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Restoration
of our
African American Heritage
The role
of the Upper Housatonic Valley in the formation of
American government, culture and industry is well
documented in the stories of Shays’ Rebellion, Herman
Melville, Edith Wharton, Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and
William Stanley, to name a few. But 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. Blacks in our region spent their lives
defining the tenets of freedom and democracy, hoping to
claim the "unalienable rights" our founding
fathers deemed "self-evident."
It is
story that our local community—white and Black, and
especially our children— deserves to hear. Blacks
served in the Revolutionary War, among them Agrippa Hull
of Stockbridge. Elizabeth 'Mum Bet' Freeman of
Sheffield pioneered the fight against slavery and
contributed to Massachusetts' decision in 1781 to
abolish the practice statewide. In the Civil War, more
Blacks from the region enlisted in the famed
Massachusetts 54th regiment than anywhere in the state,
among them Chaplain Samuel Harrison of Pittsfield and
early volunteer Milo J. Freeman/Freeland of Sheffield,
MA and East Canaan, CT.
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 and Pittsfield native Frank
Grant of the Negro Baseball League. W.E.B. Du Bois of
Great Barrington, the most compelling voice for
African-American equality and the father of the modern
civil rights movement, awakened America's understanding
of the Reconstruction period and the meaning of freedom
for everyone, both here and abroad.
The
telling of this story, born of our local region, yet
shaping national and international events, restores a
rich African American heritage that has been largely
neglected and ignored. Recent investigations into the
lives of African Americans throughout New England reveal
important discoveries about the existence of slavery and
abuse beyond the southern states, as well as untold
stories of a rich and fertile cultural heritage. With
this comprehensive guide and related research, we likely
know more about the ordinary lives of African Americans
in Berkshire County than in any other county in
Massachusetts. |
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