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Book

A Hudson Valley reckoning : discovering the forgotten history of slaveholding in my Dutch American family

Call Number

  • 306.362 B898 (CEN)

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Publication Information

Ithaca [New York] : Three Hills, an imprint of Cornell University Press, 2024.

Physical Description

xi, 287 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm

Summary

"A Hudson Valley Reckoning tells the story of northern slavery from the perspectives of two intertwined families. Debra Bruno's Dutch ancestors were enslavers, while Eleanor C. Mire's ancestors descended from those enslaved by Bruno's family. Despite their dark history, the two found a way to honor those whose stories had been lost"--

Contents

  • Fifty beaver skins
  • The lost history
  • 'They are calling to us'
  • A vile slander
  • We may be Van Bergens after all
  • Resistance and running
  • Casper and Nancy in the twilight
  • The last enslavers
  • Roots of poison and bitterness
  • Confederates in the family
  • Vanderzee by Vanderzee, filling in the puzzle
  • What remains
  • Repair
  • Afterword: Full circle by Eleanor C. Mire.

Subjects

Added Authors

Eleanor C Mire