Free Black Community
Carl Rose, 1860s. HHS Archives. Click on the image for more information.
In 1790, the U.S. Federal Census for New Paltz began to enumerate free non-white individuals, described as “All other free Persons.” These “other” people are assumed to have been of African or mixed descent. In the 1790 Census, two men, Anthony DeWall and John Ogden, were named as “Heads of Families” with a combined total of nine “other” free persons residing in their households. Three other free persons resided with families headed by white males. It is unknown whether DeWall, Ogden, and the others had been enslaved in New Paltz prior to this time. Manumissions were rare in Ulster County in the 18th century. Later, following the passage of New York’s Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery in 1799, fourteen manumissions are recorded in the New Paltz Register of Slaves between 1808 and 1825. Still, most people of African descent were not freed until the legal abolition of slavery in New York in 1827, while some individuals remained indentured to their enslavers as late as the 1840s, according to the terms of the state’s gradual abolition laws.
Margaret Hasbrouck Clow holding Jesse Elting DuBois, ca. 1901. HHS Archives, gift of Dina DuBois. Click on the image for more information.
For those people of African descent in New Paltz who obtained freedom, many remained in the area, sometimes working for their former enslavers or other white families. Many established free Black households throughout the town and especially in village neighborhoods around today’s Mulberry, Church, and Broadhead Streets and Pencil Hill Road. Those unable to support themselves lived with friends or family or were sometimes taken to the County Poorhouse. Over time, many moved to cities such as Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Newburgh, and New York, in search of jobs and a new way of life.
The lives of a number of free African Americans in the 19th century are illuminated through the New Paltz Historic Documents Project:
Caesar DuBois
Caesar DuBois, a Black landowner and early Black voter in New Paltz, appears in several historic records. Click here to learn more about Caesar.
Jane Deyo Wynkoop
Jane Deyo Wynkoop was also one of the first African Americans to buy land in New Paltz. Jane and her family have a remarkable story. Learn more about Jane through this online exhibit. Another exhibit about Jane's carpenter son Jacob Wynkoop may be viewed here.