Circle of Remembrance: Memorial to the Enslaved of African Ancestry” April 16, 2021

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Village of Irvington RFQ Design Professional for a Memorial Space “Circle of Remembrance: Memorial to the Enslaved of African Ancestry” April 16, 2021

1. PROJECT OVERVIEW

The Village of Irvington is soliciting Statements of Qualifications from design firms for work associated with the Village of Irvington project. The goals of the project are:

 To design a space for contemplation, reflection, remembrance and learning about the enslaved of African ancestry who lived and died here  To design a space for public use on Village property  To design a sitting area within the space for small groups (adults or children) to engage in an organized learning experience, or for individuals, couples or small groups to use for personal contemplation  To include in the design supporting informational signage and/or engraved textual information for those who visit the location (texts may be both historic and poetic)  To include near the space, wayfinding signage  To consider including in the design, features of “circle” and ways to convey “reflection”

Illustrative Example:

The core element would be a circular stone bench, perhaps 15 feet in diameter, located in the widest area of the triangular park (the north end). This bench might have one or two openings in it to allow easy egress (so, two semi-circles). The circular space in the middle of the benches would hold engraved remembrance text. This central area might be raised as a table-like feature, or could be left at grade. (If raised, this area would be potentially useful flat surface for teachers and students.) Existing walls could be enhanced or raised where necessary, and informational signage and a map could be mounted on the wall if appropriate. Trees and low- maintenance greenscape would be desirable.

2. ABOUT IRVINGTON

The Village is a suburban community, approximately 20 miles north of New York City, primarily residential in nature with a large number of residents working in New York City. It is characterized by its tranquil atmosphere, numerous green spaces, rich history, and an absence of commercial strip development. It contains an impressive vista of homes, lawns and parks, the Old Croton Aqueduct State Park, and many natural scenic resources. It also includes an attractive Main Street area business with a breathtaking full view of the Hudson River. The Main Street and Waterfront areas were designated by the National Park Service as the Irvington Historic District in 2014. The Study Area is located just across South Buckhout Street from the southern portion of the Historic District.

3. PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The Village of Irvington is seeking the services of a qualified design firm to provide professional services for planning work associated with the Circle of Remembrance. The location is on the north side of South Buckhout Street, across from the Cosmopolitan Building that abuts Barney Brook as depicted generally on the maps below:

4. SCOPE OF SERVICES

A complete scope of services will be established after a qualified consultant is selected to meet the project goals outlined above. It is anticipated that the scope of services will include, but not be limited to, the following elements:

Engagement with a board-appointed, small community task-group, so as to:  Design a space for contemplation, reflection, remembrance and learning as described in the goals  Review design concepts with the community task-group for feedback and approval  Present the final agreed-upon design during a Board of Trustees public meeting

5. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

 Village of Irvington Wayfinding Design Guide: https://www.irvingtonny.gov/DocumentCenter/View/10116/Wayfinding-Design-Guide--- November-2017  Appendix A: Historical information provided by Village Historian that informs the project

6. SUBMITTAL GUIDELINES

All RFQ submittals shall provide the following information at a minimum in order to be considered (electronic submission preferred):

 Cover letter: An introductory letter indicating name of firm, likely team composition, contact person, address, phone, email and a short statement summarizing the strengths of the firm/team as it relates to this project.  Relevant Experience: A description of the firm’s relevant experience and capability, with description and images of comparable projects. Reference to an online portfolio or firm web site is acceptable. Please provide the URL.  Personnel Qualifications: Names and resumes of likely team members. Please identify individual roles on the team. Reference to a firm web site is acceptable. Please provide the URL.  Hourly rates for likely team members.  References: please provide names and contact information for three individuals who can speak to the firm’s past performance on similar projects.

Responses will be accepted by the Village of Irvington, 85 Main St., Irvington, NY 10533 until May 14, 2021 at 3 p.m. Proposals should be clearly labeled and directed to Karen Buccheri. Electronic submissions can be made to [email protected] (utilize a large file transfer service, if necessary).

7. EVALUATION CRITERIA

The Village of Irvington will evaluate the qualifications based on the following criteria:

 Relevant experience with similar planning projects in similar communities  Qualifications of key staff members  References  Hourly rates

8. PROJECT TIMELINE

Release RFQ April 16, 2021 RFQ Due Date May 14, 2021 Review of Responses: By June 15, 2021 Interviews and Firm Selection: July 1, 2021 – July 15, 2021 Negotiate contract: July 31, 2021 Project work August 2021 to December 2021

9. INQUIRIES

Inquiries regarding this RFQ should be directed to Karen Buccheri, Assistant to the Village Administrator at [email protected] or 914-591-4356.

