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By BRENDA SHUFELT, HISTORY ROOM COORDINATOR, HUDSON AREA LIBRARY

WE LEARN ABOUT the lives of well-known people through historic biographies but what about anonymous people throughout history, especially those whose voices have been silenced? We can catch glimpses of individuals from the past through research and following others’ research into historic documents. Susan Stessin-Cohn, who is speaking on her book, “In Defiance: Runaways from Slavery in New York’s Hudson River Valley, 1735–1831,” at the Hudson Area Library on Thursday, May 9, 6 p.m. provides us with a great deal of information about persons who have been previously lost in history.

Part of the thrill of learning about and even researching history is when individual persons come alive through the, oftentimes, scant information we discover about them. Such was the case when I learned about Caspar Freeman.

In doing research for the Hudson Area Library’s current exhibition, “A Dialogue Across Generations: Making Connections through the BLACC Collection,” based on our Black Legacy Association of Columbia County (BLACC) Oral History collection, our volunteer Elaine Eichelberger came across xeroxes of the cover of a Deed Book and a couple pages of manumissions, legal documents in which enslaved persons were set free. I reached out to Holly Tanner, Columbia County Clerk, and, coincidentally, her records clerk, Denise Keegan, had just seen the manumissions in a Deed Book and Clerk Tanner referred me to them. This Deed Book at the County Clerk’s office at Warren and 6th Street, contained 47 pages of manumissions of individuals in Columbia County that were “given” freedom. One manumission stood out in particular because a man, Caspar Freeman of Claverack, freed his own son, Caspar Freeman, Jr.

Then coincidentally, in preparing for Stessin-Cohn’s author talk, I saw an image from the “In Defiance” book of the 1801 runaway notice of an enslaved person named Caspar. In this notice Caspar’s enslaver is listed as Samuel Ten Broeck and the manumission from the Deed Book stated that Samuel Ten Broeck owned Caspar’s son before another enslaver, George Crawford, purchased him. Caspar Freeman Jr.’s 1819 manumission states that Caspar purchased his son from Crawford five years earlier and he was now manumitting him.

The runaway notice details that Caspar ran away with another man and describes Caspar as “…about 28 years old, about 5 feet 6 inches high, slim built, had on bottle green homespun long blue overalls, striped cotton half handkerchief on his neck, wool hat; took with him a light brown homespun coat.”

In the notice Samuel Ten Broeck then asks: “Whoever will take up said Negroes, and secure them in the gaol of the county of Columbia, shall have the above reward [$60], or thirty dollars for either of them.” So, if these two documents are indeed about the same person, Caspar, at age 28, ran away in 1801 then in 1819 he manumits his son, who is now himself age 28. It seems that Caspar had a child at age 18, ran away 10 years later and then, within 13 years is able to purchase his son (then aged 23), and legally manumits him in 1819.

I have spoken with Stessin-Cohn about this manumission and the tie-in with one of the notices she published in her book and she is currently researching the Freemans and has already found some information she promises to share during her author talk on May 9.

With or without more information, the questions that result from these two documents already give Caspar and his son life in our understanding and imagination. Was Caspar recaptured? Did he reach an agreement with Ten Broeck, his enslaver, to work for his freedom or did he escape captivity and earn money to purchase his freedom? What was the process (and the feeling!) of giving himself the last name of Freeman? (Stessin-Cohn told me she knew of other men who gained their freedom and changed their name to Freeman.) Did he have a wife (the mother of Caspar Jr.) and what happened to her? Were father and son able to communicate during the ensuing years between the time Caspar Jr.’s dad ran away and the time he purchased his freedom? What life did they have in freedom? Where are their descendants now and do they know of their ancestors’ history?

“A Dialogue Across Generations: Making Connections through the BLACC Collection” is on view through June 30 during library open hours when the Community Room is open. Call 518 828-1792 x106 or email brenda.shufelt@hudsonarealibrary.org for a more detailed schedule. The Author Talk with Susan Stessin-Cohn on May 9 is free and open to the public.