Mark Your Calendars

On Thursday, April 24, at 6:00 p.m., the Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History, in collaboration with the Hudson Area Library History Room, hosts an in-person presentation about the dramatic historical transformations of Hempstead Plains--the only prairie in the Northeast.

Celebrated as a natural wonder by early Dutch and English settlers, these vast grasslands were initially regarded as a valuable shared resource, then as a barren wasteland, and now--long vanished--as one of the United States' most populous suburbs. Yet for more than two hundred years, the inhabitants of the Town of Hempstead preserved the plains as common lands, carefully regulating their use and expelling trespassers. In the early 19th century, however, this practice came under attack as Hempstead Plains began to be privatized and redeveloped--with long-term ecological and social consequences.

The presentation will be made by Jennifer Anderson, an associate professor at Stony Brook University. Anderson specializes in Early American and Atlantic history. Her current scholarship focuses on Long Island's changing land and labor systems from the colonial period to the early 19th century. She is the author of Mahogany: The Costs of Luxury in Early America (2012). She curated "Sylvester Manor: Land, Labor & Power on a Northern Plantation" (2012) at New York University and advised on Long Island Museum's groundbreaking exhibition "Long Road to Freedom: Surviving Slavery on Long Island" (2019). More recently, she has been a scholar-in-residence at Preservation Long Island, assisting with a project to interpret the life of Jupiter Hammon, the first published African American poet. Her current research focuses on the deep roots of segregation and racial inequality on Long Island.

The event on April 24 takes place in the Community Room at the Hudson Area Library, 51 North Fifth Street.