On
Thursday, May 9, at 6:00 p.m., at the Hudson Area Library, Susan Stessin-Cohn, former professor of social studies
education at SUNY New Paltz and director of education at Historic Huguenot
Street, and current New Paltz historian, will speak on her more than twenty years of research into the history of slavery in the Hudson River Valley, with a
particular focus on the plight of the “runaways”—enslaved persons who sought
freedom by escaping from their enslavers.
Stessin-Cohn and coauthor Ashley Hurlburt-Biagini, the former manager of collections and archives at Historic Huguenot Street, combed through newspaper archives and
databases, microfilm and library special collections—even dusty attics—seeking
newspaper notices placed by Hudson Valley enslavers offering rewards for the
return of their “property.” They found more than 750 such advertisements, as well as local
notices for runaways apprehended, advertisements for enslaved persons for sale,
and offers to purchase. In 2016, they published In Defiance: Runaways from Slavery in New York’s Hudson River Valley,
1735–1831.
Continuing their research, Stessin-Cohn and Hurlburt-Biagini
discovered more than 250 additional runaway notices that prompted them to
rewrite and greatly expand In Defiance
in a newly released second edition. This primary source material offers
fleeting glimpses of hundreds of lives caught up in the cruelty of
slavery—right here in our own Hudson Valley.
New York State passed its first emancipation act, “An Act for the Gradual
Abolition of Slavery,” in 1799, giving hope to thousands of enslaved persons held on
farms and in villages in the Hudson River Valley from Westchester and Orange counties north to Albany, Schenectady, and Troy. But many held in slavery were not willing to wait for what turned out to be a
very gradual emancipation, as evidenced by the hundreds of newspaper notices
posted by Hudson Valley enslavers promising rewards for runaway enslaved
persons throughout the early 19th century all the way up to 1831.
The stories these newspaper notices tell, together with the stories of hundreds
of other enslaved persons who ran for their freedom earlier in the 18th century, shed revealing light on the life of enslaved persons held in the
Hudson Valley.
Most
enslaved persons held in the Hudson River Valley lived, worked, and died, leaving behind no historical record—no birth certificates, no marriage records, no
death certificates, unmarked graves. In
Defiance rescues more than 900 of those individuals from obscurity because they
decided to free themselves. When their enslavers placed notices in local and
New York City newspapers offering rewards for their return, they not only gave
identity to some of the enslaved people, but also unwittingly indicted themselves
before the bar of historical judgment. Surnames synonymous with Hudson Valley
history—names like Schuyler, Van Rensselaer, Beekman, Rockefeller, Van
Cortlandt, Van Buren, Livingston—appear throughout the book as the authors of
the notices advertising rewards for the return of their enslaved “property.”
Had
these freedom seekers not run away, they too, like the tens of thousands of
enslaved persons who did not run, would have been lost to history, but by
running they prompted reward notices for their return—notices that often
provide at least their first names, sometimes a surname as well, and detailed
descriptions of their age, color, gender, origin, language proficiency, and
skills.
In
addition to the reproduction and transcription of 774 archival newspaper
notices for runaways from Hudson Valley enslavers, In Defiance also includes
notices advertising runaways captured and enslaved persons for
sale, notices offering to purchase enslaved persons, and selected runaway
notices from outside the Hudson River Valley region. Nine tables analyze the
data in the 774 notices for runaways from Hudson Valley enslavers. The book also includes a glossary, indexes of names, locations, and subjects, thirty-six illustrations, and five maps from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Following the presentation on Thursday, Stessin-Cohn will be on hand to meet and answer questions and to autograph copies of In Defiance. Books will be available for sale courtesy of Spotty Dog Books & Ale.