Appendix A

Sources and Notes on the History of Slavery in the Region of Philipse Manor that later became Irvington.

March 26, 2021

Evidence for the Historic Burying-ground on the Former Buckhout Property:

Two written sources support the claim that a burial ground for enslaved Africans existed on the former Buckhout property. One is from a story “handed down by a tradition in the family of the Jewels” and recorded by 1886, locating “a graveyard for colored people on Captain Buckhout’s premises, east of the house, and in the place where the old orchard once was.” The other is a corroborating piece of evidence from 1939 reporting that in the 1890s human skulls and bones were dug up on the location identified in the 1886 family tradition account.

Corroborating sources include wills of tenant farmers with enslaved persons living and working on the local properties, as well as contextual histories and maps.

Source 1: “An amusing incident of those early times is handed down by a tradition in the family of the Jewels. Captain Buckhout’s house, when the British were encamped there, stood a little east of the Hudson River Railroad, on the Barney place, and the house of Mrs. John D. Mairs, just below it, now stands upon the ground then occupied by the British encampment. There was a graveyard for colored people on Captain Buckhout’s premises, east of the house, and in the place where the orchard once was. Old Aunt Betty, a colored slave, was coming home one night, and had to pass by the grave-yard. While walking by it alone, some weird idea seized her, and she said aloud, “Rise, niggers, and come to judgment.” She had no sooner spoken than a flock of sheep lying quietly there, arose, and put themselves in motion. Aunt Betty, not expecting such a prompt compliance, was frightened half to death. Without stopping to investigate in the darkness, she took to her heels, and fleeing across the brook to her house, opened the upper half of the divided door, and sprang over into the room she hardly knew how, where she fell upon the floor fainting. Aunt Betty thought she had anticipated Gabriel’s trumpet.” Source: John A. Todd, “Greenburgh,” in J. Thomas Scharf, History of Westchester County, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: L.E. Preston, 1886), 2: 189.

Source 2: “A grave yard for colored people was directly east of Captain Buckhout’s house, and an orchard was later planted on it. The old burying ground was almost entirely forgotten until the ground was excavated for the Cosmopolitan building and human skulls and bones were dug up.”

Source: “Old Negro Burying Ground Was Famed In Early Days Of Village”, The Irvington Gazette, August 24, 1939.

Source 3: Primary documents referred to in:

Cathy Sears and Sarah Cox, “Our Town and Slavery,” The Irvington Historical Society Roost 20:1 (Winter 2019). https://887ca8e9-80b7-4835-9ca2- c87a8f1a1d8d.filesusr.com/ugd/75c146_ca4949af14e148dfaaeaff3ee38b7f3c.pdf

Source 4 (maps):

Couzens Map, 1785

Detail of Couzens Map depicting farms of 1785. “J.J.” in red square indicates John Jewel house, formerly Buckhout house, listed on later maps as “Barney.” Red markers indicate post-1785 features, including Village of Irvington and its Main Street as well as Main Street side-streets created upon formation of Dearman, later Irvington (named in 1854, incorporated in 1872). Side streets were originally simply labeled A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H; in 1932 they were named for important individuals in the area’s history: Astor, Buckhout, Cottenent, Dutcher, Eckar (Acker), Ferris, Grinnell, and H was named Dearman for Justus Dearman who purchased the land from William Dutcher and sold it to developers by 1849. South Buckhout Street is now the second side-street from the bottom (the first full side-street), and it runs right past the “J.J.” on the map, now the site of the Cosmopolitan (also called Trent) Building and the village land proposed for the historical marker and/or commemorative space. “Glode Requa, Jr.” is roughly today’s Lyndhurst, in Tarrytown but within Irvington School District; on the south, Jonathan Odell’s southern boundary roughly marks the southern boundary of the Village of Irvington.

