those in slavery we are already possest of, was briefly hinted at jn a short query from one of our monthly meetings, which is recom­ mended to the consideration of our next yearly meeting; Viz If it is not consistant with Christianity to buy and sell our fellow-men for slaves during their lives, and their posterity after them, whether it is consis,tanc with a Christian Spirit to keep these in Slavery that we already have in possession, to purchase, gift, or other ways.

The action of Oblong Monthly Meeting was "the first action of a legislative body in New York State upon the freeing of slaves." 3 At the Yearly Meeting in Flushing, Fifth Month (May), 1767, it was concluded, perhaps reasonably, to consider the issue for a year, to allow Friends to wrestle with their consciences. The next year, however, they dodged the issue again. It is to the discredit of that Society that, while they were so uncompromising in their concern over lesser moral issues, to the extent that they alienated or expelled many well-intentioned members and repulsed prospective ones, they should, on this great issue, back down, and avoid making a definite statement, in order not to alienate slaveholders among them. It is not a question of indecision, for the statement clearly in­ dicates that they saw their duty, but one of a lack of resolve.

We [ their minute read] are of the mind that it is not convenient ( considering the circumstances of things amongst us) to give a,n Answer to this Querie, at least at this time, as the answering of it in direct terms manifestly tends to cause division and may In­ troduce heart burnings and Strife amongst us, which ought to be Avoided, and Charity exercised, and persuasive methods pursued and tha.t which makes for peace. We are however fully of the mind that Negroes as Rational Creatures are by nature born free, & where the way opens liberty ought to be extended to them, and they not held in Bondage for Self ends. But to turn them out at large In­ discriminately - which seems to be the tendency of this Querie, will, we Apprehend, be attended with great Inconveniency, as some are too young, and some too old to obta,in a livelihood for them­ selves.

By 1770, the Yearly Meeting saw its way clear to make official the policy forbidding the selling of slaves, except under stringent control of the Month­ ly Meeting.4 In 1769 the Oblong Monthly Meeting held at Quaker Hill and the Nine Partners Monthly Meeting held in the present day village of Mill­ brook, became the first Meetings to free slaves as an action of the body.

Emancipations grew in number until, by 1773, they were appearing regular­ ly in the minutes and record books of the Dutchess County Monthly Meet­ ings. The manumissions were supervised by the Meetings which saw to it that the documents were strictly legal, and then preserved a copy . in their record books.5 ( see the Appendix for a typical manumission)

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The Nine Partners Monthly Meeting formed a committee in 1774 which was charged with attempting to persuade slaveowners to free their slaves. Oblong formed a similar committee the next year.6 Finally, in 1775, the New York Yearly Meeting capitulated to its duty, declaring "our solid judgment that all in profession with us who hold Negroes ought to restore them to their natural right to liberty as soon as they arrive at a suitable age for freedom." After this, it was made clear that anyone who failed to comply promptly would be disowned ( expelled) .7 Complete emancipation followed quickly in Dutchess County. Under the dual pressures of the slaveholders visitation committees and the Yearly Meeting's declaration, members of Nine Partners Monthly Meeting emanci­ pated 17 slaves, with three children still enslaved until their majority. These three were freed much earlier than that however, and by 1780, no slaves were held in that meeting.3 By 1776, there was one slave left in the Oblong Monthly Meeting.

He was Philips, the servant of Samuel Field, who, though he wa,s a member of Oblong Monthly Meeting, lived in Peach Ponds, Westchester County.

After repeated visits from the committee, Field gave in and freed Philips in 1777.9 To their credit, Friends realized that they had a duty to the freedmen after emancipation. All the monthly meetings formed committees to visit former slaves and masters to determine whether the ex-slaves were getting the proper attention from their former masters. Purchase Quarterly Meet­ ing reported that We are informed by four of our Monthly Meetings that a v1s1t hath been performed to most of the friends who have set Negroes free, and also to the Negroes set free, and Inspection has been made into their circumstances, many of whom Appeared Satisfied with what their [former] masters have done for them, tho Some of them Think there is considerable due to them for their past labour which it is apprehended is the case, and some friends ap­ peared willing to Submit to the Judgement of the committee thereto appointed with respect to a Settlement between them but there a,re others who object to submit to Settlement of the com­ mittee appointed to that Service [.] 10 Other Friends undertook personal action to alleviate the condition of slaves. In 1765, Stephen Haight Delivered to this meeting an acknowledgment for Buying a, Negro man With a proposal of keeping him a Slave 10 years from the time he Bought him Which is the 3:mo [sic] 1764 and then to Let him Free After haveing obligated Sd Negro to Lay Up £2 a Year During his Life and the Money to Be at the Negros own Disposal at his Decase [sic] Unless it is Wanted by him in time of an Extraordinary Exigency thro

=

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poverty Sickness or other Necessity and the Sd acknowledgment & proposal is By this Meeting thought Well of [.]

Haight later infuriated the Meeting by selling the man, contrary to his agreement, and was summarily disowned. Roulof White surprised Nine Partners Meeting in 1782 by submitting a manuniission of a black man, causing the Meeting to reply that it "Thinks it Necessary to make Inspec­ tion how the Said friend Came by the Said Negroe and the Circumstances of his being thus discharged." It was discovered that White "Bought Said Negroe in Charity to him in order to obtain his freedom without any Sinister View." His explanation was nervously accepted, with the stipula­ tion that Friends should not make even these concessions to slavetrading in the future without the advice of the meeting.

11 Later in this period, the Quaker attitude developed even further.In the anticipation of some modern movements, such as the one to resist war taxes, some Friends conceived that it was unfitting for Quakers to partake of any of the products of slave labor, insofar as they could avoid doing so.

John Woolman was among the first to articulate this sentiment.Later it was taken up by such diverse Quaker leaders as the theological conservative David Sands and his liberal enemy Elias Hicks. At Stanford Quarterly Meet­ ing in 11 month 1818, Hicks was led to call Friends' attention to the fundamental principle of our profession and to show the drift and design of those precious testimonies., as good fruit naturally emanated from a good tree; especially those two, the most noble and dignified, viz: against war and slavery .. . with regard to slavery . .. although we had freed our own hands from holding by active force, any of this oppressed people, the Africans and their descendants, in uncon­ ditional slavery; yet, whether so long as we voluntarily and of choice, are engaged in a commerce in, and the free use of the fruits of their labour, wrested from them by the iron hand of oppression, through the medium of their cruel and unjust masters, we are not accessary [sic] thereto, and are partakers in the un­ righteous traffic of dealing in our fellow creatures, and in a great measure lay waste our testimony against slavery and oppression.

These subjects were largely opened [i.e., expounded], and the inconsistency of such conduct placed before the minds of Friends; accompanied with strong desires, that they might have their proper effect, in convincing them of the unrighteousness of such conduct.

