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Hyde Park’s New Guinea community was a transient, two-to-three generation community of color in the period just before, during, and after the U.S. Civil War. The first Federal Census in 1790 shows that 80% of Dutchess County’s population of 2,200 persons of color were enslaved. About two-thirds lived along the Hudson River, and one-third lived in inland rural parts. After the 1827 abolition of slavery in New York State, New Guinea became home to formerly enslaved persons from around the area who banded together, in part, to provide safety during this period of transition. The continued enslavement of four million men, women and children in the U.S. South created a risk of kidnapping for local free persons of color. The passing of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law intensified the divisions in the country. New Guinea became a permanent home to self-emancipated freedom seekers on the so-called underground railroad from as far away as Virginia and Brazil, as well as a temporary stop on the way to Canada. The searing bright spark emerged from both the heat of confrontation, and the light of reason, education, and access to property and business ownership that illuminated a way forward. The passionate countervailing national arguments literally abutted the New Guinea community. Adjacent to the west were those who enslaved others like three generations of the Bard family, and those, like James K. Paulding, who became published national voices arguing for the permanent institution of slavery. Adjacent to the east was the outspoken and activist abolitionist Quaker community. The Crum Elbow Meeting House, which stands today with its ancient cemetery, was home to (and today is the resting place of) the leading national abolitionist voices of the DeGarmo family, including Elizabeth, “Lizzie” DeGarmo. Revealing the frequent seeming contradictions and subtleties of the issue, while some of the founders of Hyde Park’s St. James Church were slave owners, the church operated as an open community. Persons of color were invited to worship and attend Sunday school. The church offered paid employment. The St. James cemetery policy was unusual at the time in that it allowed the integrated burial of all races. The bright spark was searing. There was destitution, disease and death, among a community that grew by a factor of five between 1810 and 1830. Many lived in unhealthful conditions in shanties and lean-tos along the Crum Elbow Creek. At the same time, persons of color became successful property and business owners, and began to define individual paths in the pursuit of their personal happiness. In many instances those paths took them away from Hyde Park, and in some instances it did not. We are fortunate to be able to draw from insights from a 21st century archaeological investigation, the 20th century local historian Henry Hackett, the 19th century local historian, Edward Braman, and the resources of the Dutchess County Historical Society. ~ Bill Jeffway Watch the video: 50-minutes. For new window & full view click on Watch on Youtube.To view within the above window, click red play button. Take the trail: Put cursor over window to scroll down through the story and map.There are 29 “stops” in Chapter One, and 9 “stops” in Chapter Two. End of embedded trail window. Trail Overview: Maps: Photos: Above: We have enjoyed introducing Columbia University students and NYS Parks summer students to the site. Family photos of Henry Hackett and his family and home, and a contemporary map.

Our online story about the extraordinary Sadie Peterson Delaney caught the attention of a big fan in England: Natty Mark Samuels, head of the African School in England. He was prompted to write a ballad dedicated to her, which is here performed by Poughkeepsie’s Angela Henry. The profile of Mrs. Delaney is below as well. The Ballad of Sadie Delaney By Natty Mark Samuels, head of the African School in England. Read by (Grace) Angela Henry (13 minutes). Full program. Poughkeepsie’s Sadie Delaney: Healing the Trauma of War Through Reading This is an extract from an article published in the Northern/Southern Dutchess News on February 12, 2020, under the heading, African American Women’s Voices & Talents of a Century Ago by Bill Jeffway. Sadie (Johnson) Peterson Delaney (1889 to 1958) was both ambitious and successful in expanding a field of health and healing driven by books, called Bibliotherapy. We know from The Quill, the Parish newsletter of the the Smith Metropolitan AME Zion Church, that she was a prolific poet, and involved in many Church groups. From the October 21, 1915 issue: Mrs Peterson is one of Zion’s staunch supporters. She possesses considerable literary ability, is a willing worker, a splendid young woman and of a congenial personality. She is a born poet. Her productions are practically all spontaneous efforts and yet she has but few equals in the amateur poetic world. Each of her poems grip with a peculiar fascination, being clothed in beautiful language, the pathos so tender and the whole so original, varied and novel that one is carried along as in a delightful dream of admiration. Mrs. Peterson is serving our church as President of the J. W. Hood Literary Society, President of the General Claims Auxiliary No. 2, Leader of the Children’s Class, Sabbath School Teacher, and member of the Busy Bee Sewing Circle. She is one of the daughters of Zion of whom we are proud. New York State was having a referendum in the year 1915 on the question of women’s suffrage, of course only among male voters who were the only ones who could vote at the time. The question the ballot was whether the NY State constitution should be amended to allow women to vote. In an effort to drum up support among African-Americans the Equal Suffrage League of Poughkeepsie, led by Laura Wiley of Vassar College, held a meeting at the Smith AME Zion Church, the African-American Church on Smith Street in Poughkeepsie in 1914, a year before the referendum. Among the women of that Church who stepped up and spoke in support of women’s suffrage was Sadie Johnson Peterson. Interested in writing at the time, she read an original poem called, “A Suffrage Call.” Unfortunately we do not know exactly what she said. Peterson had moved to Poughkeepsie as a child in 1899 when her father took the job of Sexton at St Paul’s Episcopal Church. Sadie Peterson, 1915, Poughkeepsie. Dr. Delaney. She attended Poughkeepsie High School, and Miss McGovern’s School of Social Work, abley pivoting out of a difficult first marriage to focus on studying to become a librarian. She was 30 years old when she left Poughkeepsie to study at the 135th Street Branch of the New York City library system, now New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. She was active there when the intellectual, musical and artistic activities of the Harlem Renaissance took place. Today, that library branch houses a collection of her letters, clippings and photographs. In 1924, the remarried Sadie Peterson Delaney took a position as librarian at Tuskegee Veterans Administration hospital. There she developed and evolved the practice of Bibliotherapy, working with doctors to use books to heal both mental and physical wounds. Imagine, a time before television, before the pervasive TV screen appeared in our hospital rooms to distract us, Bibliotherapy was a deeply thoughtful concept that looked at a very holistic approach to healing. Eleanor Roosevelt in her column “My Day” wrote in January 1957 applauding Mrs. Delaney and her practice of bibliotherapy. Roosevelt explained that Mrs. Delaney served 1,000 patients. She had added a library binding service to give patients vocational experience. She started a department for the blind, and classes in braille. At the Family Partnership building on North Hamilton Street you will find Poughkeepsie Public Library’s Sadie Peterson Delaney African Roots Library.