Poughkeepsie: A Local Path Toward Racial Equality
A Dutchess County Equality Trail
About the Author: Bill Jeffway has served as the Executive Director of the Dutchess County Historical Society since February of 2017, with a focus on expanding understanding of traditionally under-represented histories, and creating innovative digital publishing methods. Jeffway is an active member of the Poughkeepsie-based Celebrating the African Spirit, serving on its research committee. He serves on the Vassar College President's Inclusive History Initiative as a member of its External Advisory Committee.
A local path toward equality
This trail is informed by Jeffway's original research, and by prior research of the Dutchess County Historical Society and the Mid-Hudson Anti-Slavery History Project. Jeffway invites contributions. Always evolving. Always learning. He can be reached at bill.jeffway@dchsny.org.
Whether you are actually on the street ~ or hit the trail virtually ~ we hope you’ll meet people, and see places, that illuminate the path that led to a US constitutional promise of equality after the Civil War, and the ongoing effort to realize that promise. This is the story of individuals, regularly suffering under extreme prejudice, determined to pursue life, liberty and happiness regardless of the stark limitations put on them.
In September of 1926, the historian and philosopher, Louis Mumford, spoke at the Amenia estate of Joel and Amy Spingarn, 20 miles northeast of Poughkeepsie. The Spingarns were active in the creation of the National Association of Colored People (NAACP) in the early 20th century. Troutbeck was the site of important foundational NAACP conferences as Joel Spingarn was variously Board Chairman, Treasurer, and President of the organization..
"The things that we can see and touch awaken the imagination,” Mumford said. “Local history touches off these things that have happened on the spot; and the facts of local history become parts of a person's own life to an extent which is rare with scenes and incidents one has taken solely out of books and secondhand accounts.”
That is the spirit of this exercise.
The story of slavery in Dutchess County shows a pervasive practice across rural Dutchess and in built-up river towns like Fishkill (now Beacon), Rhinebeck, Red Hook and Poughkeepsie. Slavery was abolished in New York State in 1827. Constitutional amendments after the Civil War technically "settled" the matter of the promise of equality for those with African heritage and other persons of color. We have yet to realize the full blossoming of that promise.
The trail starts on the banks of the Hudson River, where the paradox of slavery in a country promising equality and liberty can readily be seen.