Source: M.K. Couzens, “Map of part of the Manor of Philipsburgh in the county of Westchester, N.Y. : showing the grants from the State of New York in the City of Yonkers and Town of Greenburgh, Traced and reduced from a fragment of the original map prepared for the Commrs. of Forfeitures entitled A plan of the Manor of Philipsburgh in the County of Westchester and State of New York surveyed agreeable to the instruction of Isaac Stoutenburgh and Philip Van Cortlandt unto John Hills, 1785” (detail), (New York: John S. Hulin, 1880), Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library, New York Public Library Digital Collections, Accessed November 17, 2019: http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/310c3b30- 3abb-0136-507d-056810566549

Atlas of 1881, 1901

Irvington Sanitary Survey of 1878

George E. Waring and E. C. Metcalf, “Irvington Sanitary Survey, 1878,” Irvington Historical Society.

Bromley Atlas of 1881 and 1901, and Waring Irvington Sanitary Survey of 1878 showing original location of Buckhout house (red square), later replaced by Cosmopolitan Magazine, and possible area of burial ground (east of the house). The Buckhout/Jewel farm was later the Barney Estate, and the brook seen on the map was in the past called Jewel Brook, but is now called Barney Brook.

The Bromley Atlas maps from 1881 and 1901, and the 1878 Waring Irvington Sanitary Map conclusively indicate the location of known elements from the primary sources (the Jewel family account and the discovery of the bones referred to in the excavations for the Cosmopolitan Building), and therefore establish the approximate location of the alleged burial ground, “east” of the Jewel house.

The Todd/Scharf account indicates that as of 1886 located the graveyard “in the place where the orchard once was,” meaning that by 1886 is was gone (and presumably was put into place after the establishment of the graveyard itself). The Waring Irvington Sanitary Map of 1878 includes foliage markers, and it is possible that the wooded area to the east and north of Barney Brook signifies a current or former orchard; it is also possible that the “grapery” (1881 Bromley Atals) was an agriculture building and therefore located near an orchard. However, none of the maps explicitly identify an orchard. Further, the Todd/Scharf account places the orchard to the east of the Jewel house; but the Gazette article claims that the bones were found when excavating for the Cosmopolitan Building. Unless the excavations included grounds around the current building site, the excavations would have been right where the Cosmopolitan building is now, which is NOT to the east of the old Jewel house but right on its footprint or right near it. So, either the graveyard was large in scope (from east of the Jewel house, across the brook, to the current Cosmopolitan site, or there were several sites spread out, or the descriptoer “east” is incorrect, and perhaps the burial ground was to west, between the Jewel house and the riverfront. The Waring Irvington Sanitary Map of 1878 shows evenly spaced trees indicative of an orchard in that space. On the other hand, sloping area next to the riverfront would probably not be where the tenant farmers would have chosen to put an enslaved African burial ground. Perhaps the orchard was in the open space east of the brook, east of the clumped trees around the riparian edge of brook.

Map Sources: George W. Bromley and Walter S. Bromley, Atlas of Westchester County New York From Actual Surveys and Official Records G.W. Bromley & Co. Civil Engineers (George W. and Walter S. Bromley, New York, NY, 1881), page 30; Westchester County Archives, Source A-0055 (1- 44)O, https://collections.westchestergov.com/digital/collection/1881atlas/id/0/rec/1

George W. Bromley and Walter S. Bromley, Atlas of Westchester County. New York From Actual Surveys and Official Plans by George W. and Walter S. Bromley Civil Engineers (George W. Bromley and Co.: Philadelphia, PA, 1901), page 32; Westchester County Archives, Source A-0081 (1)S(AA10), https://collections.westchestergov.com/digital/collection/1901atlas/id/35/rec/1

Discussion of sources:

There are few primacy sources identifying or locating the burial ground; however, given the lack of primary sources for enslaved peoples, and the desire of slave-owners to keep such things out of view, such primary sources would be difficult to find.

The account in Todd/Scharf could be considered a primary source, considering that it was based off of interviews conducted by John A. Todd of local residents, and since the story was presumably told to Todd by a Jewel family member. Thus, as an account by a Jewel family member of a community memory and local landmarks within such memory, it could be considered a primary document. The account is describing the story, that of “Old Aunt Betty, a colored slave” and her fright, not the burying ground. The source is “a tradition in the family” that was “handed down,” presumably by oral means, by the Jewels. The story might date from when the Jewels married into or moved onto the Buckhout property, perhaps as early as the

1770s or perhaps in the 1780s when the Jewels took over stewardship of the property. Since

“Old Aunt Betty” is described as “a colored slave,” the story must predate the abolition of slavery in New York in 1827. So, the story may be from 1770 to 1827, and the “tradition” was maintained until 1886 or just before then, when it was told to John A. Todd who wrote the

“Greenburgh” section of Scharf’s History of Westchester County, published in 1886.

