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Dreaming
of Timbuctoo
From Africa to the Adirondacks
Curated by Amy Godine
February 2-28,
2002
Grand Lobby, Central Library
Saturday, February
2, 2 pm
Central Library, Second-Floor Auditorium
Curator Amy Godine discusses the exhibition and its significance in
"Forty Acres and a Deed: The Lost Story of an Adirondack Farm
Colony for African Americans."
Little known to most New Yorkers,
the dramatic pre-Civil War story of African-American homesteaders, who
established a community in the Adirondacks to gain voting rights and a
piece of the American dream, is graphically retold in "Dreaming
of Timbuctoo," a special exhibition in celebration of
Black History Month.
In 1846, the prominent New York land
speculator and abolitionist Gerrit Smith resolved to give away 120,000
acres (mostly in Essex and Franklin Counties) from his Adirondack
holdings to African-American New Yorkers who were eager to homestead and
vote, but lacked the means to do either. Convinced that black men were
no less entitled to voting rights than white, and that every person who
wanted a farm should have one, Smith gave away vast tracts of Adirondack
wilderness between 1846-1853 with the support of Frederick Douglass,
Rev. Henry Highland Garnet and other leading black reformers.
Generally known by its phonetic
spelling of Tim-buk-tu, Timbuctoo was the intellectual and
commercial capital of West Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries, and
became the informal name for one of several African-American enclaves in
the Adirondacks. "Timbuctoo" signified the opportunity to own
land – thus allowing the right to vote – and to pursue agricultural
self-sufficiency and independence. For the 3,000 black New Yorkers who
received parcels of land from abolitionist Gerrit Smith, nearly 1,000 of
the grantees hailed from New York and Kings Counties, including Brooklyn’s
Willis A. Hodges. For a time, Hodges traded his life as a grocer and
publisher of the Brooklyn-based anti-slavery newspaper, The Ram’s
Horn, for the rugged life of Adirondack homesteader.
The "Dreaming of Timbuctoo"
exhibition consists of historic photographs with panels of text, copies
of the original "grants book" maintained by Gerrit Smith, and
an enlarged map that indicates the holdings of African-American grantees
in the Adirondack counties where land was distributed.
"We initiated this project because
an important chapter of Adirondack and New York State history has been
missing from the record for over 150 years," explains Martha Swan,
Director of John Brown Lives!. "Our curator Amy Godine and a band
of dedicated researchers delved into archival records all across the
state. A surprising and significant story, with strong connections to
Brooklyn and Albany, has emerged, thanks to this remarkable, mostly
volunteer group effort."
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(Click to enlarge)
"Black Farmers at North Elba"
Photo Courtesy of The Adirondack Museum, Blue Mountain Lake, NY
"Effects of the Fugitive-Slave-Law"
Theodor Kaufmann, Lithograph 1850
Photo: Courtesy of Library Congress
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History
of the project
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In summer 2001, "Dreaming of
Timbuctoo" premiered at the Adirondack Museum in Blue
Mountain Lake. The exhibition’s showing at Brooklyn Public
Library in February 2002 marks the beginning of a two to three
year tour to museums, college campuses and historical societies
throughout New York.
"Dreaming of Timbuctoo" was
initiated by John Brown Lives!, an Adirondack-based freedom education
and human rights project. The exhibition is curated by Amy Godine. The
designers of the exhibition are Stephen Horne and Kevan Moss of Kevan
Moss Design, and fabrication is by Jim Brush.
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