HUDSON—The Columbia County Historical Society and African American Archive co-sponsored “Occupations and Lifestyles of Enslaved and Freed Peoples in the Hudson Valley,” a presentation of the In Perspective Lecture Series at the Hudson Library’s 5th Street branch April 30.
The speaker, Dr. Myra B. Young Armstead, is a historian on the faculty at Bard College, where she also serves as vice president for Academic Inclusive Excellence. Dr. Armstead, who was raised in South Falls, Sullivan County, called the Borscht Belt “a wonderful place to grow up.”
Dr. Armstead’s talk focused on Colonial New York, 1684-1837, and the northwest area of the Hudson River Valley, then known as the Saratoga Patent. The patent consisted of 150,000 acres and was acquired from the Mohawk Nation by seven prominent Dutch families including the Schuylers, who claimed 24,000 of those acres, and the Livingstons.
Her talk centered on the father and son, Philip Schuylers. The father was a general in George Washington’s army and defeated the British at the Battle of Saratoga, which is regarded as the turning point in the American Revolutionary War. The son’s management of the family estates, upon his father’s death in 1804, propelled the family into great wealth. Dr. Armstead noted that the Schuyler family was “active in the international slave trade.”
Dr. Armstead called the Hudson Valley, running from Albany to Manhattan a “slave society” and the enslaved “essential human capital.” Within two years of becoming a colony, slavery was introduced in New York. Dr. Armstead said that the enslaved population in the Hudson Valley was “exceptional.”
According to the 1790 census, 20 thousand Black people, or 6% of New York’s population, were enslaved by 14% of the colony’s residents. This placed New York first among the northern colonies with the largest population of enslaved persons. “Typically,” the Schuylers had “13 enslaved persons” at any given time on their estates in Saratoga and Albany.
Dr. Armstead quoted from Ira Berlin, an academic specializing in the history of slavery in the United States, and Gavin Wright, an economic historian, listing the multitude of tasks performed by the enslaved: laying up fields, removing stones, spreading gypsum, sowing and harvesting clover, wheat and oats, fence and wagon repair, hauling coal, road construction and repair, preparing cisterns, tanning leather, tending livestock, cooking, cleaning, serving food and drink, and a myriad of others. As the family estates progressed from a pioneer settlement to adding lucrative industrial businesses, the enslaved worked in lumberyards, sawmills, fisheries, grist and linen mills.
Dr. Armstead’s presentation included two slides of “idealized” yet “accurate” paintings of the era. John Heaton’s, “Oil on Wood Overmantel” (1733) depicts a panoramic view of the Marten Van Bergen farm near Leeds. The farm is set against a sweeping view of the Catskill Mountains. The human figures include members of the Van Bergen family, a number of indentured servants, slaves, and two Esopus Indians.
About Emanuel Buckley Leutze’s “Mrs. Schuyler burning her wheat field at the approach of the British,” Dr. Armstead, also, noted that “fire was a ready weapon” of protest for the enslaved.
Regarding New York’s fitful efforts to abolish slavery from 1795-99, Dr. Armstead identified the Hudson River communities as the “most recalcitrant.” She also noted that Schuylers did not manumit any of their enslaved and continued to buy and sell after 1799, when such trafficking was outlawed.
Dr. Armstead acknowledged that the letters and other correspondence of prominent New York families are the sources of what is known today about the lives of the enslaved in colonial New York, including their names: Jacob, Harry, Peter, Lewis, Cuff, Dick, Jim, Patrick, Tom, Anthony, Claas, Cato, Britt, Phoebe, Bett, Pol, Jane, Dian, and Libey.
In an ironic twist, letters exchanged among the Schuylers’ peers feared becoming “slaves to Britain” and viewed their own chattel as a “reminder of the depths they could slide” should the colonists’ revolt fail.
A Q&A session concluded the presentation. The inevitable question, “Were the enslaved treated better in New York than in the South?” was posed. Dr. Armstead responded that slavery in New York could be viewed as “gentle” in comparison to southern systems. She cited an example. Enslaved persons who were leased out could expect a certain level of education in exchange for their labor. There was no such provision in the South.
Also, the New York Manumission Society, founded by Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, supported the African Free School, located in what would be known as Greenwich Village. The African Free School counted Ira Aldridge, an internationally renowned thespian, as a student.
Dr. Armstead was also asked how many Black people served in the Continental Army. She noted that General Schuyler did not want Black people in the army and despite the British pledge to free Blacks fighting on its side, 12 – 14,000 served in the Continental Army. Those who did fight with the British retreated to Montreal, Canada and ultimately settled in Halifax.
Dr. Armstead recommended the Netflix documentary, “The Book of Negroes,” for more information about those Canadian Black communities.