The story is told from the point of view of the “family,” that is the Jewels, and further through the point of view of the reporter, Todd, and the compiler, Scharf, and their audience in

1886. The Jewels were descendants of the slave-owning family, and of the very bodies in the grave in question. Todd/Scharf characterized the event as an “amusing incident,” and the story exhibits tropes regarding women, Black Americans and the legacy of slavery that might have been conventional and familiar to late nineteenth-century white audiences: an unmarried, old

Black woman with a penchant for religious ecstasy taking fright at the supernatural (the rising of the dead) and unable to perceive its rational explanation (the flock of sheep moving). Further comedic effect, at her expense and perhaps taking advantage of racial stereotypes of both physical prowess and ignorance as well as physicality of Blacks masquerading as physical comedy, has her springing over the lower half of the Dutch door at her residence, “she hardly knew how.” Thus, the intent of the story is hardly a factual reporting; however, despite its racist tone and conventionalized tropes - and its oral provenance by the slave-holding family - it does indeed refer to what may have been a real and established landmark: the burial ground.

The Irvington Gazette article is from 1939 and refers to the period around 1895 when excavation of the Cosmopolitan magazine building site was underway, which caused the removal of the old Buckhout farmhouse to a site east and slightly north across the brook that is now called

Barney Brook. The article seems to get its information about the existence and location of the burying ground directly from the other source, Todd/Scharf. The most important information regarding the existence, nature, scope and location of the alleged burial ground is not included: it is not clear from the article how many skulls or bones were found, who examined them, nor what became of them. Further, the Gazette’s placement of the burial ground is, by implication, at the present site of the Cosmopolitan Building; which is west of the brook and roughly the same site as the former Jewel house. The Jewel house itself was moved across the brook and up the hill, and still stands. Unless the excavations for the building extended beyond its footprint, to include reclamation or alteration of the surrounding landscape; the 1881 map shows a pond east of the building, with a cutoff from the brook. Perhaps the excavations for the Cosmopolitan

Building included filling that pond and other work, which may have disturbed the former burial ground. In addition, the Gazette article makes at least one mistake. It claims that John Jewel

“was an active patriot during the Revolution, serving in Captain Glode Requa’s company. To prevent the British from sailing up the Hudson ho spent the summer of 1776 trying to sink a vessel, the ‘Chevaux de Frise,’ in the river channel.” While John Jewel, Jr. did serve in Requa’s company, and did work on the river obstructions in the summer of 1776, the term chevaux de frise refers to a type of obstruction, possibly created in this case by sinking vessels, not a vessel itself. In sum, the Gazette offers some information, but its lack of specificity means that it either contradicts the Todd/Scharf account of the burial ground’s location, or one has to assume that excavations for the Cosmopolitan Building spread throughout the whole estate and not just on the current building’s footprint.

Other source material – not of the burial ground per se, but of the factual existence of specific individuals of African ancestry who were enslaved – can be found in the article by Cathy

Sears and Sarah Cox, “Our Town and Slavery,” The Irvington Historical Society Roost 20:1

(Winter 2019). They list 14 enslaved people they discovered the names of: Hannah, Betty,

Dick, David, Teem, Brebay, David, Bill, Jack, Bette, Bet, Caesar, Hannah, and Dinah. However, at least one of them, Dinah, appeared in a fictional account by Washington Irving, and should not be considered evidence of a real person. They include several sources documenting the names of enslaved persons, but not of the location of the burial ground:

 A bill of sale from 1802, in which Glode Requa, Jr. sold “a Certain Negro Boy named David Between Nine and Ten years of age” for $125 to John Storm (Westchester County Historical Society).

 Glode Requa, Jr.’s farm estate inventory of 1807.

 An account of an enslaved boy named Braboy who drowned in the Hudson River (Amos C. Requa, The Family of Requa).  Jan Buckhout’s 1774 will (Irvington Public Library, Guiteau Foundation)

 Jan Buckhout’s 1790 estate inventory (Westchester County Historical Society).

The problems with the source materials notwithstanding, plenty of contextual evidence supports the claim that the region developed with enslaved labor, and that even the fictionalized, racialized and oral tale made reference to what was likely a real site, the burial ground.

