February is African American History Month!

On HRVH (Hudson River Valley Heritage), there is an educational, detailed exhibit for the African American Presence in the Mid-Hudson Valley during the time of slavery.

Heroes in Our Hometown

               As most of us know, Frederick Douglass, who was once a slave, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucretia Mott were key organizers in the 19th century for both the Anti-Slavery and Women’s Rights Movements. What may be scarcely known is that we had organizers right here in Milton, NY. They were among the Hallock and Hull families. Here at the Marlboro Free Library, we have a copy of a letter from L. Mott to Edward Hull, dated 1850, concerning both the Anti-Slavery and Women’s Rights Movements, as well as a copy of a letter to Miss Hull from Susan B. Anthony. In Mary Hallock Foote’s biography, “A Victorian Gentlewoman in the Far West: The Reminiscences of Mary Hallock Foote,” edited by Rodman W. Paul, Foote mentioned, on page 54, that her Aunt Sarah Hull Hallock belonged to the New York Anti-Slavery Society. Foote also wrote that “Frederick Douglass was our guest upon a time.” It is stated on page 54 that Foote’s “Aunt Sarah (Hull Hallock) was far ahead of all the men and most of the women of the family on the question of Woman’s Rights.”