Dutchess County reaction to this position was generally favorable. For in­ stance, William Dean wrote Hicks a letter thanking him for his stand on slave products. Many Quakers followed Hicks' example. David Irish of Quaker Hill, for instance, abstained from using slave-produced goods be­ lieving that "Whoso gives the motive makes his brother's sin his oiwn." The sentiment was not unanimous, however. Hicks visited the Quarterly Meeting of the Nine Partners in 11 month 1815, and found that it "was in the main an instructive favoured season, although considerably interrupted by the im­ prudence of a Friend, in his unwarrantable opposition to a concern, which

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was opened to draw Friends off from the too free and unnecessary use of articles, which were the produce of the labour of the poor enslaved black people ..." 12 Quaker concern for the slave passed on beyond this period into the better known activities of such Quakers as Lucretia Coffin Mott ( a graduate and former teacher of the Nine Partners Boarding School) and the Grimke sisters. The building which later came to be Susan Moore's Floral Hill boarding house, at Moore's Mills, was, when it was the Moores' family home, an Underground Railway station maintained by the Friends of Oswego Meeting. These more glamorous activities have achieved greater notoriety, but they are no more important than the earlier efforts of Friends in Dutchess County.11� NOTES 1. Henry Kalloch Rowe, The His:ory of Religion in the United States (New York, 1924), p. 98. New York Yearly Meeting of Friends, Faith and Practice (New York, 1968) ,p. 95. William Warren Sweet, The Story of Reliiion in America (New York, 1950), p. 416.

2. See for example Oblong (Men's) Monthly Meeting [hereafter abbreviated MM], MS. Minutes, 8 mo. 18 1757 to 1 mo. 17 1781, Haviland Records Room, New York Yearly Meeting, New York City, Meetings of 7/19/1759, 7/21/1763, 12/15/1763. Rufus Jones, The Quakers in the American Colonies (New York, 1966), p. 256.

3. Oblong MM, 1757-1781, Meeting of 4/15/1767. Purchase (Men"s) Quarterly Meeting, MS. Minutes, 6 mo. 3 1745 to 7 mo. 1793, Haviland Records Room, New York City, Meeting of 5/2/1767. Jones, p. 257. Warren H. Wilson, Quaker Hill - A Sociological Study (New York, 1907), p. 25. Henry Noble McCracken, Old Dutchess Forever! (New York, 1956), pp. 197-98. Wilson, p. 26.

4. Wilson, pp. 25-26.

5. Stephen H. Merritt, "The Brick Meeting House at Nine Partners," Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook, VII (1922), 17.

6. Nine Partners (Men's) Monthly Meeting, MS. Minutes, 2 mo. 23 1769 to 1 mo.

22 1779, Haviland Records Room, New York City, Meeting of 7/22/1774.

Oblong MM, 1757-1781, Meeting of 9/20/1775.

7. Wilson, p. 26. McCracken, p. 198.

8. Nine Partners MM, 1769-1779, Meeting of 4/14/1776.

9. Purchase QM, 1745-1793, Meetings 0£ 4/17 il 776, 8/14/1776. Oblong MM, 1757-1781, Meeting of 8/20/1777.

10. Nine Partners (Men's) Monthly Meeting, MS. Minutes, 2 mo. 19 1779 to 9 mo.

19 1783, Haviland Records Room, New York City, Meeting of 8/17/1781.

11. Oblong MM, 1757-1781, Meeting of 6/20/1765. Nine Partners MM, 1779-1783, Meetings of 8/14/1782, 11/20/1782.

12. John Woolman, Journal of John Woolman, edited by Janet Whitney (Chicago, 1950), p. 20 and passim. David Sands, Journal Of the Life and Gospel Labors of David Sands, (New York, 1848), p. 18. Elias Hicks, Journal of the Life and Religious Labours of Elias Hicks (New York, 1832), p. 348. Bliss Forbush, Elias Hicks, Quaker Liberal (New York, 1956), p. 205. Phoebe T. Wanzer, David Irish - A Memoir (Quaker Hill, 1902), p. 10. Hicks, p. 244.

13. McCracken, p. 53.

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APPENDIX A MANUMISSION 1 Know all men by these presents that whereas I Jacob Thorn of Charlotte Precinct in Dutchess County and Province of New York being Intitled by Inheritance to a Negro man Named Primas as also a Negro woman Vilote and being Convinced in my Judgment of the Iniquity of Keeping Slaves Do out of tenderness of Conscience and to Render to them their Just Right of freedom do by these Presents manumit free and fully Discharge them the sd Negro man and woman Named as Aforesaid as far as my right to them Doth Extend and this manumition is Intended that Neither me my heirs Executors Administrators or Assigns Shall have any Right of Claim or Demand of Property to them the sd Negro man Named Primas and Negro woman Named Vilote after the date hereof in witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and s.eal the Twenty third day of the Third month one thousand seven hundred and seventy six Zopher Green

Jacob Thorn

Tripp Mosher

Dorothy Thorn

1 Nine Partners (Men's) Monthl Meeting The First Book of Friends Records , y 1769-1798 [MS. Marriage and miscellaneous records], Haviland Records Room,

New York Yearly Meeting, New York City, p. 186.

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THE NEGRO IN DUTCHESS COUNTY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY In 1937 Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church of Poughkeepsie celebrated the centennial of its founding. When announcement was made of the approach of the anniversary the present writer was not only interested but surprised. The surprise was occasioned by the fact that, inasmuch as slavery was finally abolished in the state of New York in ] 827 and that only ten years elapsed until the organization of Zion Church, it was noteworthy that in the course of one decade the number of negroes in Poughkeepsie possessed of a degree of material prosperity ·was sufficiently large to form a congregation. Consideration of that accomplishment led to the preparation of this article, which is offered as a contribution,-however limited and inadequate,-to the early portion of the history of the negro in Dutchess County. Presented below are local notes which, it is hoped, may be useful in the future to some general historian.

The importation of negroes into New Netherland was begun early in the seventeenth century by the Dutch West India Company, for the reason that it was expensive to send white laborers. from Europe to do the agricultural work that was needed here and because the white laborer soon after arrival deserted agriculture and applied himself to a trade. 1 The negro was therefore brought in from Brazil, the West Indies and from Africa.

No permanent settlers established themselves in Dutchess County until 1687, when two white men took up land on the site of the city of Poughkeepsie. How soon after 1687 negroes were brought into the county there has nothing been found to show but in 1714 ( twenty-seven years later) a census of Dutchess2 was taken which recorded a total population of 417 whites and 30 blacks. It is to be supposed that the 30 negroes of 1714 had not all arrived here that year and so it is a fair state­ ment to make that the negro has been a resident of Dutchess very nearly as long as the white man.

The 30 negroes of 1714, all slaves, were listed in the census with the households of the owners as follows: 1 with Jacob Kip, who lived at the present Rhinecliff.

