By Melanie Lekocevic
Capital Region Independent Media
RAVENA — As Black History Month draws to a close, the RCS Community Library hosted a history talk celebrating the achievements of the Underground Railroad and the Capital Region’s influence in the movement towards freedom.
The Underground Railroad was a movement used by enslaved African Americans in the 1800s as they sought freedom from the institution of slavery. The Capital Region saw thousands of freedom seekers coming here or passing through in the years before the Civil War.
Paul and Mary Elizabeth Stewart, who operate the Underground Railroad Education Center, spoke about the movement and how it influenced the journey to freedom. The couple also runs the Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence, which served as a headquarters for Underground Railroad activity in the Capital Region in the 1850s and is now where the education center is based. The building was acquired by the Underground Railroad Education Center in 2004 and has been renovated to honor its history.
But the Stewarts are looking to expand their operations and are in the process of raising funds to build an Interpretive Center.
“Right now, the Myers residence is our only base of operations, so that means we are using a historic house for office space, for meetings, for various other kinds of programming,” Mary Elizabeth Stewart said.
For years, the organization looked around for another building to purchase, but not finding anything suitable, the group ultimately decided to build its own. Since that time, she has been applying for grants to seek funds to make the Interpretive Center possible.
“We raised about $10 million toward getting this building, but we need $15 (million),” Paul Stewart said.
STORIES OF FREEDOM
Stephen and Harriet Myers were African Americans who opened their Albany home to help enslaved people who had escaped from the South on their journey to freedom.
The Myers not only housed escaped enslaved people but also determined what needs they had and how to find the resources to help them build a new life in freedom.
There’s more to the Underground Railroad, and the abolitionists who made it possible, than most people know of.
“When we think of the Underground Railroad, usually people think of Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, and there are lots of other stories that could be focused on,” Paul Stewart said, adding that Douglass spoke in the Capital Region about 20 times over the course of his lifetime.
But there are others who were highly influential and prominent in the movement.
One of them was abolitionist Sarah Johnson.
“She was a colleague of Harriet Myers and other women dedicated to the cause,” Mary Elizabeth Stewart said.
The Rev. Nathaniel Paul, who was born free in New Hampshire, was active in the 1820s, and his church provided space to the first school for “African Scholars.”
“It was primarily designed for adults, but there was room for children to join in as well,” she said. “Nathaniel Paul was also known for his efforts in fundraising. He traveled to Europe to collect funding for freedom-seeker communities.”
Prominent abolitionist Henry Highland Garnet was another clergyman from Troy who was born enslaved.
“[His family] escaped enslavement under the ruse of going to a relative’s funeral. They were given permission to go to the funeral, which wasn’t to be, and they just kept on going,” Mary Elizabeth Stewart said.
The Rev. James Buelah was an “exhorter” when he was enslaved in Maryland — at the time, it was “unacceptable” to call an African American a minister, so he was instead labeled an “exhorter.” After escaping to freedom, for years he was pursued.
“He came to New York state with his wife and children from Maryland and settled in the city of Albany. He remained there for five years, and they were forced for safety to pick themselves up and move to central New York state because Rev. James Buelah was pursued by bounty hunters,” Mary Elizabeth Stewart said. “The family resettled for another five years and then the same thing happened again, at which point the family took themselves up to Canada and after the Civil War returned to central New York state.”
Those are just a few of the stories of former enslaved people and other abolitionists connected to the Capital Region who sought to abolish the institution of slavery and had an impact on the freedom movement and the Underground Railroad.
One little-known point about enslaved people who escaped from the South is that not all of them traveled north for freedom. Some went in the other direction, Paul Stewart said, such as to the Caribbean or Mexico.
