(somber music) (feet shuffling) (gentle chanting music) (birds chirping) - One of the major myths to debunk about the period between 1800 and 1848 is that slavery didn't exist in the North, because it existed everywhere in the colonies and then in early America.

The other is that when slavery was abolished in the free states, that that meant people immediately become free and gained all their civil rights, because they did not.

(mysterious music) New York actually had the largest population of enslaved people outside the South during that early 1800 period.

So you have a lot of people in different locations who are finding all kinds of ways to say, "You're not gonna continue to hold us in bondage, and we're gonna have to find a way to do something about it."

And that's when the legislators really start to listen and look at controlling that, creating policies and plans to minimize its immediate effect on enslavers, really.

(gentle chanting music) - So during Cole's time, when he comes up here, a lot of Black persons are receiving their manumissions, which are the kind of legal documents stating their freedom.

(light music) But there's still these sort of threats to their freedom, and some people aren't manumitted until 1827 or even later.

And so while he's here, slavery is very much still a practice, and you see that appear on Census documents even.

And he likely saw it and experienced it in various forms, like around Catskill and in the surrounding regions.

- Slavery really phased out in free states, but then you see policies that are racialized that follow them.

And so I think those are really the major, some of the major things, especially about how African Americans lived during this time period, that I'd like people to know more about and not believe that once a state was free, everybody just gained equal rights, like everyone else did.

That did not happen.

(light music continues) So immediately in the aftermath of the American Revolution, politicians in New York are trying to decide how to stay true to this idea of freedom from the American Revolution.

And you have enslaved people and some free people of African descent who are demanding that slavery is abolished.

And so what the politicians start to talk about is, what will the state look like and who will do the labor if enslaved people are free?

But also, that enslaved people might retaliate against their former enslavers for breaking up their families and the horrible abuses that they experienced.

So their initial debate is on, how do you do this?

Is it going to be immediate or we pick a date and all enslaved people are free?

Or is it gonna be gradual, which gives us time to still use the labor of our enslaved people and to figure out how we will maybe compensate enslavers for now their loss?

And also then, as people start to gradually become free, to see if they'll work, right?

To see what will unfold.

So it's kind of a little bit more like a test rather than a commitment.

(chanting music) - Thomas Thomson was the uncle of Maria Bartow Cole, who married Thomas Cole.

So Thomas Thomson dies in 1821.

So him and Cole never actually meet, but it was essentially Thomas Thomson's wealth and business ventures that established the home that Thomas Cole would move into and come to love and become kind of famous for living in this really beautiful and pastoral space.

(somber music) What we find out is that Thomson was really a businessman at heart and was actively involved in enslaving people in Demerara because he saw it as this business opportunity.

And you know, he's kind of the perfect example of someone in the U.S. profiting from the institution of slavery.

(somber music continues) The 1840 Census of the home cites that 11 people were living here, including a free Black woman who is recorded and cited without a name on this particular record.

(somber music continues) - You know, whoever was enslaved or in Black servitude or performing Black labor is really kind of erased from a lot of recorded documents from any family.

It's really like this level of very invisibilized labor, not just in this family, but in a lot of families in the Valley, yeah.

- Understanding the role and importance of slavery in the American economy, in settlement patterns, in even wills and bequeaths between family members of enslaved people, but then also the tenacity of formerly enslaved people to put one foot in front of the other and to demand civil rights in states that are practicing racialized slavery but also claim to be free states and have eliminated slavery, means that it's expanding our understanding at the time of human rights.

And the nation at-large wasn't really ready for that kind of conversation.

(gentle music) - Sponsored in part by Albany Medical Health Systems and by Robert and Doris Fischer Melisarti.

(gentle music continues)