1 with Evert Van Wagenen, who lived at the present Rhinecliff.

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2 with Maghill Parmentier, who lived at Poughkeepsie.

1 with Leonard Lewis, who lived at Poughkeepsie.

5 with Baltus Van Kleeck, who lived at Poughkeepsie.

3 with Frans Le Roy, who lived at Poughkeepsie.

4 with Henry Van Der Burgh, who lived at Poughkeepsie.

1 with (Mellen) Springsteen, who lived at the present Beacon.

3 with Roger Brett, who lived at the present Beacon.

1 with Johannis Dyckman, Sr., who lived at ( ? ) .

5 with Dirck Wesselse, who lived at ( ? ) .

1 with Jacob Vosburgh, who lived at ( ? ) .

1 with Roeliff Duijtser, who lived at the present Dover.

1 with Pick De Witt, who lived at ( ? ) .

Subsequently, during the eighteenth century, the negro in Dutchess vrns recorded by census five times, 3 -in 1731, 1737, 1746, 1749 and 1790, --and the figures in those successive returns are illuminating in more ways than one. A comparison of the four returns that were made 17311749 leads to the conclusion that there were some typographical errors in the printed record and that in 1746 some round figures that were given must have been estimates, not exact counts. But, taking the four returns together and allowing for inaccuracies, it is possible to see that in the second quarter of the eighteenth century the negro population of Dutchess did not exceed a total of about five hundred persons. There were many more adult males than adult females recorded by each of the four returns, which undoubtedly indicates that detached men were employed out of doors in what was then a region thickly forested and sparsely occupied by settlers. Gradually the number of women and children increased, which of course shows the growth of family relation­ ships and, in consequence, a greater stability and permanence in the community.

Between the census of 1749 and that of 1790,-a period of over forty years,-no figures are available. The return from 1790 lists a total of 1,714 slaves in Dutchess, which am'ounts to about four times the total of 1749. In 1790 the negroes in Dutchess were distributed in the county as follows: 52 in Amenia; 106 in Beekman; 166 in Clinton:. 559 in Fishkill; 80 in Northeast; 42 in Pawling; 207 in Poughkeepsie; 421 in Rhinebeck; 81 in Washington.

The census of 1790 can be taken as the peak of slavery in Dutchess for on March 29 , 1799, the legislature of New York passed an Act4 that

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outlined measures for freeing the negroes in the state. In abstract form the Act provided that: after July 4, 1799, any child born of a slave was to be free, such a child to be the servant of the legal owner of the m·other until it reached the age of 28 (if male) or 25 (if female) ; and: such a child to be the same as though bound to service by the overseers of the poor; and: the bir ·hs of such children were to be recorded, with penalties for failure to record; and: if the person entitled to the service of such a child abandoned the right to the child, the child might be bound out by the overseers of the poor; and: all children, thus abandoned, should be cared for by the overseers of the poor at the expense of the state; and: after the passage of the Act the owner of any slave might manumit such slave by certificate. The Act became completely effective in 1827, in which year all ne roes in the State of New York automatically became free.

In the Bockec family of Dutchess County there is a tradition 5 that Jacob Bockee (bo n 1757, died 1819), who lived at Shekomeko in the town of N orthea:t and who was a. member of assembly 1794-1797, sponsored a movement at Albany to abolish slavery in the state of New York. The minutes of the proceedings of the assembly in the years in which he was a ember contain no mention of this. And the Act by which the slaves were made free was passed after Jacob Bockee's term had expired. But the family tradition is a positive one and so it may be that Jacob Bockee during his term of -office agitated for action which took place later.

It can hardly be questioned that the negro was first brought to Dutchess County y the whi'te settlers to help clear the forests. This belief would agree with the fact that there were ·in the beginning so many adult males and so few females. But, as time went· on,· cultivated farms increased in- number and' the need to fell trees' decreased. With· that change in conditio' s the colored m'en worked·'in the open fields and in the vegetable gardens and tended stock,·while their wives helped in the ·work inside the· houses ·of the white: owners'.

• Thi'hou�·eii 6f'1:he eighteenth century in D�tchess ·were'·none too comfortable'fo'i· the 6ine;s· as rega'.tded light. and heat arid \rentihtion and the slaves su'ffer'e d iri ·those'. respects' fo• an eve'ri. greater degree', al though there ,v�s'prob'abl'y no.'in:tention··of cruel't'y in this' cohnetti.ori"on the part of the whites toward the blacks, for the ·knowledge '6fhygie' ne ·ahd sani-'

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tation was limited then. The white families lived and ate and slept in the rooms on the main floor of houses that were a story and a half high; the blacks were sometimes quartered in the half-story, sometimes in the cellar, sometimes in out-buildings.

In the main the relation between the races was amicable and often i1 was one of devotion and attachment between individuals. Otcasionally there were instances unpleasant to tell of, as they reveal each race at its worst (the negro in under-development, the white in brutality of behav­ iour). The eighteenth century written records mention happenings so dreadful they are shocking to this generation to learn of. In 1735 Quacko, 6 a negro, was sentenced to many lashes for the attempted rape of a white woman and as significant additional severity the punishment was ordered administered by other negroes. In 177 5 a negro set fire to the house and barn of Jacob Van Benschoten of Poughkeepsie. The buildings burned to the ground and for his act the negro, himself (who had confessed his guilt), was-horrible to state !-burned to death by order of county authorities. 7 In 1751 Harry, a slave of Arie Hendrickse, committed some breach of peace and the Court of General Sessions8 ordered the owner to give a bond for £100 for Harry's future good behaviour. In 1755 Jack King­ street, a negro, threatened to kill or hurt Cornelius Swartwout, a white man, and was put in jail until he could give bond for good behaviour. 9 There is nothing to show whether Jack Kingstreet ·were a slave or a free negro but it is to be noted that he had a surname, which at the time was unusual.

That owners were responsible to the civil authorities for the good conduct of their slaves is evident from the foregoing item that Arie Hendrickse had to give bond for Harry but the obligation of owners was still further defined in 1773 by an Act 10 of the provincial legislature, the purpose of which was stated as being "to prevent aged and decrepit slaves from becoming burthensome within this colony." The Act cited "repeated instances" where owners of aged and decrepit slaves (had) obliged the same to go about begging for the common necessaries of life; such owners were liable under the Act to a fine, as were also owners who sold a slave to a person unable to maintain the slave. On the same date it was enacted :i. 1 further that keepers of inns or taverns were forbidden to sell licquor to �my "aµprentice servant, or negro, or other slave" without the consent of the master or mistress.

