F. Kennon Moody and his wife, Mary L. Moody, at a gala event on Wednesday, October 24th, were honored as the recipients of the First Rabbi Erwin Zimet Humanitarian Award. The Awards ceremony took place in Poughkeepsie, New York, at the Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel. Several hundred people attended the ceremony. The Rabbi Erwin Zimet Humanitarian Award was established to recognize exceptional individuals who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and contributions in philanthropic and human services. 

Ken is an ordained Methodist minister and holds a Ph.D. in History. He served in multiple roles for the Comprehensive Re-Integration Project of the South Forty Corporation of Poughkeepsie, a program which worked in the prisons to prevent convict recidivism. He has worked in several areas of education, including at Dutchess Community College, the Board of the Arlington School District, and as a Board member of the Boy Scouts of America. He and his wife, Mary, have played leading roles in raising money and awareness for the CROP Hunger Walk since 1977.

Ken is one of the founding members of the Mid-Hudson Antislavery History Project, and over the years has played a leading role in the MHAHP’s program. He oversaw the research and writing for Slavery, Antislavery and the Underground Railroad: A Dutchess County Guide, published by the MHAHP in 2010.

The Mid-Hudson Antislavery History Project is proud to announce that Susan Stessin-Cohn will be speaking on her newest research and publication, “In Defiance: Runaways From Slavery in New York’s Hudson River Valley 1735-1831.” Ms. Stessin-Cohn is former professor of social studies education at SUNY New Paltz, and is currently the Historian for the Town of New Paltz, New York.

Her presentation will take place at the Wallace Center of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, in Hyde Park, New York, on Thursday, October 25th, beginning at 7:00pm. 

Susan is a recipient of the Bruce Dearstyne Award for excellence in the educational use of local government records; the New York State Archives Award for the best use of primary local documents in a curriculum in NYS; and the Pride of Ulster County Award for research on the Ulster County Poorhouse. She has created four teaching packets for the New York State Archives and the Ulster County Clerk’s Office. Her most resent publication, In Defiance: Runaways from Slavery in New York’s Hudson River Valley, 1735-1831, is coauthored by Ashley Hurlburt-Biagini. Susan has appeared on C-Span as well as WYNT channel 13.

To be in bondage, to be owned by another human being, to be subjected to another person’s total will – that was the essence of slavery. The natural “fight or flight” instinct in every human being dominated the minds of all those who were treated as property. Humanizing an otherwise largely silent population, advertisements for fugitive slaves provide an exceptionally valuable window into black life in Early America—from the nature of the slave system and the master-slave relationship to fascinating glimpses into material culture and folk life.

Please join us for this fascinating and important glimpse inside the lives and minds of “runaways.”

To commemorate Black History Month, the Mid-Hudson Antislavery History Project is proud to present Michael

Lord, Associate Director of Content Development for Historic Hudson Valley, who will make a presentation on

Thursday, February 2nd at the Wallace Center at Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York. Titled

“An American Paradox: Enslavement on the Hudson,” an overview of Mr. Lord’s talk follows. The presentation

begins at 7:00pm in the auditorium of the Wallace Center and is free and open to the public.

To commemorate Black History Month, the Mid-Hudson Antislavery History Project is proud to present Michael Lord, Associate Director of Content Development for Historic Hudson Valley, who will make a presentation on Thursday, February 2nd at the Wallace Center at Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York. Titled “An American Paradox: Enslavement on the Hudson,” an overview of Mr. Lord’s talk follows. The presentation begins at 7:00pm in the auditorium of  the Wallace Center. The presentation is free and open to the public.

Did you know …

• That the first non-indigenous settler on Manhattan was a man of African descent?
• That a plantation economy flourished up and down the banks of the Hudson River?
• That the variety of African nationalities in colonial New York equaled or surpassed the number of European nationalities represented?
• That enslaved individuals in New York actively resisted using both covert and overt means?

The Igbo of eastern Nigeria have a saying: “Until lions have their own historians, tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” Although the history of enslavement in the Hudson River Valley is well documented and researched, its existence and significance to the development of New York’s commercial and cultural development continues to be obscured, ignored, or misunderstood by many. Michael A. Lord, Associate Director of Content Development at Historic Hudson Valley, examines the issues, events, and individual choices surrounding enslavement in the Hudson Valley from the perspective of the enslaved. Using the historic site of Philipsburg Manor as a focal point, Lord’s presentation traces the development of slavery throughout the Hudson River Valley, and why this most-American of stories continues to be relevant.

