This year the North Country Juneteenth Colors of Freedom celebration of the region’s role in the fight against slaver which highlights the Underground Railroad work in the area and avid abolitionist, John Brown, will be held on June 17, 18, 19 and 20. As part of the celebration, an individual, business, organization or politician will be recognized with a North Country Juneteenth Colors of Freedom Community Award. This award will be given to a person(s) who has honored an individual or organization in the Adirondack/North Country region who has made a positive impact on African American members in the community and actively promoted the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Posts Tagged ‘John Brown’
Untangling Timbucto and the Roots of Gerrit Smith’s Land Grants of 1846
History has done a poor job of defining and interpreting Gerrit Smith’s 1846 land grants and the Timbucto settlers in North Elba. More recently, scholars have been exploring and telling this rich and fascinating black history of the Adirondacks. However, confusion, fiction, and exaggerations have crept into some narratives. As an independent scholar of history, I believe we need to be vigilant to keep history factual, especially given the current attacks on re-writing and re-framing history. Conjecture and opinions should be stated as such, facts should be backed up by reliable sources and verified by evidence.
Many historical accounts about the land grants and Timbucto are chocked full of errors and myths rather than historical facts. Among these are Alfred Donaldson’s chapter on John Brown in A History of the Adirondacks, Volume II (1921), Mary Lee’s article in New York Times (1929), Beatrice Hughes article in New York State Conservationist (1921), Richard Henry Dana’s article in Atlantic (1871), and various narratives quoting Lyman Epps Jr. These are not reliable sources.
Save the Date: John Brown Day
John Brown Farm and New York’s Voter Suppression History
This year we are celebrating New York State’s acquisition of John Brown Farm 125 years ago. And it is good that we are.
But let us also recall a 200th Anniversary linked to the John Brown Farm – a connection that has particular importance this year as we witness a voter suppression spree around our country. Two hundred years ago, that was us–our New York ancestors–enacting explicit rules to keep blacks from voting.
John Brown and his family came here to the Adirondacks as part of an effort to counteract New York State-sponsored suppression of voting rights for black men.
We are now seeing a wave of voter suppression efforts in states controlled by Republican legislators fearful of losing their majority power. Well, guess what? That’s exactly what was going on here in good old New York back in the early 1800’s. We New Yorkers apparently were leaders in voter suppression. We even put it into the state constitution! That’s more than the states are doing today.
From the archive: John Brown
A new series on Showtime starring Ethan Hawke as abolitionist John Brown prompted me to dig into the Almanack archive for articles about Brown. (And don’t miss scholar/writer Amy Godine’s virtual Grange Hall talk tomorrow night about the historic statue of Brown at his Lake Placid farm.)
Here are a few gems:
- His last days: 2009 marked the 150th anniversary of Brown’s anti-slavery raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, his subsequent execution and the return of his body to North Elba. That fall, Almanack founder John Warren penned a series of articles about Brown’s last days.
- Brown’s widow: All about Mary Ann Day Brown, John’s wife and Washington County native.
- Adirondacker Hall of Fame: Tim Rowland on why John Brown gets top billing in list of famous Adirondackers.
Grange talk about John Brown memorial
From the Whallonsburg Grange Virtual Lyceum Series:
Statues and memorials on public land are being debated across the country. Amy Godine, historian and author, will plumb the lost history and meanings of an Adirondack icon, the statue of John Brown at his farm in North Elba. Whether you love it, hate it, or are not sure of its place today, this 85-year-old landmark memorial to the renowned abolitionist invites fresh consideration.
The Virtual Lyceum series is made possible through the generous support of the Glenn and Carol Pearsall Adirondack Foundation.
This talk is taking place from 7-8:30 p.m., presented via Zoom.
You must register IN ADVANCE so we can email you the Zoom link. You can register for the entire series or for an individual lecture. We will record the lectures and make them available later if you can’t watch them live.
Amy Godine on John Brown Pilgrimages, Lake Placid Club
Adirondack Life contributor and independent scholar Amy Godine is set to track the history of pilgrimages to abolitionist John Brown’s North Elba grave and home, with an emphasis on the yearly visits of the John Brown Memorial Association from Philadelphia and the exclusionary Lake Placid Club.
From 1922 into the 1970s, black activists gathered at Brown’s shrine to honor his May birthday with speeches, sermons, and song. People in Lake Placid participated too, spurning the segregationist culture of the Jim Crow era. Of special interest to Godine is the complicated relationship of the black city pilgrims with the notoriously exclusionary Lake Placid Club. » Continue Reading.