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That there was occasionally a free negro in Dutchess County in the eighteenth century is learned incidentally from the proceedings of the board of supervisors 12 and of the court of general sessions. 13 It was the duty of the board of supervisors to take care of indigent poor in the county out of monies raised by taxation and, from 17 54 through 1759, expense was incurred for one who was variously described as: "a free negro", "a lame negro", "the old lame negro" and "an old crippled negro". The lame negro and the free negro were one and the same man, as is shown by details stated in the records. The entries run for about six years, during which time the old freeman was boarded by the supervisors with Jonathan Strickland for four months, with Peter Low. Lassing for a year and eight months and with Abraham Lassing for four years.

The fact that there were some negroes who were free is still further witnessed to by a certain item in the county records. 14 At a sitting of the court of General Sessions Cornelis Jansen, "a mulatto negro man, ap­ peared in court and produced a manumission in writing under the hand and seal of his father, Francis Jansen, bearing date the 21st day of .August, 17 56." After proper proceedure the court ordered "that the said Cornelis Jansen be manumitted accordingly."

This instance of Cornelis Jansen, a mulatto, the son of Francis Jansen, can hardly be other than that of the child of a white father ( a Dutchman, from his name) and a negro mother. Such mixture of race is common in the southern states. How frequently it occurred in Dutch­ ess in the eighteenth century nothing has been found to show.

One of the most detailed stories of a slave in Dutchess county in the eighteenth century is found in the history of Christ Church� Pough­ keepsie, although it must regretfully be added that the story is that of a slave who was troublesome and of whites who failed to recognize the evil of the system of slavery. Briefly stated 15 the story runs that in 17801783 the Glebe House of Christ Church ( still standing in 1941 on Main street, Poughkeepsie) was rented to Colonel Andrew Bostwick. The colonel's payments of rent fell into arrears and, to offset his debt, he gave the vestry of the church his negro, Jack. The vestry turned Jack over to Richard Davis of Poughkeepsie. In 1784 Jack ran away, stole a horse at Red Hook, went to Connecticut and was there taken up by the local authorities. He was followed by Richard Davis and, having apparently eluded the Connecticut officials, was apprehended at "Bennington in the

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new Clames."

From there he was taken to New York and sent to

"Carrolina", where he was sold.

That slaves ran away more or less frequently is witnessed to by the advertisements in contemporary newspapers, although it is probable that truancy was occasioned by more than one motive.

While in some cases

it ,may have been prompted by harsh treatment of the slave by the white owner, in others it was presumably due to a "wanderlust", a desire to get abroad and see something new, to have amusement and to .do as he or she pleased.

The advertisements are informing, less for the fact of

the running away than for details they provide regarding the personal appearance and disposition of the runaway, the clothing worn and so on.

A few examples are listed below.

September 1, 1779, David Waldron of New Hackensack announced that there had run away from him "a Likely Negro Boy, about sixteen years of age, a small scar by his right eye; had on a brown linsey woolsey jacket, a black and white striped under jacket, two shirts, two pair of tow trousers, blue ribbed stockings, one pair new shoes, one pair turned pumps, an old beaver h;1t with white binding."

N cw York Packet & American A d•vertiser, September 2, 1779.

Also on September 1, 1779, Comfort Sands, "living at Poughkeep­ sie" (he was the Auditor-General of the newly organized state govern­ ment, his home being on Long Island), reported that there had run · away from him on August 29th "a Negro l\1an named Pomp, about 30 years old, Guinea born, about six fe.et high, (who) speaks good English.

(He) had on when. he went away a new brown short coat, lined with green baize, a scarlet vest, a pair of striped linen breeches, a pair of tow trousers; he has been seen, in Hanover Precinct, Ulster County; is harboured by some disaffected people and it is expected he means to • ' • go to the enemy."

Neru..• York Packet & American Advertiser, September·Z, 1779.

Godfrey Wolven of Oswego, Beekman-Town, advertised on October · 29, 1791, • that there had run away fr�m him ··"a Negro Man, named Robert, 23 years .old,. about five feet, ten inches high; •(he) speaks good English, is a fidler and took his fiddle with him. He als.o took with him a considerable quantity of clothing, among which is a blue coat, snuff' cdlored Velvet.breeches, Velvet white jacket,.&c-had also·considerable money.''.

Poughk�;psie jo�rnal, N�v-emb�r '24, 1791.

An advertisement dated October 17; • 1795, l'ublished' by Samuel /\.4gustu� Barker (.th�n. living in Franklin, ,a· part .9£ Du.tche.ss. since part of Putnam ,County) states tqat there 4ad run away from him "a Negro Man, ilame'd Zack, about 20 years of age, 5 feet, 7 o'r8 inches high; slender puilt, �prightly ,walk, has lost the sight of, his. .ldt· eye,· born· in Con�ec­ ticut, spe�ks good English, ·plays on the fife and G½i-man flute, had a, fife • with' hirn; h1ad ·on·a coat, waistcoat anti. ovet'alls' df ligh't:'-colored home, · ,made ,beax;skin, rou:nd hat,: and �hoes.; carried w'i.th him a' new. green . bro_adc!o�� ,�?_a t, , 1 s�ri_ped c��t?n. �_alstc.o_at, , f �st�a.n,.ov:er�,11.�,, p�mke_e,� .do.).. white· cotton stockmgs, thread do., several shirts and other clothmg."

Poughkeepsie Journal, January 6, 1796.

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Henry B. Livingston of Rhinebeck announced on November 30, 1801, that " a black boy, named Solomon," had run away from him.

Solomon, he said, had '' a remarkable scar between his eyes, is slim built, and aged 17 or 18; had on when he went away a good hat. a green- dver and under waistcoat made of sarg, faced with red cloth, and ··considerably worn, a stout green cloth overalls and a good pair of shoes; over his other clothes wears an old drab-colored greatcoat, the bottom of which he had torn off to facilitate his walking. It is supposed he will apply for a passage to some foreign country as his inclination tends that way."

Poughkeepsie Journal, January 5, 1802.

"A Negro Man named Abraham" ran away in May, 1803, from Ares Vanderbilt, who lived near New Hackensack. The owner des­ cribed Abraham as " about 20 years old, about 5 feet 5 inches high, (and said he) had on a light-colored bearskin coat, swansdown jacket, fustian overhalls, black rorum hat (and) took with him a brown fear­ nought _!!reatcoat; (he) talks good English and some Dutch."

Poughkeepsie Journal, July 5, 1803.

And finally William Davies of Poughkeepsie in October, 1809, wanted to get back a spirited black girl of 21, named Caroline, who, he said, was "very likely." She was dressed in a striped tow cloth short gown, striped linsev woolsey petticoat, tow apron (and was) without any bonnet. He added that Caroline was "inclined to go to New York" and that captains of vessels and all ferrymen were desired not to take her on board.

Poughkeepsie Journal, October 18, 1809.

