The Black Woods: Pursuing Racial Justice on the Adirondack Frontier

by Amy Godine

The Black Woods chronicles the history of Black pioneers in New York's northern wilderness. From the late 1840s into the 1860s, they migrated to the Adirondacks to build farms and to vote. On their new-worked land, they could meet the $250 property requirement New York's constitution imposed on Black voters in 1821, and claim the rights of citizenship. Three thousand Black New Yorkers were gifted with 120,000 acres of Adirondack land by Gerrit Smith, an upstate abolitionist and heir to an immense land fortune. Smith's suffrage-seeking plan was endorsed by Frederick Douglass and most leading Black abolitionists. The antislavery reformer John Brown was such an advocate that in 1849 he moved his family to Timbuctoo, a new Black Adirondack settlement in the woods. Smith's plan was prescient, anticipating Black suffrage reform, affirmative action, environmental distributive justice, and community-based racial equity more than a century before these were points of public policy. But when the response to Smith's offer fell radically short of his high hopes, Smith's zeal cooled. Timbuctoo, Freemen's Home, Blacksville and other settlements were forgotten. History would marginalize this Black community for 150 years. In The Black Woods , Amy Godine recovers a robust history of Black pioneers who carved from the wilderness a future for their families and their civic rights. Her immersive story returns the Black pioneers and their descendants to their rightful place at the center of this history. With stirring accounts of racial justice, and no shortage of heroes, The Black Woods amplifies the unique significance of the Adirondacks in the American imagination.

Genres: Nature, History, Nonfiction

510 pages, Hardcover

Published November 15, 2023

Reviews

[Steve Smits · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I live minutes from the Adirondack Park, I asked my historically-minded friends if they had heard of Timbuctoo. Of course, a few thought of Africa, but no one was aware of the 19th century settlement of Blacks on land in the North Country, particularly Essex and Franklin Counties, through grants by the philanthropist Gerrit Smith. Smith haled from Peterboro in Madison County and was widely noted in the 19th century for his abolitionism and philanthropy. (Peterboro contains the National Abolition Hall of Fame, well worth a visit if you're in the region.)

Smith made thousands of deed grants to Blacks from New York cities with two aims: enabling Blacks (a mix of fugitives and free Blacks) to escape the oppressive racism of the cities by becoming farmers and as property owners qualify for the franchise. Smith employed a number of agents, prominent Black leaders who solicited and vetted prospective grantees. Of the thousands of grantees, very few actually occupied their holdings; many sold their plots or otherwise passed on the opportunity to relocate. On the whole, the project substantially underachieved Smith's aims. Godine does a good job of countering earlier historians' tropes that the reasons for failure were a lack of work ethic and practical skills. The real causes were under capitalization of the resources needed to start a viable farm and the very harsh climate and soil of the region. Smith soon became disenchanted with his pipe dream.

There is quite a lot of attention to Smith who was well known across the country for his fervant devotion to the abolitionist movement. Also figuring prominently in the narrative is John Brown, well known to Smith and whose efforts to support the initiative were limited by his frequent absences carrying out his activism across the nation, especially in Kansas. Brown had a homestead in North Elba (which is now a state historical site and where he is buried).

In a fascinating side story Godine describes another short-lived Black agrarian community in Florence, New York. Florence is a very rural region in western Oneida County, not fifteen miles from where I reside. I have been to Florence which is a tiny, remote village, not, like the Adirondacks, an unlikely place to successfully farm.

Godine's depth of research is quite impressive, sometime a bit too much. The writing is excellent. She is to be credited with casting light on this poorly-known social experiment.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of Gerrit Smith's quixotic scheme to give Black refugees from slavery their own plots of land to farm in the unforgiving Adirondack north country is also the story of John Brown from a novel angle, seen from the viewpoint of his neighbors near present-day Lake Placid. After reading Amy Godine's adaptations in Adirondack Life and seeing her impressive exhibit on this story at the John Brown farm, I wanted more and this book delivered. Not only does it dive deeply into the history to examine and often explode myths, but it is deftly, often beautifully written. As a visitor to these woods multiple times a year, I will never take for granted again this piece of their history — and the present-day need to open them further to all people.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important book about the history of African American grantees of Garrett Smith’s in the Adirondacks as well as the role of Smith in getting them and John Brown there. Wonderfully researched. There’s an extensive index that I really appreciate as a researcher but there are a number of mistakes in it as well. It’s written more for the lay person so I found myself having to search for details that a historian would have included (such as dates) but it’s more important to reach the general public and author Godine does that well. Thank you for writing such an important book.

[Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another assigned book for school, however, this wasn't too bad.

[Susan R. Perkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

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