Dreaming of Timbuctoo
Traveling Exhibition
29 July - 14 September 2012
From Dreaming of Timbuctoo exhibit: Black Farmers at North Elba, New York.>
Photographer unknown. Courtesy of The Adirondack Museum. Blue Mountain Lake, New York
| 29 July - 14 September | Dreaming of Timbuctoo Exhibition at the Paul Smiths VIC |
| 2 August | Timbuctoo -- Beyond the Exhibition: A reception and talk by curator Amy Godine on new findings and Franklin County connections and an update on the Timbuctoo Archeology Project by Dr. Hadley Kruczek-Aaron. |
| 7 August | Black Nature: A reading and discussion sponsored by the Adirondack Center for Writing featuring poets Cornelius Eady, Aracelis Girmay, Chase Twichell, and Roger Bonair-Agard. |
| 16 August | History, Land & Meaning: An unconventional conversation with historians Christopher Moore and Sally Roesch Wagner and environmental philosopher Marianne Patinelli-Dubay, plus a performance by the Akwasasne Women Singers. |
All programs start at 7 PM. Admission to the programs is $5, Admission to the exhibition is free. The exhibition and programs are presented by John
Brown Lives!, the Adirondack
Center for Writing, Paul Smith's College VIC, and the Six
Nations Indian Museum.
About the Exhibition
The Dreaming of Timbuctoo Traveling Exhibition was produced by John Brown Lives! to recover an overlooked chapter of New York’s freedom history that reveals the crucial role of land ownership and suffrage in the political war on slavery and racism in New York State fifteen years before the Civil War.
Dreaming of Timbuctoo examines a “scheme of justice and benevolence” devised to fight long-standing legislation depriving black New Yorkers of equal access to the ballot box. Dating back to the 1820’s, only black voting-age men in the state were obliged to satisfy a $250 property-owning requirement in order to cast a ballot. This discriminatory law disenfranchised almost all of the state’s potential black electorate.
For years, black abolitionists seeking to strike at slavery and secure equality through political action organized, agitated and petitioned for the repeal of the voter law. In 1846, when a statewide constitutional convention re-instating the property requirement on prospective black male voters loomed on the horizon, the prominent Madison County philanthropist and reformer Gerrit Smith cast his lot with the abolitionists who regarded political power as an “anti-slavery engine” and he resolved to disburse 120,000 acres of his vast Adirondack holdings so that black men across the state could hope to exercise the franchise and enjoy the benefits of farming their own land.
Through letters, documents, archival photographs, and the curator’s illuminating text, the exhibition reveals the backdrop and motivations of some of the country’s most illustrious anti-slavery leaders who energetically promoted land grants and the vote, including the Rev. Henry Highland Garnet of Troy, Frederick Douglass in Rochester, Syracuse’s Rev. Jermaine Loguen, and Dr. James McCune Smith of New York City. Their involvement was instrumental in recruiting eligible grantees from nearly every county in the state.
Due to their efforts, nearly 3,000 men received land in Essex, Franklin and Hamilton Counties. Although the vast majority never even ventured onto their holding, several families did, settling and forming the small black enclaves of Freeman's Home, Timbuctoo, and Blacksville. As the community that attracted the radical abolitionist John Brown to the region, Timbuctoo is the best known. The exhibition looks at the 'giveaway' as a whole, how it thrived on paper and struggled on the ground, and how it lives in memory even now.
The Dreaming of Timbuctoo Traveling Exhibition is a John Brown Lives! production, in cooperation with the Essex County Historical Society. It was curated by independent scholar Amy Godine and designed by the Kevan Moss Design team of Paul Smiths, NY.
The exhibition premiered at the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake in 2001 and has toured college campuses, community centers, libraries, and historical societies across the state, often providing a backdrop for engaging students and the general public in exploring our common history and its connection to critical social issues today.
The New York Council for the Humanities and the New York Council on the Arts were principal funders of the Dreaming of Timbuctoo Traveling Exhibition and related educational programs.
