Interpreting the History of Slavery in Hudson Valley

At Historic Hudson Valley, a music and dance group leads a crowd in celebration of Pinkser, a holiday celebrated by African and Dutch communities in eighteenth-century New York. Image courtesy of Historic Hudson Valley.

With five historic sites, Historic Hudson Valley preserves and interprets the history of the Hudson River Valley, providing cultural enrichment for locals and drawing tourists in from neighboring regions. The National Endowment for the Humanities has supported this work since 1977, providing funding for historic sites, public programs, and summer professional development seminars that bring K–12 teachers to the region. NEH Challenge Grants helped the organization raise an additional $2.55 million in non-federal funds to endow humanities programs.

Historic Hudson Valley's new documentary website, People Not Property, debuted in 2019. Video courtesy of Historic Hudson Valley.

For Historic Hudson, the benefits of NEH grants extend well beyond financial assistance. In the 1990s, Historic Hudson developed a new mode of interpretation for one of its most prominent sites, Philipsburgh Manor. In previous decades, visitors to the manor were told about its eighteenth-century owners, the Philipse family. NEH funding helped Historic Hudson refocus the story. Now, visitors to the manor explore the lives of the twenty-three enslaved Africans who lived and worked on the plantation. They learn more about an underrepresented element of early American life: the history of slavery in the colonial north. At the time of the grant, sites around the nation were only beginning to interpret the influence of enslavement on their histories and regions. NEH funding helped Historic Hudson Valley claim a spot at the forefront of this movement and gave it the confidence to take on sensitive subject matter.

Two children examine a mortar and pestle—commonly used in eighteenth-century cooking and medicine. Image courtesy of Historic Hudson Valley.

At Historic Hudson Valley, guests can try out eighteenth-century forms of entertainment, such as the stilts and hoops seen here. Image courtesy of Historic Hudson Valley.

In the years since reinterpreting Philipsburgh Manor, Historic Hudson Valley staff have gained expertise in slavery in the colonial north and in representing that history to a public that is often unfamiliar with it. The organization has leveraged this expertise through other NEH-funded initiatives. An NEH Summer Institute for School Teachers, offered in 2017 and 2019, brought educators from across the country to the Hudson River Valley where they learn to integrate the history of northern slavery into their classrooms. And in 2019, Historic Hudson launched <em>People Not Property: Stories of Slavery in the Colonial North</em>, an interactive documentary website that brings new content about the history of enslavement in colonial America to anyone with an internet connection.