Keynote Address for a symposium entitled "Buried Away: finding and using African American history in the Hudson Valley"

Given by A.J. Williams-Myers, professor of Black Studies at the State University of New York at New Paltz
The Huguenot Historical Society, New Paltz, NY, November 3, 2001

An old Chinese proverb states that "a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step." The first step of my journey began decades ago when my wife and I set out to journey the world in hopes of finding historical truth. We sought it in the Caribbean, in Africa, Europe, and Asia. Today, I can honestly say we have come away from those four areas of the world confident that we are not the same because of the truth: our worldview is much broader and our historical perspective is sharper and more objective. That first step truly lead to a remarkable journey that eventually brought us to New Paltz in the Valley of the Wallkill, whose panoramic view of the Mid-Hudson Valley is as breathtaking as that of the Kenyan Highlands, and the Zambezi Valley of Africa or the Valley of the Yangzi in China. Unfortunately, that panoramic view was marred somewhat by a truth that awaited a more complete historical picture of the Huguenot settlement here in New Paltz and settlements of Europeans elsewhere across the valley floor. It was a truth waiting to be revealed.

Now, what do I mean [by] "a truth that awaited a more complete historical picture? When I first started compiling research material for my book Long Hammering, there were very few, if any, historical groups concentrating on the African American. I did join an informal group of history buffs from Ulster County, and we met in each others' homes to discuss the latest information gathered on an African presence in the county. Most of them have passed on or [are] in retirement homes. But we were a committed group. I can still remember some of their names: the Arkinsons (John and Betty) from Gardiner, Erdine (a retired school teacher from New Paltz), and Gail Schneider from Kerhonkson. There were a few others but their names escape me at this time. Even Philipsburg down in Tarrytown had not begun to address an important aspect of its history: the presence of enslaved Africans on that Hudson River manor, and on other holdings like the Van Cortlandt Manor managed by then Sleepy Hollow Restoration or now Historic Hudson Valley. When I approached the Archivist at Elting [Memorial} Library [in New Paltz] about the connection between the DuBoises over in Great Barrington, Massachusetts and the New Paltz DuBoises, I came away amazed that there was initially denial. But after some proper genealogical research, the black DuBoises of Great Barrington were acknowledged. This has since been clarified through David Lervering Lewis' recent Biography of a Race, 1868-1919. One of the pictures in volume I on W.E.B. DuBois [shows a picture] of W.E.B. DuBois' father dressed in a Civil War uniform and recorded as one of the DuBoises from New Paltz.

There was, at the time I began my project, and now, an abundance of published sources on the settlement and development of Europeans across the valley. But much of that paid little if any attention to the African. I suppose what one could say is that the "African Voice" very seldom if ever came through. Ralph LeFevre's book, The History of New Paltz, 1678-1820, one of the many such monographs was an interesting approach in the reconstruction of the histories of Huguenot families, although it limits itself to what can be considered a footnote for the African. Much of what was written on the African centered around who owned whom, how many of whom were owned, and what kind of labor was performed. While there is voice for the European there is only silence for the African. He or she never speaks but is spoken for.

What LeFevre's book and many of the others point up in terms of historical limitations, is that they paint a picture of Hudson Valley society almost completely devoid of Africans as active participants in the social and economic processes. Or, if I may cite from my text Long Hammering and quote the American historian Gary Nash, in clarifying what is meant by "processes:" what is key here is that a large majority of those who crossed the Atlantic (involuntarily) in the centuries prior to the American Revolution to take up life in the New World were Africans. Because historians have concentrated more on the institution of slavery rather than on the [en]slaved, the social history of those Africans has been neglected. As a result, we continue to depict "some one million Africans brought to or born in America before the Revolution as mindless and cultureless drones, without realizing that the slaves themselves [were] active participants in a social process."

Two other publications that were of little help in the early days of my research project but highly touted by others were J. Lossing's The Hudson from the Wilderness to the Sea and Philip H. Smith's Legends of the Shawagunk and its Environs, both before-the-turn-of-the-twentieth-century publications. But Smith's book was reprinted by Syracuse University Press in 1965. I cite these two not only because they mirror the Gary Nash's "social process" but also because they reflect the idea of an "accepted American mindset" among historians at the time about Africans and other people of color who appeared in their writings. In a response to this American mindset, Cedric Robinson, in his 1982 article "Class Antagonism and Black Migrations: a review article," broached what appeared to have been such a mindset when he wrote "[it, the mindset] required that blacks (and Native Americans) assume an anonymitous image bereft of fully human capacities for thought, felling and the comprehension of social experience." Wesley Frank Craven, almost two decades before Robinson, was aware of such a mindset among some of his fellow historians, but his response came with a persistent qualification. For Craven it was a mindset that was constantly confronted with the truth. He wrote, and again I quote from Long Hammering: "We tend to preserve or restore only that which by some artistic or other standard seems worth preserving, and so the other picture can be distorted. Who among us can wander down the street of Williamsburg, with promptings on every side to remember Washington and Jefferson, and still remember that it all rested originally on the back of a negro?"

