Audio
Freedonia Lane
Transcript
For just a moment, let your imagination guide your senses. Look straight down this trail and gaze back into the late 1700s. It’s a typical workday on Guinea Lane, later to become Freedonia Lane, a major thoroughfare, connecting to mills on the Crum Elbow Creek. Stone and lumber head off to market, replaced by bartered goods. Feel the rhythm of this road, the wide, straight path providing room for the smooth, simultaneous passage of large wagons, heavy ox carts, and people walking. Flanked by sturdy stone walls, the Freedonia Lane you see with your mind’s eye is a vital commercial artery - and the focal point for a vibrant early African American community, the Guinea Community of Freedonia Lane.
The Black History Committee of Dutchess County Historical Society, began research into the community in 2001, led by Guinea Community Project Education Consultant and Historian Susan Lindner…
SOUNDBITE SUSAN LINDNER: Almost immediately, in the FDR Library I found documents that attested to the fact that not only was had this been community –it was a sizeable community of freed and fugitive slaves. Luckily for us, we discovered that this land was undisturbed, it had never been plowed – even though it became the John Hackett estate – the land the people of Guinea lived on wasn’t disturbed. We walked into an archaeologist’s dream, and a historian’s dream because the records of the St. James Church - this church kept its records – I found the books that had the records of the people in the church – the founders of the church – bringing their slaves in for baptism…it was an amazing experience just to read. So I was able to look at these records and trace families over generations.
NARRATOR: From the 1790s through the 1820s, the Guinea Community, or Guineatown, was a neighborhood, filled with families. Many in the Community farmed, worked in the mills that dotted Crum Elbow Creek, or entered into trades such as shoemaking. Others worked for “The River People”, wealthy white settlers who lived on the banks of the Hudson. Susan Lindner…
SOUND BITE SUSAN: The primary relationship between the people of Guinea was with the river families – people in Guinea worked on the estates, they supported the river people by doing their laundry, by cleaning their houses, by doing their gardening, most likely helping to raise their children – some of this work was done by slaves prior to 1829 but it was still done by the free people, who were living in Guinea also.
NARRATOR: As more is learned about the Guinea Community, the more it is treasured by the people of Hyde Park…
SOUND BITE SUSAN: The community of Hyde Park has embraced the Guinea Community. There’ve been so many elders in the community who have sought me out to say, “We never ever knew- never suspected- that it could have been a community of freed and fugitive African American people who created their own town with this road running through it – and to think that it was the main thoroughfare through this really active African American community.”
Description
Flanked by sturdy stone walls, Freedonia Lane see was a vital commercial artery and the focal point for a vibrant early African American community.
Duration
3 minutes, 36 seconds
Credit
National Park Service
Copyright and Usage Info