Continued below

History of Slavery and Enslaved Persons in the Local Area:

Slavery was an integral part of the economic, social and geographical dimensions of life in Philipse Manor. In the period 1730 to 1783 in Philipse Manor, leaseholds varied from 32 acres to over 400 acres. The majority of leaseholds in Philipsburgh were between 100 and 249 acres, with the largest parcel 560 acres and the average size at 187 acres. 1

In New York City in 1703, 41% of households owned enslaved persons and, as a result,

New York developed some of the toughest slave laws of the thirteen colonies.2 In Westchester in 1698 there were 146 Africans, 14% of the population, initially from Angola but then mainly from Guinea coast, many of them brought to the region after a period of forced labor in the West

Indies. When Adolph Philipse, the second lord of the manor, died in 1750, there were 23

Africans living and working at the Upper Mills. A 1755 census of “Negro slaves” on the upper part of Philipse manor (Greenburgh, Mt. Pleasant and Ossining) showed 20 Black men, 11 Black women. Josiah Martin at the Upper Mills owned 6, and 3 farmers had three servants each, four had two, and six had one. Philipsburgh Manor was not only the largest estate in Westchester, but also had the most diverse population. The northern half of Philipse Manor consisted of 45%

Dutch, 25% English, 13% French, 6% German, 6% Walloon (French-speaking Belgians), and an unknown number of Africans.3 As of February 12, 1749, twenty-three “Negros” were on

1 Sung Bok Kim, Landlord and Tenant in Colonial New York; Manorial Society, 1664-1775 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press), 188-189. 2 Jaap Jacobs, The Colony of New Netherland; A Dutch Settlement in Seventeenth-Century America (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009), 56. 3 Field Horne, Westchester County: A History (Elmsford, N.Y.: Westchester Cty. Hist. Soc. 2018), 40. Philipsburg Manor, and listed and sorted in the estate record according to their gender, age, and ability to work, closely followed by a list of cattle and other chattel and personal property.4

Census numbers for Westchester in 1771 list 18,315 whites and 3,430 “Negroes,” of these about 80% enslaved and 20% free.5 Of the 205 heads of households in Greenburgh in the

1790 census, 46 households had at least one enslaved person, with the total number of enslaved persons in Greenburgh in 1790 amounting to 114.6 In 1790 there were at least 12 enslaved persons in the area that would become the village of Irvington. According to the 1790 federal census, the Odells owned 4 enslaved persons; John Jewel owned four, William Dutcher owned one, Abraham Acker, Sr. owned three and Glode Requa (of Tarrytown) owned nine.7 About

22% of Greenburgh households counted enslaved persons after the war, comparatively more than other settlements in Westchester such as in Cortlandt Town or Bedford.8

Much of the productive bounty of Philipsburg Manor came from the slave trade, and the use of enslaved labor in agriculture by both the manor lords and the tenants was extensive.

Enslaved persons of African ancestry did much of the farming work on the large tenant farms.

Hessian officer Carl Leopold Baurmeister observed in 1776 on King’s County, Long Island,

“Near the dwellings are the cabins of the negroes, their slaves, who cultivate the fertile land, herd the cattle, and do all the rough housework. They are Christians and are purchased on the Guinea

4 Mark Boonshoft, “The Material Realities of Slavery in Early New York,” New York Public Library, April 12, 2016, online at: https://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/04/12/slavery-early-nyc 5 John Curran, The Attack At Peekskill By The British In 1777; And The Role of the Fort Hill Site During the War of Independence (Peekskill, NY: Office of the Historian at the Peekskill Museum, 1998), X, note 61; see also Charles Strange, “One Hundred years of Negro Slavery,” Westchester Historian (Winter 1968), at 3-8. 6 Id., at 198-99. 7 Bureau of the Census, Heads of Families At The First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790, New York (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1908), at 198. 8 Cortlandt Town, which had 330 households and only 33, or 10%, of these Town households had slaves. Similarly, in Bedford Town, which had 408 households and 20, or 0.05%, of these households had slaves. 1790 Census., at 195-199. Coast, and sold again among the white people for from 50 to 120 New York pounds a head.”9