[This was] a mindset that was constantly confronted by truth. A truth whose lack thereof, for me, depicted Hudson Valley history as half-truth or a history in waiting for a more complete picture, and one that made allowances for the African voice.

A very interesting publication on Hudson Valley history that mirrors "a history in waiting" was one I discovered while on a National Endowment for the Humanities summer grant down at John Hopkins [University] in Baltimore, under the Americanist, Jack P. Greene. The book is Song Bok Kim's Landlord and Tenant in Colonial New York, which is a history of the patroonships and manors (or plantations if you prefer) established across the valley from Albany down to New York City under the Dutch and British, respectively. In that impressive publication very little is devoted to the role of the enslaved African. How was it possible for one to recreate the manorial system of Colonial New York and leave out the picture of a crucial variable of labor, the African? Surely, the system of tenancy could not have done it alone, given the fact that the manorial system resembled European Feudalism, thus discouraging large numbers of white settlers from coming to the Hudson Valley. The answer for such an oversight is that all-pervasive "American mind-set" about Africans and Native Americans. About five years ago, after the author had read the article "Hands that picked no cotton" in my [book] Long Hammering, he acknowledged to me personally that such a low profile for Africans was a serious oversight.

But it must be admitted that in spite of my position that Hudson Valley history reflected a half truth or a history in waiting for a more complete picture, there were those of us who were in the vineyards in search of a more complete historical picture of Hudson Valley society, and, for that matter, the whole of New York State. A number of dedicated researchers and their writings come to mind. Some, like me, prefer the use of a micro-study approach as a methodology (a look at a particular region of the valley - be it town, city, or county) while others prefer the macro as a methodology - a look at the entire state. But whether it was the micro or the macro, the ultimate objective in the reconstruction is truth, and truth that speaks with an added African voice.

Some of those who were in the vineyard, in spite of the "mindset", was one, Edgard McManus, whose 1966 publication A History of Negro Slavery in New York might perhaps have played down an African voice, but does introduce an added African presence to the picture. An even earlier publication with not only an added African presence but an African voice as well, is the Ri Otterly and William J. Weatherly's book, The Negro in New York: an informal social history.

The book was originally a manuscript written during the depression years with support from the Federal Writers Project. It focused mainly on New York City but there is mention of the Hudson Valley.

It is in the decades subsequent to the 1960s that the picture begins to take on more realism of the journey the African and European traveled in the unfolding of New York history. At Columbia University in New York City, some fine dissertations were written that clearly shattered that "American mindset". Their focus was the African and his/her place in that picture of New York history. Although I acknowledged Columbia [University] as the place from which these superb theses derive, I must mention in passing New York University as well because in 1939 a student, E. Olsen, was awarded the doctorate for his "Negro Slavery in New York 1626-1827." Also during the post 1960s decades, a number of interesting articles and books began to appear as well to augment a growing, well researched and written historiography on an African American presence in the history of New York. Unfortunately, our time this morning does not permit me the opportunity to list all of those whom I have termed historical trail blazers because of their research. But let me at least pay homage to some of them who, in spite of some of the prickly fruit, remained focused in the determination to make the picture whole. One or two of them perhaps are with us today.

When I came to New Paltz in 1979 as chair of the Black Studies Department, there was an individual who occupied a room in College Hall a few doors down from me. I not only knew he was an emeritus professor, but I was soon informed that he was the authority on Margaret Mead. This was an intimidating situation for one who professed to have known her after an encounter years ago in the West Indies. When Carlton and I would meet in passing in the halls, our discussions definitely were not of Dr. Mead but of history and a mutual acquaintance. Yes, our own Carlton Mabee has labored in the Vineyard and produced some interestingly definitive publications on the African presence in New York. Two of those, Sojourner Truth and Black Education in New York, from Colonial to Modern Times have received national acclaim. His articles in the journals Afro-Americans in New York Life and History and the Year Book: Dutchess County Historical Society were most helpful to me. I was especially drawn to a topic of one that appeared in both journals: "Toussaint College: a proposed college for New York State in 1870s," appeared in a 1977 issue of Afro-Americans, and "Separate Black Education in Dutchess County: black elementary schools and a proposed black college," which appeared in a 1980 issue of the Year Book. The idea alone of a Toussaint College in Dutchess County was clearly an imaginatively brazen move on the part of African Americans whose voice was evident.

