Despite it’s location in the heart of the north, New York was the most dependent on slave labor among the northern states. Many slaveowners in New York were very reluctant to give up slave labor and went about stifling abolitionist laws. The age of the progressive “Enlightenment” era in the north served to increase the desire for emancipation, while simultaneously increasing slave owner’s conservative desire to hold onto their slaves. The Huguenot settlers of New Paltz supported this conservative ideology because they were also semi-dependent on slave labor. Most of the houses on Huguenot Street originally had slave quarters built into the basement. However, as New York began the process to abolish slavery with the Manumission Act of 1799, slave owners in New York saw a spike in slave unrest and escape. For example, in the period from 1785 to 1779, there were a total of 46 documented runaway slaves in Dutchess County alone according to historian Michael Groth. In the period from 1800 to 1817, however, this number skyrocketed to 108 slave runaways (Groth 66). In reaction to the increase of slave runaways, many slaveowners in the Hudson Valley specifically formed organizations such as the “Slave Apprehending Society of Shawangunk” and “The Society of Negroes Unsettled” to retain and recapture slaves (Groth 65). In conjunction with the ideals of these groups, many Huguenot descendants also signed a “Bounty Hunters Agreement.”
The document above was signed by six of the Huguenot settlers to hire bounty hunters to capture the runaway slaves that they believed was their property. The agreement states that on June 7th of 1811, Jacob J. and Isa Hasbrouck, William Hasbrouck, Josiah Elting, Philip Dayo and Andries Jr. Lefever hire bounty hunters to find a group of runaway slaves from Huguenot Street. The group of slaves were Tom, whose owner was Josiah, Harry, whose owner was William, Sime, whose owner was Philip, and lastly Ceasar whose owner was Andries. The owners signed that if the bounty hunters were to find the runaway slaves, they were to “sell and dispose of the said negroes”(Historic Huguenot Street). When the bounty hunters sold one of the slaves, the money would be split into two partitions between the bounty hunters and the owner of said slave. In addition to this, if the bounty hunters did not find any of the slaves, they would not be compensated for their time spent and other expenses while looking for the runaway slaves.
As the town of New Paltz grew, so did slavery. As per Eric Roth of hrvh.org, in 1755 there were a total of 78 slaves that belonged to 28 slaveholders. At this time, the largest slaveholders were DuBois and Hardenberg, who each owned seven slaves. These slaves helped perform household chores such as cooking, cleaning, and candle making. By the year 1790 the population of New Paltz grew to 2,309 where there was a total of 77 slaveholders who owned 302 slaves. With the growth of slavery over time, the number of runaway slaves also grew. This can be exemplified by the clash that occurred between Louis DuBois and Lewis Morris of Barbados. Louis DuBois became the first New Paltz resident to own slaves by purchasing two slaves at an auction in 1674. By 1675 these two slaves fed DuBois’s household but were captured in a nearby area by a man named Lewis Morris. For the next five years DuBois and Morris fought over the custody of these two slaves. While the outcome of this case has not been published, this example shows the strife that slavery caused in New Paltz between slave owners and slaves. This example also shows that slaves were considered property by their owners and were not considered equal even in a town like New Paltz.
Another example of a runaway slave is the prominent figure and African-American abolitionist, Sojourner Truth. Sojourner Truth, then known as Isabella Baumfree, was born into slavery in 1797 in the town of Swartekill in Ulster County New York. Her Parents, James and Elizabeth Baumfree, were owned by Colonel Johannes Hardenbergh in Esopus New York but after his death the Baumfree family was passed down to his son, Charles. After Charles’ death, the family was separated and the then 9-year-old Sojourner Truth was sold in an auction. Truth was bought and sold four times in her life spending the first twenty-nine years of her life as a slave. There was an 1817 statute that was supposed to grant freedom to slaves in New York who were born before July 4, 1799, but not until 1827. Even after her owner at the time, John Dumont, promised to liberate Truth in 1826, she escaped to freedom with her infant daughter leaving behind her other daughter and son. Truth learned that her five year old son was illegally sold to a man in Alabama and took this matter to court and became the first African American woman to win a United States court case against a white man. Sojourner Truth became a very powerful speaker in New York where her speeches and journeys brought her in contact with other abolitionists and also gained exposure to women rights and temperance advocates.