Columbia County History Events
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Latest News from the Roeliff Jansen Historical Society
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Roeliff Jansen Historical Society
Latest News from the Hudson Area Library- History Room
A Layered Landscape: Indigenous Land and Colonial Property in the Hudson Valley Presented by BJ Lillis
On Thursday, January 23, 6-7:30pm, the Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History, in collaboration with the Hudson Area Library, hosts a presentation on changing land rights in the colonial Hudson Valley including Indigenous and tenant resistance to a manorial system presented by BJ Lillis. The event will be held in-person at the library. This presentation is the first of a Leisler Lecture 4-part series for 2025. There will be no recording.
This talk traces Indigenous survival and resistance to colonialism on Hudson Valley manors from the early 18th century to the 1760s, when an unlikely alliance between tenant farmers and Native people organized tenant uprisings, rent strikes, and coordinated legal action against Hudson Valley landlords. In the 1760s, some landlords intensified their approach to market-oriented agriculture, replacing customary lease terms with shorter leases and money rents. Tenants turned to extra-legal action even as their Wappinger and Mohican allies pursued their land rights within the imperial legal system. Together, their actions reveal the contingent, contested foundations of rural capitalism and property on the eve of the American Revolution.
The colonial Hudson Valley had a distinctive political economy, defined by the manor: a form of property that granted rights in land and limited legal jurisdiction to a lord, consolidating huge tracts of land under the control of wealthy families. In practice, manorial land ownership was not absolute: property rights were shared between landlords, tenant farmers, and Indigenous communities. The Hudson Valley’s manors were profoundly shaped by the Indigenous landscapes they overlay. Elite families depended on relationships with Native nations to establish and settle manors and on Native landscapes to define their claims to land. This helped enable small Indigenous nations like the Mohicans and Wappingers to remain sovereign throughout the colonial period; they lived within but were not subject to New York.
LHSS Feb 2 2025 flyer.pngIf This Old House Could Talk with Fergus Bordewich and Ed Klingler
On Sunday, February 2, 2-4pm in-person at the library, the African American Archives of Columbia County and the Hudson Area Library will host a presentation on Claverack’s Jan Van Hoesen house, now thought to have been the home of Quaker Abolitionist Charles Marriott and a “station” on the Underground Railroad. As both a site of enslavement and a site of freedom, the house is arguably one of the most significant historic sites in Columbia County. To register for this program visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1207696916989?aff=oddtdtcreator
If you have driven by this distinctive Dutch colonial style house on Route 66 near the Dutch Village Mobile Home Park and wondered about it, now is your chance to learn about its history and significance. The Van Hoesen House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior. Ruth Piwonka, author and historian, wrote in the nomination of the Van Hoesen House for the National Historic Register: “The Jan Van Hoesen house is one of approximately seven brick dwellings that survive from the first half of the eighteenth century and that represent a colonial architectural style unique to the Dutch community of old Albany County during that period.” This program examines specifically its ties to the Underground Railroad movement.
Fergus Bordewich books include Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America's First Civil Rights Movement. Bordewich was awarded The 2024 Prize for the Advancement of Knowledge for Bound for Canaan, and "for his lifelong attention to racial justice. Bordewich’s recent work is, Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction.
Ed Klingler, is a co-founder of the Van Hoesen House Historical Foundation and has been a builder specializing in accurate historic restorations for over forty years - an interest cultivated in him by the Van Hoesen house as a child growing up in Columbia County in the 1960's
The African American Archive of Columbia County – a descendent-focused organization – researches, documents, preserves and shares the deep history of Black people in Columbia County from their arrival in 1626 onwards.
The Hudson Area Library History Room houses a collection that pertains to the history of the City of Hudson, Greenport and Stockport; as well as Columbia County and New York State. The History Room also hosts the Local History Speaker Series at the library, offering free monthly talks on diverse topics related to local history.The History Room is open Saturdays, 10am-1pm and Wednesdays 6 - 8pm and by appointment. Online research requests for information on local history are available at historyroom.hudsonarealibrary.org/. This is a free service to the public. To inquire about an appointment email [email protected] or call 518-828-1792 x106.