John Brown Farm Nature Programs Planned
John Brown Farm has announced a number of nature programs set to run in June.
Conservation biologist and photographer Larry Master will lead a guided bird walk on Saturday, June 8, from 7 to 9 am, and a guided butterfly walk on Saturday, July 13, from 9:30 to 11:30 am. Rain dates are June 15 and July 14, respectively. » Continue Reading.
Historical Pilgrimages to the John Brown’s Farm
Memorial Day weekend is approaching, and along with the “unofficial start of summer,” the Adirondacks will experience its annual influx of vacationers. But in years past, visitors arrived in May for another purpose: a pilgrimage to the John Brown farm in North Elba, New York. At the farm, a wreath would be laid upon the abolitionist’s grave, and the song “John Brown’s Body” was sung. » Continue Reading.
John Brown Day 2019 Planned For May 4th
John Brown Lives! has announced “John Brown Day: A Day of Reflection. A Day of Action.” is set for May 4th, 2019 from 2 to 4 pm, at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site.
John Brown Day is a commemoration honoring women and men whose work invokes the passion and conviction of the 19th-century abolitionist who dedicated his life to the cause of liberation. » Continue Reading.
That So-Called Adirondack Hall of Fame
I’ve made it a point of personal honor not to engage in arguments over lists, a lesson learned in high school when the radio stations would play their obligatory end-of-year “100 Greatest Rock and Roll Songs of All Time” segments.
And you’d sit around with a bunch of people in your friend’s basement having a meltdown that Stairway to Heaven placed ahead of Satisfaction.
The capper was when stations, looking to reintroduce some buzz into a growingly tired feature, would pick something like Rubberband Man by the Spinners as the No. 1 Rock and Roll Song of All Time, spurring a renewed burst of moral outrage that even weed couldn’t suppress. The Internet has made things far worse, as morons in search of clicks have ranked stuff like the Top 10 Grasshoppers and the 10 Best Places For Retirees to Buy Housing Shingles. » Continue Reading.
John Brown Day Set For Saturday, May 6
Aaron Mair, president of the Sierra Club; immigrant-rights organization Migrant Justice; and Don and Vivian Papson, founders of the North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association, will receive Spirit of John Brown Freedom Awards at the John Brown Day celebration on Saturday, May 6, at 2 pm.
The annual event, which is organized by North Country-based human rights and freedom education project John Brown Lives!, will be held at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Lake Placid. The public is welcome. » Continue Reading.
John Brown Lives! To Recognize Danny Glover, Alice Green, Brother Yu
Actor and activist Danny Glover, Albany civil rights leader Alice Green and youth advocate Brother Yusuf Abdul-Wasi Burgess will be the first recipients of the Spirit of John Brown Freedom Award, to be awarded at the John Brown Day 2016 celebration on Saturday, May 7th, at 1 pm.
The annual event, which is organized by Westport-based human rights and freedom education project John Brown Lives!, will be held at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Lake Placid. The public is welcome. » Continue Reading.
Mary Ann Day Brown, Widow of John Brown
Last weekend, the Saratoga Historical Society in California celebrated the 200th birthday of Mary Ann Day Brown, wife of radical abolitionist John Brown. The milestone was observed a few weeks prior to her actual birthday (April 15) to coincide with the Blossom Festival…. but, wait. Doesn’t John Brown’s body lie a moldering in his grave in New York State? Yes, it does, in the Adirondacks near Lake Placid. The grave of his second wife Mary however, is at the other end of the country, in Saratoga, California’s Madronia Cemetery.
It is all rather ironic since the life of Mary Ann Day started 200 years ago on April 15, 1816, in Granville in Washington County. Mary was a quite ordinary woman of the 1800s: quiet, modest, godly, and usually poor. Scores of thousands such lives pass unnoticed; history tends to remember women of wealth, beauty or offbeat wackiness if it recalls their existence at all. » Continue Reading.
Timbuctoo Institute would build opportunity in the Adirondacks
By Aaron Mair
The Adirondack Park is a national treasure because our ancestors had the foresight in the 1880s and 1890s to protect its forests and waters as a legacy for future generations to inherit and enjoy. Creating the Forest Preserve and the “forever wild” clause of the state constitution were bold, new ideas.
Now, more than 120 years later, we can see how smart our ancestors were. The Adirondack Park was transformed in less than a century from a smoldering mess of wildfires, clear-cut forests and muddy rivers into the world’s largest intact, temperate deciduous forest. Today, it hosts most of the rare forest wildlife, wilderness and old-growth forest remaining in the Northeast.
What caused people as far away as New York City to act?
» Continue Reading.