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Events
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URR NEWS: NEW BOOK ON URR RESEARCH IN EASTERN NEW YORK | FORTHCOMING BOOKS
ON HARRIET TUBMAN | NEW BOOK ON WILLIAM COOPER NELL | RESEARCH REQUEST ON
THE HERSHBERGER/HARSHBURGER FAMILY OF JOHNSTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA | HISTORICAL
PLAY IN PLATTSBURGH, N.Y.
GUIDE TO UNDERGROUND RAILROAD SITES IN EASTERN N.Y.
Tom Calarco, The Underground Railroad Conductor: A Guide to Underground
Railroad Sites in Eastern New York (Schenectady, NY: Travels Thru History,
2003) has just been published. The book provides tips and suggestions on
how to do research, and information on people, organizations and sites
associated with the Underground Railroad in Eastern New York, from New York
City to the Canadian border. Calarco discusses criteria for documenting
the Underground Railroad, stressing the necessity to be cautious about
local legends and to seek verification. The author has made good use of
the abolitionist press in finding information about local vigilance
committees and anti-slavery societies. When discussing particular sites,
he includes the local legends, clearly identifying many claims as based on
folklore and rumor. Such sites are not to be dismissed out of hand by the
skeptical, but invited further investigation and research. The author is
particularly good at sketching networks, and possible networks, of
anti-slavery workers, both black and white, of African-American communities
and of churches, including Quaker meetings. I found the advertisement for
the "New York Cash Dry Goods Warehouse" reproduced on page 41 particularly
interesting. The advertisement for this New York firm regularly appeared,
so the author tells us, in the Albany Patriot and the owner, Andrew Lester,
was a member of both the New York and the Albany vigilance
committees. While this is not absolute proof that fugitives were being
carried up the Hudson to Albany along with goods from Lester's firm, it is
certainly suggestive that Lester's business connections might have been
quite useful in aiding freedom seekers. This book will be a useful
companion to those beginning or continuing research on the Underground
Railroad in New York State. Author Tom Calarco's more extended study of
The Underground Railroad in the Adirondacks is scheduled to be published by
McFarland Books in early 2004. For order information for The Underground
Railroad Conductor go to www.travelsthruhistory.com (link no longer
works--editor).
HARRIET TUBMAN: FORTHCOMING BOOKS
Harriet Tubman is one of the best known figures in American history, but
until recently, surprisingly little research has been done on her
life. That situation has changed for the better. At least two new books
on Tubman, both based on substantial research in primary sources, will be
published in 2003. Kate Clifford Larson's Bound for the Promised Land:
Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero is forthcoming from Ballentine
Books, and Jean McMahon Humez's Harriet Tubman: The Life and Life Stories
is being published by the University of Wisconsin Press. Author Kate
Clifford Larson has a web site on Tubman:
www.harriettubmanbiography.com
The web site includes new information on Tubman, photographs and maps of
the routes Tubman used in her work.
BOOK ON THE WRITINGS WILLIAM COOPER NELL
William Cooper Nell: Selected Writings, 1832-1874, edited by Dorothy Porter
Wesley and Constance Porter Uzelac (Baltimore: Black Classics Press, 2002),
documents the life of African-American abolitionist and writer, William
Cooper Nell (1816-1874), a frequent contributor to the Liberator and other
abolitionist newspapers, and the author of several books. For more
information on Nell, and information on ordering the book, see
http://www.dpw-archives.org/dpw.wcn.html
RESEARCH REQUEST: HERSHBERGER/HARSHBURGER FAMILY OF JOHNSTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA
The following research request comes from Mike Burke. Mike writes: "For the
past eleven months, I've done the research for an African American history
project at the Johnstown (PA) Area Heritage Association, spending quite a
bit of my time focusing on the Underground Railroad. Recently, some of the
work paid off, when I got in touch with Jane Williamson in Ferrisburgh VT,
regarding an escaped slave named Simon, who passed through this region and
eventually made it that far north. We were able to dig up quite a bit on
the abolitionist William Griffith, who harbored Simon during his time in
Somerset Co., and At any rate, I first saw her query on your newsletter,
and figured if it worked for her it may work for me too.
"My research query concerns one of the oldest African American families in
Johnstown and the reasons why they settled here. At some point, it seems,
they took the name Hershberger (later Harshberger) and settled on a
mountain top about three miles west of town, where their descendents lived
until the 1960's. I've been unable to contact anyone in the family who
remembers hearing the very earliest of stories, explaining where they came
from. The name, too is peculiar, mainly associated with a single white
family group that came from Switzerland to Berks Co., to Somerset, and
finally to Cambria Co. by 1800. Through the nineteenth century, all of the
African American Hershbergers claimed to have been born in Pennsylvania,
though I have no idea as to the veracity of that, or whether the earliest
generations had been slaves in this state or elsewhere. I have exhausted
the written record at this point, but have found nothing prior to their
arrival around 1825. I'm now trying everything I can to locate them on the
radar screens of other researchers that may recognize the name. Certainly,
their settlement on top of a mountain is intriguing. I became aware of that
trend earlier in the year, and since, we've found reference to two other
African American men very close by, who did the same and actively worked as
agents of the URR, so that's something else that may be born of further
inquiry.
"Any help you or your readers may be able to offer would, of course, be
very much appreciated. Thanks for your time,
Mike Burke, Johnstown Area Heritage Association"
Anyone having information or suggestions should write to Mike Burke at
[email protected]
HISTORICAL PLAY AT PLATTSBURGH, N.Y., SEPTEMBER 2003
[As submitted by the RH Foundation] As a part of the 2003 Battle of
Plattsburgh commemoration, members and friends of the Red Hummingbird
Foundation will present two staged readings of Don Papson's historical play
on freedom, slavery and the War of 1812, Well Do I Remember. Inspired by
the autobiography of the Quaker abolitionist and underground railroad agent
Stephen Keese Smith, who was a boy at the time of the battle, and memoirs
of early residents of Clinton County, Well Do I Remember tells the story of
how the War of 1812 affected the Quakers and Plattsburgh's citizens who
fled to the peace loving Quaker Union in Peru during the six day occupation
of the North Country in 1814. First performed during the Commemoration
weekend last year, this year's presentation of Well Do I Remember will
include a more fully developed telling of the Battle of Plattsburgh. The
first reading of Well Do I Remember, which will coincide with the date the
British began their occupation, will take place on Saturday, September 6th
at 7:30 PM at the Fellowship Center of the Peru Community Church on Elm
Street in the center of Peru. Admission will be $5; children will be
admitted free. The Saturday performance will be a fund raiser for the Red
Hummingbird Foundation and the Peru Community Church's Jamaican Mission.
The second reading of Well Do I Remember will be a part of the Battle of
Plattsburgh weekend festivities and take place on Sunday afternoon
September 14 at 2:30in the City Hall Auditorium. Admission will be included
in the cost of a Commemoration Weekend button. For more information call
Don Papson at 561-0277 or e-mail [email protected]
Christopher Densmore, September 1, 2003
Friends Historical Library
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