Now that some of the unfortunate aspects of the lot of the negro in Dutchess County in the eighteenth century have been touched upon, it is possible to turn to happier parts of the story. And here, fortunately, a bit of contemporary testimony is available. In the 1760's there lived in Orange County, a few miles southwest of Newburgh, a Frenchman, St. John de Crevecoeur, a man of letters. In the course of his writings he had much to say of his own and other farms in Orange County, which of course were similar to farms of the same day in Dutchess. Of the negroes in Orange County Crevecoeur gave an account that may safely be taken as applicable to the negroes of the same date here. He said : 16 "The few negroes we have are at best but our friends and com­ panions. Their original cost is very high. Their clothing and their victuals amount to a great sum, besides the risk of losing them. * * ♦ If we have not the gorgeous balls, the harmonious concerts, the shrill horn of Europe, yet we dilate our hearts as well with the simple negro • fiddle." ·* * * (Speaking of ovens). "Mine is in the chimney of my negro kitchen. *** Our negro kitchens are always built adjacent to our dwelling houses, with a door of communication into the room where we eat, in order that we may inspect whatever passes there; and indeed it is the room which is often the most useful for all housework is done in it."**·* (Speaking of winter). "Nor are the joys and pleasures of the season confined to the whites alone; as our blacks divide with us the toils of our farm, they partake also of the mirth and good cheer of the

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season. They have their own meetings and are often indulged with their masters' sleighs and horses. You may see them at particular places as happy and merry as if they were freemen and freeholders.

The sight of their happiness always increases mine, provided it does not degenerate into licentiousness; and this is sometimes the case, though we have laws enough to prevent it."

This description by Crevecoeur, testifying to generally good rela­ tions between whites and blacks, is supplemented by an account 1 7 of the status of the slaves held by the Van Benschoten family at New Hacken­ sack, Dutchess County, which, summarized, relates that: the births of slaves were recorded in the Dutch Bible of the family from 1749 to 1810.

In 1827, slavery having been abolished in New York State, the slaves owned by the Van Benschotens were provided for. To heads of families \'Vere given farms of from ten to thirty acres; to younger ones sums of money; to some boys a horse; all were well clothed. "Most of them returned to their old home at intervals; once a year at least they came to receive their Christmas dole. And some of them returned there sick, -to die and to be buried on the place, in the graveyard appropriated to their race.;' The account book 18 of Francis Filkin of Poughkeepsie contains items of 1736-1746 about his negroes: Will, George, Dina, Josina, Betie, Molly and Kit. He bought clothing for them and Will and George served him and his neighbors in field-work, carting, butchering livestock, sweeping chimneys, &c. They also went out hunting and fishing. A I-�revious Year Book of this society (1930, vol. 15, pp. 36-44) has already given in some detail a record of the slaves held by the Van Der Burgh family and of the attachment felt by each race for the other. Mr. \Villiam V. Coe of Clove Valley has definite traditions of the slaves who in the early nineteenth century were on the Emjgh farm at the north end -of the valley. The negroes there occupied a small structure that stood due east of the stone house (still standing) that the family lived in but which was torn down before 1850.

Several wills 19 recorded in Dutchess County contain provisions for the family slaves; some of whom were freed and some of whom were made a_ch�rge upon the testator's estate for support and good care. On the farms burial grounds were set aside for use by the negroes; in the ·churches seats were reserved for them and the ministers baptized and married them. No instance has been noted of the association of negroes with Friends' Meetings. But with the Dutch Church and with the

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"English Church" (i.e. the Episcopal) they were closely affiliated. Not only were the Friends opposed to slavery at an early date, for which reason they and the negroes probably had fewer person�! contacts, but the austerity of the meetings made no appeal to the more emotional, volatile elements in the make-up of the negro race. In that connection it is to be observed that when, in the early nineteenth century, congrega­ tions of Methodists and Baptists were organized by the whites, the negro gravitated naturally to those churches, where there is freer individual expression than in the Dutch and Episcopal communions.

The natural tendency of the negro race toward a joyous, care-free :spirit shows itself in a love for music and it is interesting that some of the earliest items in the history of Dutchess County concerning musical instruments are connected with the negro. Crevecoeur of Orange County told of "frolics" in the 1760's that were enlivened by the fiddle ,of the negro,--occasions that beyond question found a counterpart in Dutchess. Robert, slave to Godfrey Wolven of Beekman, Dutchess, in 1791 was "a fiddler'' and took his fiddle with him when he ran away. :Zack, owned by Samuel A. Barker in 1795, played on the fife and the ·German flute.

But, above and beyond a light heart and a gift for music, th� negro race exhibited in Dµtchess a capacity for loyalty to friends that is witnessed to by tradition. And, sometimes, the loyalty rose to heights of -courage and self-sacrifice under trial. There are two stories that have been handed down, reliably and intelligently, in two of the older white families of the county that are worth including here to illustrate this ·point. They are the stories of two slave women, Nanna and Dina, and have to do with the War of the Revolution.

Nanna was owned originally in the Van Voorhis family and the house occupied by the family stood about a mile north of Fishkill Landing (now Beacon). At Fishkill Landing in 1874 Henry Du Bois Bailey published a small book entitled: Local Tales and Historical Sketches, in which at pages 376-379 he paid a feeling tribute to Nanna, whom he had known in his youth. When the British fleet came up the Hudson in 1777 the members of the Van Voorhis household. fled to the interior of Dutch­ ess, all but the head of the family, who said he would not leave his house, and Nanna, who said she would not leave him. When the house - was fired upon from the ships Nanna and her master went to ·1:he cellar

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kitchen, where they stayed until the ships had passed. At the time of the British raid Nanna was a woman over thirty years of age. In 1805. vvhen a granddaughter of her first owner married John N. Bailey, Nanna v,·ent to live in the new household. There,· in his childhood, she held little Henry Du Bois Bailey on her lap and told him stories, including the story of her experience in 1777. He recorded that she could speak both Dutch and English. In 1828, freedom having come in 1827, she left the Baileys and m:ade her home with her own children but the change was too great, she soon sickened and in 1830 she died. She must then have been nearly ninety years old as she was known to have been born· before a member of the Van Voorhis family, the year of whose birth was 1744.

On the shore of the Hudson m the town of Poughkeepsie, on the site occupied recently by R. U. Delapenha and Company, there stood in the eighteenth century a mill and a dwelling. When the British ships came up the river in October, 1777, the owner of the mill and the dwell­ ing was Theophilus Anthony and, in his family, was a slave named Dina.

Dina is said to have been born in Africa and to have been purchased in New York City by Theophilus Anthony to serve as a nurse for his infant daughter, Wilhelmina Anthony (born 1761, died 1800), who later became the wife of Robert Gill (born 1759, died 1836). The Anthony family came to Dutchess County early in 1777, 20 bringing Dina with them, and she continued first with the Anthonys and then with the Gills until she died, except for a short interval when she was first made free.