The situation was likely the same in Philipsburg Manor. Glode Requa, Jr.’s farm estate inventory of 1807 suggests that the enslaved Africans (nine as of the 1790 census) mastered animal husbandry, given the many cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, and oxen listed, and that they used axes and other iron tools to clear the land and build a house, an ox cart, and furniture. Stored wheat and a half-grinding stone indicates that the individuals planted, harvested, and ground wheat. Barrels of cider suggest they also maintained an apple orchard. The 1774 will of Jan

Buckhout suggests that enslaved persons, like other property, were passed down in the family;

Buckhout bequeathed Hannah, an enslaved person, to his second wife, Deborah. Enslaved persons performed essential services, but also could serve as a badge of status and were used as valuable property in transactions trading for land and farms, and as security for mortgages and to raise cash or repay debts.10

The Philipses were one of the largest families of slave owners in the colonial north and, over the years, several generations of enslaved persons lived on the Philipses’ estate; local tenant farmers may have procured enslaved persons from their landlords the Philipses, just as they procured various manufactured goods including porcelain from global markets within the

Philipse trade network. At the time of his death in 1749, Adolphus Philipse owned twenty-three enslaved persons in the Upper Mills (Sleepy Hollow), in addition to any enslaved persons he kept in New York City. Adolph Philipse’s property also included “2 Cats of nine tails,” a type of whip commonly used in the military and in slavery. As of February 12, 1749, twenty-three

“Negros” were on the manor, and listed and sorted in the estate record according to their gender,

9 Carl Leopold Baurmeister, Revolution in America; Confidential Letters and Journals 1776-1784 of Adjutant General Major Baurmeister of the Hessian Forces, trans. Bernhard A. Uhlendorf (NJ: Rutgers, 1957), at 45-46. 10 Cathy Sears and Sarah Cox, “Our Town and Slavery,” The Irvington Historical Society Roost 20:1 (Winter 2019). age, and ability to work, closely followed by a list of cattle and other chattel and personal property. In contrast, the personal property listed in the “Negro House” amounted to “2 old rip saws,” “1 old broken Iron pott,” and “some Rubbish,” a small and less valuable collection of personal goods than owned by the Philipse family.11

It is possible that the relationship between owners and the enslaved persons were closer and more personal at Philipsburg Manor than either in the southern plantation system or at other mid-Atlantic locations. Unlike other slave owners, the Philipse family did not rename their slaves, and they had a propensity to keep older persons in slavery.12 Further, in New York and

New Jersey, claims historian Joyce D. Goodfriend, “enslaved African Americans were woven into the family circle, albeit on unequal terms.” Enslaved people and their owners worked, sat and drank together, sang and danced together, and worshiped together and slept together. Due to their “long-forced cohabitation in Dutch households,” enslaved persons of African descent were immersed in Dutch language and culture, as testified to by advertisements for runaway slaves which announced that the fugitives spoke Dutch.13

Enslaved Africans were probably also versed in religious aspects of life, such as the

Dutch Reformed Church and its community celebrations, particularly the two-day Dutch celebration of Paas (Easter), and Pinkster (Whitsunday). Pinkster in particular became

11 Mark Boonshoft, “The Material Realities of Slavery in Early New York,” New York Public Library, April 12, 2016, online at: https://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/04/12/slavery-early-nyc 12 Dennis J. Maika, “Encounters; Slavery and the Philipse Family, 1680-1751,” in Roger Panetta, ed., Dutch New York -The Routes of Hudson Valley Culture (Fordham U. Press 2009) (hereinafter, “Dutch New York”); see also Graham Russell Hodges, Root and Branch: African Americans in New York and East Jersey, 1613-1863 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999); A.J. Williams-Meyers, Long Hammering: Essays on the Forging of an African American Presence in the Hudson River Valley to the Early Twentieth Century (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1994); Myra B. Young Armstead, ed., Mighty Change, Tall Within; Black Identity in the Hudson Valley (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003); Jacob Judd, “Frederick Philipse and the Madagascar Trade,” The New-York Historical Society Quarterly 55 (October 1971). 13 Joyce D. Goodfriend, “Why New Netherland Matters,” in Martha Dickinson Shattuck, ed., Explorers, Fortunes & Love Letters; A Window on New Netherland (Albany, NY: New Netherland Institute, 2009), at 153-156. embedded in African American life and culture, and enslaved and free Blacks both shared in and shaped Pinkster, which persisted into the 1870s in African American culture until it died out amongst the whites of Dutch heritage.14