Another local professional in search of truth to complete the historical picture of how we have become who we are on the valley floor and across the state is Myra Armstead Robinson over at Bard College whose comparative history on black communities in Kingston, New York and Boston, Massachusetts lends itself to bolstering historical truth. The research of Lawrence Mamiya, Lorraine M. Roberts, and earlier, Patricia Kaurouma, have added tremendously to the materials now available to flesh out the African from the shadows of New York history. An article of Mamiya's and Roberts' that comes to mind is the one that appeared in a 1987 issue of the Dutchess County Historical Society's Year Book: "Invisible People, Untold Stories: historical overview of the black community in Poughkeepsie." I should add that Lorraine continues her dedication to historical research through her duties as chair of the Black History Committee of the Dutchess County Historical Society. Her committee was recently involved in the excavation in Hyde Park of an abandoned black community dating back to as early as 1799. Here the African voice is heard through the artifacts rescued from the site of the community called "New Guinea." It would be remiss of me not to mention two earlier travelers in the vineyard here in New Paltz: William Heidgerd for his work on the Black History of New Paltz in Parts 1 & 2 (1986, 1989), and that of Ruth P. Heidgerd, Ulster County in the Revolution: a guide to those who served (1977) in which Africans from the county are listed as having served in this war. Both writers were instrumental in moving the African [futher into the local historical consciousness].

As I begin to draw this presentation to a close, what of those Columbia dissertations and other published materials which can be used to create a more inclusive history of the state by positioning the African from the margin to the center? Without a doubt, Columbia University has produced some of the more interesting dissertations on African Americans in New York history. Most of them focus on New York City but the authors have so uniquely honed their writing and interpretive skills that an African voice is clearly evident. Again, because of time I will only mention a few, and the say something about published sources. Two of those dissertations are the 1974 thesis of Thomas J. Davis, "Slavery in Colonial New York City," and the 1985 thesis of Vivienne Kruger, "Born to Run: the slave family in early New York, face to face with enslaved and free Africans, and observant of the trails and tribulations those Africans encountered in a society driven by racial slavery. There is clearly an African voice, fostered by a smooth meshing of the objective and the subjective approaches in historical writing. Davis has since gone on to research and publish some valuable articles on black New Yorkers in journals as well as published monographs such as his 1985 book A Rumor of Revolt: "The Great Negro Plot" in Colonial New York. A third dissertation [of interest here] is Thelma Foote's Black Life in Colonial New York, 1664-1786 completed at Harvard University in 1991.

As Historic Hudson Valley began to focus more on the need to bring the African from the margin to the center of history, its publication began to reflect a more intimate and positive look at the role of the enslaved on the manors at Philipsburg and Van Cortlandt. The historian at the time, Jaquetta M. Haley, produced some interestingly insightful monographs. One, Slavery in the Land of Liberty: the Van Cortlandt response for the first time presented the African in his/her rightful place: shoulder-to-shoulder with the European in the maintenance of the manor, and with an active voice. One could say that it was a more personable look at the African who heretofore was rather impersonal. Historic Hudson Valley has since gone on to a more exciting interpretive approach to telling the story of an African presence on both the Phillipse and Van Cortlandt manors.

Joyce D. Goodfriend's Burghers and Blacks: the evolution of a slave society in New Amsterdam; Carl Nordstrom's Slavery in a New York county: Rockland County, 1688-1827; and Shane White's book, Somewhat more Independent, a History of New York City African Americans, all [offer] a more personable look at black history and its place in the larger picture of New York State. The three publications were and are helpful to me in my research in the [Hudson] Valley and down in New York City; and all three have given voice to that African who now appears more centered in the historical picture. Truth has prevailed over half truth.

I know I have not done justice to others who are in the vineyard but for that I truly apologize. Time does not permit me to be as inclusive as I would like. Nevertheless, I salute you and stand with you I the struggle to ensure that the history we write today for the students of tomorrow will be a more realistic picture of the journey we have made with truth at our side.