At her death she was buried on the Gill farm but in late years her body was removed thence to the Gill plot in the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery, where her resting place is marked by a stone inscribed with the one "vord : Dina. 21 Traditional knowledge of Dina was still clear and pos1t1ve in the Gill family early in the twentieth century and members of the family then shared with the writer the story of Dina's courage during the War of the Revolution. The story as the writer received it was to the effect that in October, 1777, when it became known that the British fleet was on its way up the river, the members of the Anthony family fled from their home on the bank of the river to the woods farther inland. Dina, how­ ever, refused to leave the house. When the ships were opposite the house and mill, soldiers were sent ashore to burn the buildings. They fired the

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mill, which was corn,'pletely destroyed, but spared the dwelling.

In explanation of this leniency it is said that Dina had just finished a baking of bread (baked in the large bulbous oven which, within the recollection of the writer, protruded from the south wall of the cellar-kitchen) and that, with the bread, she bribed the redcoats not to burn the house. Of course fresh baked bread was a treat to men who, probably, were at the moment limited to hardtack but, equally of course, those same men could easily have seized the bread and have done what they chose to the house.

Obviously, there was something about Dina that altered their purp0se.

Courage she had, it is evident. Presumably in addition there was the mysterious something called personality, a magnetism that won the :aggressors and induced them to modify their plans. At all events Dina is one of the heroines of the Revolution in Dutchess County.

In the stories of Nanna and Dina it is to be noted that when freedom ·came to those women they both left the homes where they had lived as :slaves but that the removal was not advantageous in either case. Nanna :is said by Mr. Bailey to have been made ill, the inference from his .account being that she had fewer comforts than when she lived with the ·white family and she died before the Baileys could get her back to take -care of her. Dina lived by herself a short time but then voluntarily Teturned to the Gills and ended her days with them.

The discomforts known to have been experienced by Nanna and Dina in living independently reflect circumstances that were more or less ·general locally among the negroes when the Act for the abolition of slavery in the state of New York became fully operative; great poverty must at first have been prevalent among them. That consideration was the one with which this article began, namely that it was remarkable that, ten years after freedom was established, there should have been a group of colored people in Poughkeepsie sufficiently well off to organize a church of their own.

The progress made by the negro in the century following emanci­ pation in New York is another story and one better known than the account here offered, the present pages having to do with the period of slavery in Dutchess and not with what has been accomplished by the colored race in the period of freedom.

HELEN WILKINSON REYNOLDS.

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REFERENCES 1. Doc�me,�ts relating to the Co.Ionia/ History of New York, vol. I, p. 246, 1 May ·27, 1647.

• • 2. Documentary History of New York, vol. I, p. 240.

3. Documents relating to the Colonial History of New York, vol. 5, p. 929; vol. 6, pp. 133, 39z', 550; and the United States Census of 1790. . 4. Laws of tlze State of New York, vol. 4, 1797-1800, p. 388, chapter 62.

5. Martha Bockee Flint, The Boc,kee Family, p._ 52.

6. Records of tlze Cou'rt of General Sessions, vol. A, item dated June 10, 1735; and Records of tlze Board of Supervisors, vol. C, ·p. 107.

7. New York Journal, February 16, 1775, p. 3; and Records of the Board of Supervisors, vol. 1771-1785, meeting held June 3, 1777.

8. Records of the Court of General Sessions, vol. B, p. 15.

9. Ibid., p. 51.

IO. Laws of the Colony of New York, vol. 5, p. 533.

11. Ibid., pp. 583, 584.

12. Records of the Board of Supervisors, vol. E, pp. III, 348; vol. F, pp. 68, 208; Vol. G, p. 3.

13. Records of thr. Court of General Sessions, vol. B. p. 69; vol. C, p. 7.

14. Ibid., vol. C. p. 58.

15. Reynolds, Rerords of Christ Church, pp. 60, 61.

16. St. John de Crevecouer, Sketches of Eighteenth Century America, pp.

82, 83, 95, 96, 143, 144, 148.

17. W. H. Van Benschoten, Genealogy of the Van Benschoten Family, p.

51.

18. Year Book, Dutchess County Historical Society, vol. 23 ( 1938), pp. 54, 59, 60.

19. Dutchess County Clerk's records, wills, liber C, p. 530; liber B, pp.

238, 407.

20. Reynolds, Dutch Houses in the Hudson Valley before 1776, p. 389.

21. Poucher and Reynolds, Old Gra<t1estones of Dutchess County, p. 253.

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A DUTCHESS COUNTY GARDENER'S DIARY 1829-1866 James F. Brown, an escaped slave from l\!Iaryland, was in charge of the Verplanck Garden at Mount Gulian for many years, as I have already pointed out. He is said to have been born in 1783 and to have escaped and come north at the age of thirty; but I have been unable to verify these and other traditional statements. He says that he hurt his foot when "a boy in 1809," which would seem to indicate that he was born later than 1783. What is certain is that he kept a diary of liis experiences at Mount Gulian from January 1, 1829, to :March 26, 1866, and that this extraordinary and in some respects unique document, in seven volumes, is still extant. It is now in the possession of Mrs.

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Samue l Ve rplanck, at Rose ne ath, and through he r kindne ss I have been enable d to make a some what care ful study of it.

The diary contains a re cord of the we athe r day by day, Brown'; work in the garde n and e lse whe re , the doings of the Ve rplanck family� e er st. It include s nume rous re fe re nce s to the and othe r ite ms of int Downing nurse ry at Ne wburgh, both be fore and afte r A. J. Downing \vas in charge of it. The diary is of sufficient importance , for the history of garde ning as we ll as for the history of the Ne gro, to warre nt publi­ cation in whole or in part. The following excerpts from the entries dur­ ing 1829 and 1830 will give some ide a of how Brown re cords his work in garden and greenhouse : Feb. 2, 1829: l\tiade some arrangements in the greenhouse and sowed some flower seeds, &c.-Feb. 8: Took a ride to Mr. Denning's to see his greenhouse.

-Feb. 21: Sowed some flowers and vegetables in a hot bed.-Feb. 25: Hauled some tan bark for the garden walks.-Feb. 26: Trimming up in the garden.­ March 31: This day began the flower garden.-April 4: Sowed celery seed and received some plants from New York.-April 8: Hauling earth for the flower garden, which ke�ps me very busily employed.-April 13: To-day in the garden.

Made flower beds and sowed some seeds.-April 16: Took a ride to Mrs. Schenck's and got some plants from Page for Miss Mary Verplanck.-April 17; Very husy in the garden; planted out cauliflower plants, &c.-April 20: Brought some plants from Mrs. Knevels and finished digging the flower beds.-April 21; Set out a great many plants, roots, shrubs, &c.-April 22: Set out a parcel of shrubs and flowers in the flower garden.-April 23: Planted out a number of plants in the border for edging.-April 28: The carpenters began the fence round the new garden.-May 2: Hauled tan bark for the garden walks and transplanted rose bushes.-May 3: Took a walk in the woods this day and found a very pretty bunch of water flowers; brought them home and gave them a place in the flower garden among the wild plants of the collection.-May 4: Set out some edging of violets and planted and repotted a number of plants; sowed wall flower, saffron seed, Hisbiscus, &c.-May 8: Set. the greenhouse plants out in the grond.-June 2: Cleaned the flower beds of weeds.-} une 9: Had a dish of green peas early this morning.-} une 11: Put poles to the cypress vines and beans.-June 16: Layed the carnation plants.-June 18: Dug up Hya­ cinth roots, &c.

