Slavery in the Lower Hudson Valley - The Journal News

A Newspaper-in-Education Supplement to The Journal News • LoHud.com
Pretends to Be Free Imagining Runaway Slaves
Students often express anger at the
system of enslavement and suggest
that they would have resisted slavery
through acts of sabotage, rebellion,
physical violence against slave owners,
and by running away. Not surprisingly, many
enslaved individuals did exactly what students
suggest they would do if confronted by such a
system. Although every type and individual act
of resistance has its own story, there is much to
be learned from the act of running away.
Wherever slavery existed, enslaved individuals
ran away. Colonial newspapers ran advertisements
to retrieve lost or stolen “property.” In
New York, the hundreds of runaway advertisements
(three of which appear on these pages)
printed in local newspapers provide us with a
wealth of knowledge about enslaved individuals
and their community. The ads show evidence of
ongoing, active resistance by individuals against
the institution of slavery and allow us a glimpse
into the appearance, skills, personalities and
motives of those who chose to run.
It should be noted, however, that runaway
advertisements were written by slave owners
and written for people who supported slavery.
Advertisements that refer to women as “wenches,”
men as “boys,” hair as “wooll” and numerous
character traits ranging from deceitful and
cunning to slow-witted and clumsy tell us more
about the authors than the true nature of the
individuals who ran away. While a significant
resource, runaway notices must be read with
an understanding that these are painful reminders
of an era marked by grave inhumanity.
Documents written by slave owners about their
slaves tell only one side of the story. b
WHAT
WOULD
YOU DO?
Adolph Philipse was one of the wealthiest
men and one of the largest slaveholders
in New York. When he died in the winter
of 1750, his oldest nephew, Colonel Frederick
Philipse II, inherited all his property. The inheritance
included at least twenty-seven enslaved
men, women and children—most of whom had
lived together for generations at Philipsburg
Manor in Sleepy Hollow, New York. Colonel Philipse
wasted no time in selling off his new “property.”
Within six months, Philipse had sold or
transferred eleven of his late uncle’s slaves. One
was an eight-year-old boy named Sam who
was sold at an auction held at Philipsburg
Manor and, presumably, sold in front of his
parents and extended family. Imagine
that you were a member of Sam’s
family and witnessed him being
auctioned to the highest
bidder? What would
you do?
Another Side (Ripped paper collage), 2006
Allyza Lustig, Croton-Harmon High School
Advertisement: February 16, 1761
Stolen by Her Mother, 2006
Olivia Horvath, Croton-Harmon High School
Advertisement: April 23, 1778
Music has always been a big part of my life. I’ve played
piano since kindergarten, and my siblings both play instruments
as well. This, along with other influences, has often
inspired me to incorporate music/instruments into my artwork
in the past. While I was reading through the various
advertisements, one of the things that stood out to me in
particular was the fact that a slave named Mark Edwards
chose to take his fiddle with him when he ran away from
the plantation. I set a scenario up in my head: he was running
away, had to carry a light load, and could probably
take only what was most dear to him. One of these items,
along with the necessities such as warm clothing for the
winter, was his fiddle. Slave owners may have taken away
his family, his friends, his dignity, and his pride, but they
couldn’t take away his music, and that struck me as being
very prominent in this description.
Reading this, I began to think of different media, compositions,
and color schemes that I could use to create this piece.
I knew that I would want the main focus of the project to
be his face and his violin, because that is what I imagine his
values were: his own self and his instrument. I wanted the
piece to show a sort of love or passion for something intangible
(in this case, music) that could not be taken away. To
focus on this, I centered it on his face, with the eyes closed
to show concentration and captivation. Concerning color, I
picked certain ones as I went along. The red, white, and blue
scheme fell into place. African Americans pushed their way
through thick and thin to become a part of America and
eventually they succeeded, hence the chosen colors.
I found this project to be one that I learned quite a bit
from, and by that I mean both in the art sense and in the
history sense. I was able to try to see something from a
point of view that is not often looked at very closely. I
set up situations in my head, reacted to them, and then
worked them out on paper to decide which I’d like to focus
on the most. This particular piece let me explore a media
(ripped paper collage) that I don’t get to work in very
often and I think that I learned a lot about value (sectioning
off shadows, for example) in the process.
My painting, titled “Stolen by her Mother,” reflects the
injustice committed against enslaved peoples in pre-Civil
War times. An ad that particularly struck me was one
proclaiming the theft of a nine-year old daughter by her
mother. This struck me as absurd—the fact that a mother
could ever be charged with stealing her own daughter.
This shows the biases that American society had towards
slaves. Slaves were not valued or respected as people at
all, but as property.
In the painting, I tapped into how the mother and
daughter might have felt—a strong bond, even though
they were separated by the law. I tried to show this
though the closeness of the two figures. Above them, I
painted a chain. This was meant to be the ever-looming
presence of the binding laws of the white man. Their faces
are solemn, for even though they are together, this chain
is always a present and pressing issue. For this artwork,
I used acrylic paints. This is not a medium I usually work
in, but I believed that the subtle shades and texture of
paint on canvas would carry across some emotion into the
piece.
To me, this painting represents the injustice that was
shown towards African Americans in the early years of the
United States. The fact that families were torn apart was
bad enough. However, the fact that a mother would be
persecuted for attempting to rescue her young daughter
is absurd and atrocious.