Now what of that journey and search for truth for those of us who are here today? For many of us this part of the vineyard - the African American is new - perhaps the opening of (how does the song go?) "A Whole New World". A world which, like truth itself, was always there, waiting to be confronted, challenged and correctly casted as an integral part of the historical unfolding of Hudson Valley society. It was a world that was there from the very beginning. A world that sowed the seeds of social and economic development of Dutch and British Colonial New York. A world that bore the pain, sorrow, shed the blood and sweat, and there for the birth of the new nation at the end of the Revolutionary War. And like that part of the vineyard where "Many Feared to Tread", it was marginalized, neglected, and eventually overgrown with a destructive weed called "selective memory" and/or more appropriately, Historical Amnesia. In such a predicament, rarely would the African voice be heard, let alone a positive presence detected. He or she remained conveniently secreted in their world in the shadow of the larger historical picture.

That world - the African world; that voice - the African voice must be seen and must be heard. We who are gathered here today are committed to ensure that the journey continues but with the whole truth as we begin to dispel historical amnesia by appropriately moving the African from the margin of history to the center. The African voice will be heard because our interpretation and analysis of the data will make allowances for an African worldview: what he or she felt, saw, accepted, rejected, reacted to, said, and may have written. If in our interpretations and analyses of historical data, we were able to give voice to the European, then a similar approach should not be that much more difficult for the African.

Under the present leadership of the Huguenot Historical, and initially in partnership with the New Paltz African-American Burial Ground Task Force (now called the African-American Research Committee), considerable effort has gone into uprooting that dreaded vineyard weed, "selective memory." Here in New Paltz such effort has resulted in the placing of a historical marker out on Huguenot Street to acknowledge the existence of an African-American Burial Ground. The Society has put in place an Ulster County Slave Population Database Project that is rich in information and awaits the would-be researcher. From what I gather, plans by the Society are already underway to acknowledge and celebrate the life and professionalism of one of its most famous black Huguenots, W.E.B. DuBois. 2003 will be the one-hundredth anniversary of the publication of DuBois' The Souls of Black Folk. This conference today is a reminder of the tirelessness, dedication and commitment of the Huguenot Historical Society and members of the African-American Research Committee have made to ensure that truth, and (if I may appropriate a legal phrase) "nothing but the whole truth" is the guiding force in writing the richly diverse history of New Paltz.

The speakers today will share with us from their research what is meant by the phrase "truth", nothing but the whole truth." If I may piggyback on the conference's title "Buried Away: finding and using African-American history in the Hudson Valley," what awaits us is the unearthing of some historical morsels of African-American history that have lain buried in the den of historical amnesia. Since I have not been privy to the papers themselves, I can only assume, given the exciting titles, that they are only preliminaries to wet the palate in preparation for the feast that is larger, more inclusive historical picture of truth.

The presenters come from an array of disciplines; history, archaeology, geophysics, curatorial, archives, education, and the arts. Most histories are really not that without the use of material gathered by the various disciplines. Written documents alone can give only a part of the picture. But the resort to other disciplines will not only strengthen the picture but guarantee and African voice. Today we await not only an African presence through the presentations but a presence that speaks to the listeners from across that barrier of time.

So presenters, you are forewarned that this space and place is permeated with the spirits of those who suffered what the Harvard Sociologist Orlando Patterson has termed "social death" (enslavement). Hidden in the shadows of the larger history of the Huguenots in New Paltz and for so long voiceless, they mill about awaiting your debut before us to give them voice.

We applaud and commend the Huguenot Historical Society and the New Paltz African-American Research Committee for this brave move in putting this conference together. The very thing we residents of the valley and citizens of this state and nation need is a fuller more truthful history of that journey we made together - shoulder to shoulder - in getting where we are today. We live in an interdependent and interrelated world. Not a world where one is dominant and others are dominated. But a world of giving, sharing, caring, and loving. It only becomes the dominant and the dominated when a segment of the human family stops loving, caring, giving and sharing.

We are here today because we care about the truth and that it is reflected in what we present to our students, visitors or family members. We are here today because we want to give of our intellect and share the results of our research with a larger circle of truth seekers in hopes that it will make a difference in how we see the world and interact with one another. We are here today because we love what together we have wrought - and I leave "wrought" up to your imagination. Imagination - a jewel of the history profession. And we are here today because we want what we do professionally to positively impact our family life, our neighborhoods and communities across the valley floor. Together we want to strike a blow against American Racism that for so long has been the headstone of a more truthful history of our communities, "buried away" under the tainted furl of historical amnesia. Our task is to be one with the truth so as to tell their story and give them voice and complete the picture of Huguenot and Hudson Valley society. That is our charge for the 21st century. Thank you and enjoy the conference.