And yet, while some owners did pursue the course of releasing their slaves on their own, political battles in Albany between those seeking gradual emancipation and those favoring emancipation with the right to vote for slaves, stalled progress towards legislative agreement. Despite their inability to forge consensus on the broader issues surrounding complete emancipation, Albany would, however, eventually move towards their goal through a series of legislative steps. In 1799, the Legislature passed a law that would free all children born after July 4th of that year, but not right away. Recognizing the “investment” slave owners had in their “possessions,” and that extending immediate freedom to newborns would deprive owners of the “productive” years that might lie ahead, emancipation would be granted to qualifying slaves only after reaching age 28 for males and age 25 for females. In addition, so that children born after the proscribed date could be readily identified, owners were required to register the birth of any child born to one of their slaves. So it was that the aforementioned Andrew Riselar made his way to the home of the town clerk in 1800 to register the child named Pine. Also registering children born to slaves in Woodstock following the passage of the 1799 law were: Cornelius Dumont — (1) black girl born November 1, 1799 named Susannah; Philip Bonesteel — (1) black female child born April 4, 1801 named Tune; Wilhemus Rowe — (1) black female born October 10, 1801 named Diana. In 1802, Cornelius Dumont would also register a second child named Rachel, born November 16, 1802.
It would be another eighteen years, in 1817, before New York State would take the next major step towards emancipation, granting eventual freedom to all slaves born before July 4, 1799. Again, however, the operative word was “eventual,” as the new law granting emancipation to all would not become effective for another ten years. So it was, on July 4, 1827, that New York’s — and Woodstock’s — “peculiar institution” finally began to fade into those pages reserved for New York State’s less than honorable history. Still, for many, slavery remained the nasty business it had always been. It was not unheard of, for example, for some freed slaves to be kidnapped, secreted to the south and sold. Some New York slave owners, not wishing to lose out on their “investment,” took their own slaves south in advance of the 1827 emancipation date and resold them in states where America’s original sin continued to thrive. Meanwhile, with the arrival of emancipation, Woodstock slaves found themselves with few options. For the most part, it is believed that many stayed on with their former owners working as indentured laborers. Alf Evers, for example, notes that a slave named “Tom,” who had belonged to John Wigram, did not wander far from Rock City Road where he could be found, in addition to his work for Wigram, selling refreshments to passersby. Other former slaves in Woodstock, unable to sustain themselves economically, found themselves under the auspices of the town’s Overseers of the Poor, an early form of welfare in which the town would pay an individual promising to provide for the former slave or indigent person in exchange for work performed on the provider’s property or in their household. As you can imagine, it was a system not far removed from where the former slaves had been. In one such Woodstock case, a young slave girl named Gin was bound out to Michael Smith who, in return for providing her shelter, food and every day clothes for Such a Slave, could expect that his charge would faithfully serve him on all lawful business according to her power wit and ability. And, while most providers went about their obligation honorably, it was also a system that saw abuse. In one such case, the town was forced to dissolve an arrangement between a farmer and a young girl when it was found that the farmer misused and evil treated her and corrupted the Morals, destroyed the virtue and injured the character of sd apprentice. Following the incident, the farmer fled Woodstock.
Local history, though unique in its own context, seldom wanders too far from our national story. And yet, the knowledge that slaves — human beings owned by other human beings — once walked the same pathways we walk today remains a stubborn fact that fits uneasily into the pages of Woodstock’s story. In our “defense,” even though there is none, we have been shaped by an education that told us the North was good and the South was bad. We are surrounded by a popular culture that offers Academy Award nominations for reinforcing those very same concepts. And, as we honor and celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, little is still acknowledged that would link the large cities and the small towns of the “good” North with our nation’s darkest chapter. To paraphrase Sinclair Lewis, however, “it did happen here.” Something to remember the next time we are walking along Rock City Road.