With respect to the after-life, however, social and racial distinctions remained. White settlers who participated in the religious life of the community were buried on the grounds of the local churches, such as the Old Dutch Church north of Tarrytown (Old Dutch Church of Sleepy

Hollow); African Americans, on the other hand, were buried in unmarked graves, such as the one located on the Buckhout property.15

Other anecdotal accounts exist of the lives of enslaved people in Philipse Manor and the region that would become Irvington. When Captain William Dutcher evacuated his family after the Battle of White Plains, he left his farm in the care of his enslaved persons. On one occasion when the house was raided by the British, the enslaved persons were taken out for a distance in the river and then thrown overboard, in attempt to drown them; the depth of water was such, however, that they could keep their heads above water and walk back to shore. Dutcher’s land later became the nucleus of the Village of Irvington.16

The Odells also had enslaved persons of African ancestry living and working on the farm.

According to one account, one enslaved African named Caesar protected the farm’s bounty from raids during the Revolutionary War:

14 Joyce D. Goodfriend, “Why New Netherland Matters,” in Martha Dickinson Shattuck, ed., Explorers, Fortunes & Love Letters; A Window on New Netherland (Albany, NY: New Netherland Institute, 2009), at 153-156. 15 John A. Todd, “Greenburgh,” in J. Thomas Scharf, History of Westchester County, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: L.E. Preston, 1886), 2: 189. In 1939, the Irvington Gazette reported that, “human skulls and bones were dug up” from this “almost entirely forgotten” burial ground in 1895 when excavation of the Cosmopolitan magazine building site was underway. “Old Negro Burying Ground Was Famed In Early Days Of Village”, The Irvington Gazette, dated August 24, 1939, p. 1, col. 2. 16 Marcius D. Raymond, Souvenir of the Revolutionary Soldiers’ Monument Dedication at Tarrytown, N.Y., October 19th, 1894 (Tarrytown, N.Y.: 1894),96; see also Arthur C. Lord, “Dutcher Homestead First Building On Land On Which Village Stands,” Irvington Gazette (Vol. XXXII No. 32), August 10, 1939. “Jonathan Odell, living here, had a slave named Caesar, who was hanged three times by the Hessians, because he refused to tell where his master had hidden away his hogs. But Caesar managed to stand more hanging than most men of any color could, and finally came out alive after all. The last time they hanged him it would have put the finishing stroke to poor old Caesar’s career, had it not been for a neighbor's slave, who discovered him before it was too late. He delivered him from his terrible suspense and Caesar resumed his place among the living.”17

Philipse Manor and Westchester County - and its enslaved population - was also a central focus of Revolutionary War strategy, as attested to by the Philipsburgh Proclamation of 1779.

During the American Revolution, the Earl of Dunmore offered freedom to enslaved persons in

Virginia who joined British forces. Sir Henry Clinton’s 1779 Phillipsburg Proclamation, issued at Philipse House (Philipse Manor Hall, Yonkers) went further, deeming all slaves in the new

United States free and entitled to protection and land: “Whereas the enemy have adopted a practice of enlisting negroes among their troops, I hereby give notice, that all negroes taken in arms or upon any military duty, shall be purchased for the public service; the money to be paid to the captors.”18 Over 1,000 Black Americans fled to British lines New York City or into Indian territory, although British protection was worth very little in practice.19

During attempts to abolish slavery in the post-war years in New Jersey and New York – and as urban elites, New England transplants, and Quakers moved into the Hudson River Valley

- Dutch-descendant slaveholders maintained their pro-slavery views and came under fire from

17 John A. Todd, “Greenburgh,” in J. Thomas Scharf, History of Westchester County, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: L.E. Preston, 1886), 2: 189. 18 Sir Henry Clinton, Philipsburgh Proclamation, June 30, 1779, at Clements Library, University of Michigan, “Timeline of Emancipation,” http://clements.umich.edu/exhibits/online/proclaiming_emancipation/emancipation- timeline.php 19 See: Gary B. Nash, The Unknown American Revolution; The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America (NY: Penguin, 2005), 331. Foote, Black and White Manhattan, 215, in Douglas R. Egerton, Death or Liberty; African Americans and Revolutionary America (NY: Oxford University, 2009), 84-89. moral reformers. But Dutch-descendant farmers used their political clout to resist emancipation, making New York and New Jersey the last two states to free enslaved persons. In 1799, New

York passed a Gradual Emancipation act that freed formerly enslaved children born after July 4,

1799, but indentured them until they were young adults. In 1817 a new law passed that would free enslaved persons born before 1799 but not until 1827.

