Discovering the Upper Housatonic Valley's African American Heritage

Second Congregational Church, Pittsfield. Built 1846, where Rev. Samuel Harrison preached for nearly 50 years

Tucked away in western Massachusetts and northwestern Connecticut is a treasured place. Bound on the east by the Berkshire Hills and on the west by the Taconic Range, the Housatonic River gives it life. This place has played a pivotal role in the political, religious, industrial, and cultural history of the region and the nation. 

The first stirrings of the American Revolution emerged here in the Upper Housatonic River Valley, with the Sheffield Declaration of 1773. During the fight for freedom from British rule, the furnaces of Salisbury provided vital iron for weapons and armaments. In the decades following the war, discomfited farmers took part in Shays’ Rebellion and influenced the writing of the United States Constitution. 

As the decades passed, agriculture ceded to industry, which ceded to cultural attractions and tourism. Today people flock to this area to luxuriate in what was once Giraud Foster's Bellefontaine, now called Canyon Ranch. They visit author Herman Melville's home Arrowhead or Edith Wharton's estate, known as The Mount. They learn of history at Alexander Holley's house in Lakeville.

What has largely gone unrecognized is a rich history of African Americans who played pivotal roles in key national and international events and made significant contributions to our culture. They spent their lives defining the tenets of freedom and democracy, hoping to claim the “inalienable rights” our founding fathers deemed “self-evident.”

Several dozen Blacks served in the Revolutionary War, among them Agrippa Hull of Stockbridge. Elizabeth “Mum Bett” Freeman of Sheffield pioneered the fight against slavery and her lawsuit in 1781 contributed to Massachusetts’ decision to abolish the practice statewide. In the Civil War, more Blacks from the region enlisted in the famed 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment than from anywhere else in the state, among them Chaplain Samuel Harrison of Pittsfield and its first volunteer to complete his term Milo J. Freeland of Sheffield and East Canaan. Modern times brought the famous Lenox-born photographer of the Harlem Renaissance, James VanDerZee; NAACP leaders such as Mary White Ovington; composer of the “Negro National Anthem” James Weldon Johnson of Great Barrington; and Williamstown native Frank Grant of professional baseball. 

The loudest voice for African American equality still resonates today. W. E. B. Du Bois of Great Barrington, the father of the modern civil rights movement, single-handedly awakened America’s understanding of the Reconstruction period and the meaning of freedom for everyone. Along with others, he challenged and clarified what it means to be an American. 

African Americans in the valley began to define their role in society very early. Several Black churches were established in the mid-1800s. In 1895, participants in the national African Methodist Episcopal Zion Sunday School Convention in Great Barrington, warned:

What we need in this critical condition of public affairs is just what we needed in the dark days of slavery—men to “stand on the wall.” As did Garrison, Phillips, Sumner and Douglas, hurling their thunderbolts at the citadel of injustice, and swaying the rulers and people of the American nation into a recognition and practice of the principles of the constitution of the United States.

Those who penned their names to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution could not possibly have envisioned how literally African Americans of the Upper Housatonic Valley would take these words. So many have come to “stand on the wall.” As Du Bois later wrote, they wanted freedom, justice, and equality, “not in opposition to, but in conformity with, the greater ideals of the American republic, in order that some day, on American soil, two world races may give each other those characteristics which both so sadly lacked.”

Du Bois died in Ghana the evening before Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the Lincoln Memorial during the historic March on Washington in 1963. In that monumental speech, he echoed Dr. Du Bois’s understanding of the meaning of American citizenship:

When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The clarion call of the churches, the prophecy of Du Bois and the revelations of Dr. King can clearly be observed in the stories of the people in the Upper Housatonic Valley, as Blacks and whites cooperated to bring about social change from the time of the Revolutionary War to the time of the modern civil rights movement. Although small in number, African Americans here made a significant impact on the moral and social fabric of our country. 

In the shadow of the mountains and beside the river, African Americans in the Upper Housatonic Valley thrived and prospered and made their mark. Very little is known about most of these people, even within the valley, yet their story is an important part of the national story of freedom, democracy and equality of which all Americans can be proud. 

While little is known, there is much to learn about African Americans history in the region and people’s lives and much material to be drawn upon for that story. Libraries, historical societies, churches, town halls, and people’s homes are filled with records, letters, photographs, and accounts detailing African American history and culture from the 1700s to the present. Regional newspapers such as the Berkshire Eagle and the Berkshire Courier contain thousands of articles and reports—most short but some long—documenting African American life. The entries that fill this volume are a first systematic attempt to search for and through and categorize this mass of material. The entries cover individuals, organizations, places, and movements. Several of the articles are community guides that provide an overview of African American history in each community and a guide to key sites. We hope this volume will inform and illuminate. We also hope it will stimulate more research and writing. 

Frances Jones-Sneed, Ph.D.
Professor of History
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

Photo: Courtesy of Michael Kirk