African Heritage

DCHS Collections Documents of Enslavement A woman named Rachel is “sold” to Christian Tobias on February 4, 1771

DCHS Collections Documents of Enslavement A woman named Rachel is “sold” to Christian Tobias on February 4, 1771

The words of Frederick Douglass as spoken at College Hill on Emancipation Day, 1858, in contemporary expression. Performed under the auspices of Celebrating the African Spirit in recognition of Poughkeepsie’s 2022 Frederick Douglass Day. For best viewing click “Watch on Youtube.” Research & images provided by the Dutchess County Historical Society, Bill Jeffway, Executive Director. […]

The map below  (drawn 2012 based on 1849 map courtesy of Historic Red Hook) shows a 1/3rd acre plot with a road to the south and a mill pond to the north. The adjacent landowners are Schultz and Elisha Fingar. I believe due to a change in the road, and an expansion of the mill […]

Benjamin Drew published the book, The Refugee: or the Narratives of the Fugitive Slaves in Canada in 1856, capturing narratives of freedomseekers in first person testimony. Among the narratives is that of Sophia Pooley, who was born and raised ten miles south of Poughkeepsie in Fishkill. At the age of seven she was sold into […]

Highlights People 1941 VOICES Interviews of Manet Fowler Places AME Zion Church The Walter M. Patrice Collection Things Freedom For Sale Man purchases own freedom Words from the past Newer Perspectives Other Starting Points The Walter M. Patrice Collection focuses largely on the history of the Smith AME Zion Church in Poughkeepsie, which through Mr. […]

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Under the heading, Dutchess County Defense Attitudes, the anthropologist Manet Fowler, early in her career, conducted interviews among Blacks in Dutchess County. She made three trips that included Poughkeepsie, Beacon, and a handful of small towns. We are not sure under whose auspices or direction these were conducted. A profile of Fowler is provided at […]