It is likely, therefore, that enslaved Africans were buried at the Buckhout property burial ground up until 1827. Since they were not buried at the Old Dutch Burying Ground, it stands to reason that they were buried in the unmarked grave on the Buckhout property. Other questions that may help determine the context and timing of the usage of the burial ground on the

Buckhout property include: When did Black Americans begin to be buried at other locations in

Westchester? What is the earliest date of a Black American at, say, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, or other cemeteries? If such a date can be determined, it would add legitimacy to the claim that enslaved persons were buried at the Buckhout burial ground.

Patrick Raftery, in The Cemeteries of Westchester County Volume II, includes in an

Appendix: Miscellaneous burial places, the “Irvington Slave Cemetery” (page 235) and cites the same John A. Todd (in Sharf) and the same 1939 Irvington Gazette article as cited in Source 1 and Source 2 (pages 1 and 2).

Proposed Location:

South Buckhout Street, on a strip of Village of Irvington property, across from the Cosmopolitan Building, formerly the site of the Buckhout/Jewel house. The location across from (east of) the Cosmopolitan Building mimics the language of the Todd/Scharf account which claims that a graveyard “for colored people” was located east of the Buckhout/Jewel house.

Red box indicates current location of Cosmopolitan Building on South Buckhout Street. Green box indicates approximate location of Village of Irvington parcel intended as a site for a historical marker and/or commemorative space. Base map: Google Maps.

Selected Bibliography

Burial Ground: John A. Todd, “Greenburgh,” in J. Thomas Scharf, History of Westchester County, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: L.E. Preston, 1886), 2: 189.

“Old Negro Burying Ground Was Famed In Early Days Of Village”, The Irvington Gazette, August 24, 1939.

Raftery, Patrick, Cemeteries of Westchester County Volume II (Westchester County Historical Society, 2011) page 235.

Historical Context:

George W. Bromley and Walter S. Bromley, Atlas of Westchester County New York From Actual Surveys and Official Records G.W. Bromley & Co. Civil Engineers (George W. and Walter S. Bromley, New York, NY, 1881), page 30; Westchester County Archives, Source A-0055 (1- 44)O, https://collections.westchestergov.com/digital/collection/1881atlas/id/0/rec/1

M.K. Couzens, “Map of part of the Manor of Philipsburgh in the county of Westchester, N.Y. : showing the grants from the State of New York in the City of Yonkers and Town of Greenburgh, Traced and reduced from a fragment of the original map prepared for the Commrs. of Forfeitures entitled A plan of the Manor of Philipsburgh in the County of Westchester and State of New York surveyed agreeable to the instruction of Isaac Stoutenburgh and Philip Van Cortlandt unto John Hills, 1785” (detail), (New York: John S. Hulin, 1880), Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library, New York Public Library Digital Collections, Accessed November 17, 2019: http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/310c3b30-3abb-0136- 507d-056810566549

Dennis J. Maika, “Encounters; Slavery and the Philipse Family, 1680-1751,” in Roger Panetta, ed., Dutch New York; The Roots of Hudson Valley Culture (New York: Fordham University Press for the Hudson River Museum, 2009).

Graham Russell Hodges, Root and Branch: African Americans in New York and East Jersey, 1613-1863 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999).

A.J. Williams-Meyers, Long Hammering: Essays on the Forging of an African American Presence in the Hudson River Valley to the Early Twentieth Century (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1994).

Myra B. Young Armstead, ed., Mighty Change, Tall Within; Black Identity in the Hudson Valley (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003).

Jacob Judd, “Frederick Philipse and the Madagascar Trade,” The New-York Historical Society Quarterly 55 (October 1971).

John Curran, The Attack At Peekskill By The British In 1777; And The Role of the Fort Hill Site During the War of Independence (Peekskill, NY: Office of the Historian at the Peekskill Museum, 1998), X, note 61.

Charles Strange, “One Hundred years of Negro Slavery,” Westchester Historian (Winter 1968), at 3-8.

Jaap Jacobs, The Colony of New Netherland; A Dutch Settlement in Seventeenth-Century America (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009).

Sung Bok Kim, Landlord and Tenant in Colonial New York; Manorial Society, 1664-1775 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press).