January 4, 1330: Sowed some white Aster seed in the greenhouse and some ten-week stocks on the 23rd of December, also planted some bulbous roots on the same day.-Jan. 9: Went over the River to see Mr. Downing's green­ house and bought some twine for mats.-} an. 11: Making mats for the green­ house.-} an. 13: Planted some bulbous roots in pots and put them in the green­ house.-} an. 14: Planted some roots and covered over the Hyacinth beds. Went to the Landing and paid H�bron Palmer one dollar and fifty cents for some

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garden frames he made for Miss Mary Verplanck.-Jan. 22: A coranelor (sic)'' in flower and brought in the house.-Feb. 15: Presented Miss Schmaltz with a handsome bouquet of flowers from Miss V.P.'s greenhouse.-Feb. 16: Went ove:· -to Mr. Downing's for some radish seed.-Feb. 25: Set one hotbed frame and brought some plants to the house in flower, such as wallflowers, polyanthus, hyacinths, &c.-Feb. 27: Sowed flower seeds, &c., in hotbeds; fine hyacinths in flower in the greenhouse.-March 5: The seeds in the hotbeds well up.-March 10: Bought 4½ dozen flower pots at the Long Dock.-March 22: Began to dig up the flower beds.-March 25: Planted some bulbous roots.-March 27: Made a handsome bunch of flowers in the parlour.-March 29: Planted some shrubs.

Put down some edging on the borders, &c.-March 30: Brought some peach trees from Mr. Downing's. Trimming and nailing up rose bushes.-April 1: Put some young foxglove and some edging round the borders, uncovered the multi­ floras in the garden, &c.-April 5: Went over to Mr. Downing's and exchanged a greenhouse plant with him.-April 8: Fixing flower borders. Transplanting -carnation pinks, and setting out some Hemlock.-April 10: Received some seed and edging from New York.-April 12: Sowed some auriculas and polyanthus seeds.-April 17: Took up and planted a large Pine Tree at the back of the ·woodpile.-April 19: Sowed some flower seeds and shall continue to-morrow.

--April 23: Transplanted some annual flower plants from the hotbeds.-June 11: Went to Mr. Downing's and got a plant of Eupatorium.-June 23: Very busy weeding the flower beds.-June 30: A fine show of carnations and pinks in the garden.

A few typical excerpts from later years may also be of interest: August 1, 1836: Sowed some wild flower seeds brought from the West by Mr. Knevels.-April 10, 1837: Set out some dogwood trees in the garden and began to dig the ground for seeds.-April 2, 1840: Brought some Lady Apple ·Trees with many other trees from Mr. Downing's for the garden.-July 3(), 1841: Paid Mr. Downing a small bill for grape vines and trees.-Sept. 1, 1841: Reported one fine camellia.-Sept. 3: Sowed rose Larkspur seed.-May 4, 1842: ·Put out Verbenas in the ground. Went over to Mr. Downing's for some Dahlia ·roots.

I have limited myself to gardening entries, but these excerpts relat­ ing to the summer of 1852 have a wider interest: July 28, 1852: The steamer Henry Clay burned and many lives were lost.

Among these was Mrs. J. P. Dewint, A. J. Downing, Mrs. \Vadsworth, &c.

Planted peas and beans for late crop.-J uly 29: Mr. Downing found and brought to Newburgh. Went to see his remains.-July 30: Mr. Downing and Mrs. Wadsworth buried this day. Also sown turnip and radish seeds.

The last garden notes belong to March, 1864, when Brown sowed ·•some seeds in hotbeds and later sowed some peas. He was then an old *Coronilla glauca?

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man, and there are no entries in the diary in 1865 and only one in 1866.

He died in 1868, but his wife Julia survived until 1890.

Miss Matilda Verplanck, of Stonykill, now aged ninety-five but with a mind as clear as a bell, knew Brown, and remembers how she and the other children respected his orders not to pick flowers in the garden or to interfere in any ,vay with its perfect order and neatness. The flower garden of Brown's days seemed to her to be exactly like the gar­ den as it was three of four years ago, but at this writing it is in a very neglected state. In the old days it consisted of six acres, including flow­ ers, fruits, and vegetables. After the death of Miss Mary Anna Ver­ planck (1793-1856), it was taken care of by her sister-in-law, the wife of Samuel Verplanck, and later by Mrs. William Verplanck, who re­ duced its area to four acres; her little book, A Year In My Garden, was privately printed in 1909. There was originally a low stone wall with a pretty gate on the side facing the house, and a perennial border along the inside of the wall. The portion in formal box-bordered beds intersected by gravel walks remains much as it was, though virtually all the old box has disappeared.

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JOHN A,. BOLDING, FUGITIVE SLAVE John A. Bolding was born about 1824 in South Carolina, a slave.

He was a mulatto, almost white in color. About 1846 he escaped from . his owner and in some way, now unknown, came north and settled at Poughkeepsie. He obtained work as a tailer in a shop on Main street near what was then the Eastern House (later the Morgan House and still later the Windsor Hotel) and early in 1851 married; his wife, a resident of Poughkeepsie, being also a mulatto.

Some six months after John Bolding was married a southern wo·• man, staying in Poughkeepsie, reported his presence there to his owner, Robert C. Anderson of Columbia, South Carolina, and Mr. Anderson instituted in New York City proceedings to recover him. As Bolding

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was at work in the tailer's shop on August 25th, 1851, a United States Marshal, Henry F. T'allmadge, arrived at the door in a closed carriage, seized Bolding forcibly, placed him in the carriage, drove to the railroad and took his prisoner to New York. There, in the next few days, the case was tried before United States Commissioner Nelson and by his decision Bolding was returned to Mr. Anderson. Two columns regard­ ing the trial appeared in the New York Commercial Advertiser, which were reprinted in The Eagle of Poughkeepsie on September 6th, 1851.

Meanwhile the forcible seizure of the fugitive slave at Poughkeep­ sie by the United States Marshal, Mr. Tallmadge, had excited that northern village community to white heat and at once a popular sub­ scription was opened for the purpose of buying the slave and giving him his freedom. It was stated in The Eagle on Septemb·er 6th, 1851, that the owner asked $1,500.00 for the slave and $500.00 for expenses and that if $1,000.00 were raised in Poughkeepsie the second thousand mm t come from New York City.