A Magna cum laude graduate of Amherst College with degrees in History and Black Studies, Michael A. Lord was introduced to living history as a graduate student at the College of William and Mary. Michael came to Historic Hudson Valley in 1998 as the Associate Director for Reinterpretation, working to create and implement Philipsburg Manor’s story of northern colonial enslavement. Currently the Associate Director of Content Development, Michael trains HHV staff at all five historic sites to tell the story of the Hudson Valley. He also writes, produces, and directs museum theater  presentations for Historic Hudson Valley and other institutions.

       Philipsburg Manor

        Sleepy Hollow, NY

Please join us for this important presentation !!!

The Dutchess Antislavery Singers will perform “Songs For Freedom: Music in the Antislavery Cause,” at the annual conference of the Greater Hudson Heritage Network. The conference is being held on Friday, October 28th, at Locust Grove Estate in Poughkeepsie, NY. For information about the Conference, go to http://www.greaterhudson.org.

The Annual Meeting of the Mid-Hudson Antislavery History Project will take place on Monday, April 25th, at the First Congregational – United Church of Christ, 265 Mill Street, in Poughkeepsie. The meeting begins at 7pm.

We invite everyone interested in the local history of Dutchess County and the surrounding Hudson Valley region to attend!! After a brief report of recent activities, the meeting will focus on planning projects for the coming year. Some of these are our speakers’ forum, ongoing research, building alliances with other history organizations, promoting the Dutchess Antislavery Singers, technical support for a planned new website, and fundraising.

Come join us!!! For more information, contact Peter Bunten at pabunten1@aol.com.

Members of the Dutchess Antislavery Singers will be leading a session for teachers at this week’s annual conference of the National Council for History Education in Niagara Falls, New York. Rebecca Edwards and Peter Bunten will host the session, titled “‘Oh Freedom, Sweet Freedom’: Using Music to Teach U.S. Abolitionist History.” Between 1830 and 1865, American abolitionism grew into a powerful interracial movement for social justice. It crossed borders of race, gender, and religion and united Northern reformers with Southerners who bore witness in exile to their experiences. This session will provide teachers with an array of creative resources for teaching the movement’s history through its music, including lyrics, scores, illustrations, videos, and a dramatic script based on primary documents. Participants will brainstorm ways to adapt these materials to diverse classrooms, and the session will end with a brief performance.

Edwards is the leader of the Dutchess Antislavery Singers and Bunten is current chair of the Mid-Hudson Antislavery History Project. The DAS is one of the programs sponsored by the MHAHP.

Please join us at the upcoming meeting of the Mid-Hudson Antislavery History Project. The meeting will be held on Monday, March 28th, from 7 to 8:30pm. We meet at the First Congregational – United Church of Christ, 269 Mill Street, Poughkeepsie.

A detailed agenda will be posted shortly. At this meeting we will focus on detailing plans for the remainder of 2016 — for our lecture series, Dutchess Antislavery Singers, research, joint projects with other organizations, and updated publicity. We will have a status report on our application for non-profit status.

Please join us!! The meeting is open to everyone interested in the work of the Project. We welcome new members and participants. If you have any questions, please contact Peter Bunten, MHAHP Chairman, at pabunten1@aol.com.

The MHAHP is pleased to sponsor a lecture by the Reverend Chuck Kramer, Rector of St. James Church in Hyde Park. The lecture will be held at the Wallace Center of the FDR Library in Hyde Park, on Sunday, April 10, at 2pm. Fr. Kramer’s topic is “Slavery and the Church in New York.” Opposing views of slavery produced internecine fighting throughout New York State, not least among the religious communities. Fr. Kramer will discuss the various aspects of these conflicts, with emphasis on how they played out in the Hudson Valley.

Fr. Kramer was born in Illinois. He earned his BA at Indiana University with a double major in German and Journalism, and an MA in teaching. He attended the General Theological Seminary in New York City and was ordained a priest in 1990. After serving churches in North Carolina and New York, he came to St. James in 1997. Fr. Chuck writes a weekly column for the Hudson Valley News, touching on issues of the day. A collection of these has just been compiled and published, in “God, Life and Everything.” You can find information about St. James Church here.

We are grateful to the Wallace Center for hosting this event, and especially to Cliff Laube for his assistance. For information on the Wallace Center and FDR Library, click here.

Please mark your calendar to join us for this important presentation!