Wealth & Poverty

Navigating Wealth & Poverty: The Economic Diversity of Dutchess County’s 19th Century Black Community

How Global Trade and a Wall Street Baron Intersected With Local Merchants and Working Class Through the Tumultuous Period of the 19th Century and US Civil War.

The noted and sometimes notorious Millionaire Black investor Jeremiah Hamilton made high-profile investments in Poughkeepsie when the Improvement Party, led by Matthew Vassar, literally plotted out major initiatives that would positively shape Poughkeepsie: the creation of a reservoir, College Hill, Mansion Square, waterfront manufacturing. Paul Cuffee was known as the leading Black ship captain in the global whaling industry, but we also find Cuffee making sales of rare Brazilian wood in Poughkeepsie to support the local dying industry. Several local barbers and tailors in particular emerged as national leaders in the abolition movement and both relied on international maritime ties for local products.

Through never-before-published diaries we will hear first hand observations of the post-Civil War Black communities in Dover and eastern Dutchess in particular where on the ground ingenuity and a great deal of flexibility supported “getting by.”

Like any good historical presentation, you will be surprised by the answers to many questions, and equally engages by the new questions that have emerged.

This presentation is free to the public courtesy of the generous sponsorship of Dutchess County government in recognition of Black History Month.

Feb 20th @ 7PM