Where Slavery Died Hard: The Forgotten History of Ulster County and the Shawangunk Mountain Region
This article originally appeared on the Cragsmoor Historical Society website.
Most accounts of slavery in the United States focus on the role that the southern states played in this most shameful chapter of America's history. As New Yorkers, we learn about the underground railroad and brave abolitionists who guided those enslaved in the South to freedom in the North. The real story, however, is much more complicated. In the article that follows we examine our region's historic but largely forgotten ties to enslavement and slaveholding. It is a story that spans nearly two centuries and may surprise many readers. Read more...