No record is at hand of what was done in New York but fortu­ nately there is information as to the action taken locally. A fund was started at Poughkeepsie, the treasurer of which was John Grubb,* ?. much respected citizen, and the notebook in which he recorded the con­ tributions to the fund is now in the possession of his grandson, John B. Grubb of Poughkeepsie. Through the courtesy of the latter, there is appended below a list of the narries of those who are recorded in the notebook as having given to the fund for the purchase of the slave. The contributions ranged from fractions of a dollar, through one, two and three dollars up to seventy-four entries of $5.00 each, twenty-two of $10.00 each, ten of $20.00 each and one of $50.00, sums which show how general an appeal the cause made to the public. Ninety dollars is *John Grubb was a Scotchman, born at Edinburgh in 1819, who came to Poughkeepsie in 1837. To many useful years spent: first in his bookstore and later on the staff of the Fallkill National Bank he added services as secretarv of the Poughkeepsie Lyceum. When he died the Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle o·f March 17, 1890, said: "The great success of (the Lyceum), almost unequalled among the literary associations of the country, was largely due to Mr. Grubb's discrimination and activity in securing the services of the best lecturers for its platform. Thi: number of orators, authors, scientists, statesmen, poets, travel­ lers and specialists in every department who were presented to our peopie through his agency was very large. At one time or another he was brought into correspondence with nearly every distinguished man in this country and his qualifications caused him to be as highly respected and. esteemed by them as he was at home."

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credited as having been collected in Albany by "Mr.Waldo" and $37.00 was received from seven residents of Kingston.

Further, the notebook contains the statement that on September 9th, 1851, a draft for $1,109.00 was sent by Mr. Grubb to Mr. Tall­ madge, United States Marshal, that sum being the amount raised lo­ cally in behalf of John Bolding. But that more money was raised else� where or that the ovvner reduced the price for the slave is evident, inas­ much as the purchase of the slave was effected. John Bolding returned to Poughkeepsie and spent the remainder of his life there in self-sup­ porting industry, a free man.

The directories for Poughkeepsie mention John A. Bolding from 1860 onward as a tailer.

Apparently he worked on Main street (he was employed for a long time by Hayt and Lindley, a well known­ firm of custom tailers) and lived on Pine street. Between 1860 and 1868 his home was at number 14 Pine street, at which time the house numbers on Pirie street ran from Market street west to the river. In 1868 or 1869 the numbering was changed to begin at the river and run east and froml868 to 1876 John A. Bolding was set down in the direc­ tories as living at number 129 Pine street. Today, number 129 Pine street is a house bearing indications, architecturally, that it was built in the early nineteenth century, certainly long before the 1860's, and so it is fair to infer that the small structure, now standing,-built on two levels and with a roof that slopes low in the rear,-is the one that sheltered the last years of the fugitive slave who was given his freedom.

John A. Bolding died on April 30th, 1876, in his fifty-second year, and was buried in the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery.

CONTRIBUTORS To THE FUND RAISED FoR BuYING THE FUGITIVE SLAVE James H. Allen, Joseph E. Allen, C. H. Andrus, E. Andrus, S. Andrus, Charles Anthes, ...... Armstrong.

Henry Baker, . . . . . . (Baker?), Joseph Barnard, Joseph Bartlett, Robert Bell, Wm. Berry, S. G. (Beuley?), Jacob Bockee, Jas. W. Bo­ gardus, James Bowne, Boyd & Wiltsie, B. Briggs, Andrew J. Broas, J saac Broas, J. T.Brooks, Isaac Butler, E. A.Buttolph, P. S. B. Chas. Cable, F. Cable, John M. Cable, George Carson, ......

Cheever, Wm. Coffin, J. D. Colburn, John W. Corliss, Squire Corliss, Chas. Cornwell, M. Cramer, Peter S. Cramer.

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(Moses Dame?), Mr. Darrow, Genl. Davies, John Davis, ......

Davis, Aaron Dean, Dobbs & Brittain, Dodge & Campbell, Jas. H. Dudley.

E. Q. Eldridge, James Emott, F. Evarts.

George W. Farrington, ...... Fitchett, Judge Forsyth of Kingston, D. C. Foster, Robt. Foster.

Geo. Gausman, John (G)emmill, N. Gifford, Mr. (Gladkey?), A.Gould, Geo.Graham.

J. (B.?) Hale, George Hannah, Mr. Hart, A. B. Harvey, J. C. Harvey, Dr. Hasbriuck, J. H. Hasbrouck of Kingston, Nat Hill, L. Hine, H. Holliday, Jas. Holligan, 0. Holmes, Jas. Hooker, the Rev. Mr. Hoose of Kingston, Elias G. Hopkins, Lemuel Hopkins, (S. 0.?)

Hoyt, J. Hunt, Liberty Hyde, A. J. H. George Innis.

Richd. Kenworthy, Mr. Keynton, E. B. Killey, Thos. Klegg.

D. B. Lent, G. H. Linsley, Wm. Livingston, B. J. Lossing, Chas.

P. Luckey, J. Luckey.

A. McArthur, ...... McKenney, D. C. Marshall, George C. Marshall, Wm. Maston of Kingston, S. H. Maxon, James Maxwell, John Montgomery, (Mr.?) Morey, H. W.Morris, John Mullem, Mr. Murfitt, H. D.Myers.

Jno. P. Nelson, Mr. Nelson.

E. K. Olmstead, John H. Otis.

Eliza Palmer, J. Palmer, J. B. Palmer, John G. Parker, Thos. R. Payne, Wm. Peabody, Geo. T. Pearce, A. Pease, E. R. Pease, Geo. Pelton, E. Pitts, Daniel W. Platt, Isaac Platt.

Jno. Ransom, Daniel Reed, G. G. Reynolds, W. W. & J. Rey­ nolds, J. K. Rice, J. A. Robertson, J. J. Roe, Mr. Rosenbaum, John Rutzer.

P. W. L.Sage, Wm.Schram, D. N. Seaman, Chas. W. Shaffer of Kingston, H. R.Sherman, J. C.Skinner, George Slee, Robert Slee, Mr. Smith, Dr. Smith, Genl. • Smith of Kingston, Revd. Mr. Smuller of Kingston, R. C.Southwick, W. C. & G. H.Sterling, M. C. Story.

Jno. P. H. Tallman, (Gil?) Thielman, E. Tillou, N. C. Trow­ bridge, S. B. Trowbridge.

A. Van Kleeck, Geo. M. Van Kleeck, H. D. Varick, M. Vassar, John Vermong.

Mr. Waldo, C. B. Warring, Wm. B. West, Wm. H. Wheeler.

(G. M. Wilkes?), George Wilkinson, Wm. Wilkinson, Mr. Williams, Capt. Wiltsie, John Wines, W. H. Worrall, Joseph Wright.

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