Category Archives: New Hampshire Grants

The Fate of the Black Loyalists of Westchester and Dutchess Counties, NY, Conclusion

1766 Tenant Riots, Abraham, Abraham O'Dell, African American Genealogy, African American Loyalists, African Diaspora, African-Americans in Westchester County, African-Native, Afro-Indigenous, Afro-Indigenous historic erasure, Afro-Indigenous Loyalists, Amegah, Amegah Londonderry, American Indians, Amos Moss, Ancestry.com, AncestryDNA, Anna, Annapolis, Austin Graham, Benjamin Bartley, Betsey, Black Pioneers, Carleton, Cato Prime, Cuffie, David Matthews, Dinah Griffin, Duryea, Duryee, Ebenezer Beaman, Ephraim Jarrett, Esther Smith, Family, Fort Niagara, Francis Griffin, Francois Fournier, Frank Marshall, Gabriel Fowler, Gabriel Ludlow, Greenburgh, Hernet Farmier, Hudson River Valley, Isaac Ecker, Isaac FRost, Jack Powell, Jackey, Jacob Duryea, James, Jane, Jane Marshall, Jemima, Jenny, John Brown, John Cooper, John Potter, John Smith, John Townsend, Joseph Bartlett, Joseph Clarke, Joseph Foster, Joseph Goff, Leonard Van Kleek, Livingston Manor, London Derry, Londonderry, Lucy Potter, Lydia Johnson, Mary, Matthews, Maugerville, Moses Thompson, Ned, Nero, New Amsterdam, New Hampshire Grants, New Jersey, New York, New York City, Nine Partners, Patience Hopefield, Peter Matthews, Philipse Manor, Piggott, Port Roseway, Quebec, Revolutionary War, Richard Hopefield, Richard Pierpoint, Richard Vanderburgh, Robert Potter, Rose Fortune, Rye, Sal Griffin, Sally, Sambo, Samuel Ver Planck, Sarah, Slavery in NY, Stacia, Stratford, Sukey Lefferts, tenant farmers, Thomas Wolverton, Timothy Whetmore, Titus Knapp, Treaty of Paris, United Empire Loyalists, Upper Canada West, Van Cortlandt, Van Cortlandt Manor, Verplanck, War of Independence, Westchester County, White Plains, William Etherington, Willian Thomas, Yonkers, York

This blog post is dedicated to Nora Gavin, the outgoing editor of Connecticut Ancestry. It was both an honor and a pleasure to have her edit all five of my articles on Black Loyalists. I applaud her steadfast commitment to advocating for a more inclusive understanding of American history.

As the Revolutionary War drew to a close a close in 1783, thousands of Black Loyalists from Westchester and Dutchess Counties faced the agonizing uncertainty of what freedom might mean beyond the battlefields they had once known. Some had fled bondage in the chaos of war, others had served in Loyalist militias or sought refuge behind British lines. Many clung to the promises made by the Crown—that freedom, land, and safety awaited them in British-held territories. Yet, as this third and final installment of The Fate of the Black Loyalists reveals, the journey to freedom did not end with evacuation.

For those who boarded ships bound for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and beyond, freedom was fragile, conditional, and often undermined. Some were re-enslaved or indentured. Others disappeared from the record entirely, leaving behind only fragments of testimony in documents like The Book of Negroes. Through the stories of individuals and families —Statia, the Marshalls, the Jarrett brothers, and many others —we trace the haunting afterlife of war, where the line between liberty and captivity was perilously thin.

In documenting these lives, we are reminded that freedom was not a singular moment but an ongoing struggle—one that continues to echo across generations.

The conclusion to this 3-part series can be read here by clicking on the link: Black Loyalists of Westchester and Dutchess Counties, New York – Conclusion

Repairing Erasure: Indigenous Identity and Paper Genocide

23andme, Absalom Money, Absalom Mooney, Admixture, African American Genealogy, Afro-Dutch, Afro-Indigenous, Afro-Indigenous historic erasure, Amey Mooney, Battle of Saratoga, Bedford, Bennington, Black Patriot, Black Patriots, Charles Sharp, Commercial DNA Testing Companies, Connecticut 2nd Regiment, David Sharp, DNA Tests and Indigenous Identity, DNA Tests and Native American Identity, DNA Tests and Native American Tribes, DNA Tests and Native Americans, Ethnic Admixture, Ethnic and Racial Classification, Ethnicity, Ethnogenesis, Fort Crown Point, Fort Ticonderoga, Genetic Genealogy, Genetic Genealogy/DNA Testing, Genetic Paper Genocide, Green Mountain Boys, Heman Swift, Henry Sharp, Hubbardton, Isaac Sharp, John Money, John Mooney, Kitchawan, Lenapehoking, Lenni-Lenape, LivingDNA, MyHeritage, Native American, New Hampshire Grants, New York 26th Regiment, Nichols, North Salem, Phillip Money, Phillip Mooney, Phillip Sharp, Plecker, Ramapo, Ramapo Mountain Indians, Ramapo Mountains, Ramapough, Ramapough (Munsee) Lenape, Ramapough Lenape, Ramapough Lenape Nation, Ramapough Lenape People, Ridgefield, Seth Warner, Southeast Dutchess County, Tioga County, Vermont, Virginia 1924 Racial Purity Act, Walter Ashby Plecker, Wappinger Federation, Zebulon Butler

 The names of Kitchawan (Wappinger Federation) Black Patriots, Isaac Sharp, Absalom Moony/Money, John Moony/Money, are ERASED NO MORE. We thank them, and their descendants,  for their service to this country. Decolonizing the archives is how we, the descendant’s of enslaved and Free People of Color,  repair historic accounts of our ancestors and write them back into history. It can be done.  Thank you, Cousin Billie, I am sharing your ancestral story with me and allowing me to pick up your research where you left off. I know your ancestors are rejoicing now. Praise be to them in the highest. 

This article is a more extensive version of the “Repairing Erasure: Indigenous Identity and Paper Genocide” webinar I gave on October 19, 2023, at the 2023 National Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society’s Conference Hiding in Plain Sight: Recovering the Erased Histories of our Ancestors in the United States and the Caribbean.

As a descendant of the Munsee Lenape, early Afro-Dutch settlers, and some of the first Africans hailing from Central, West Africa and Madagascar who arrived in New Amsterdam during the early 1600s, I’ve had the privilege of bearing witness to the systematic erasure of my ancestors from history, a tragic narrative that continues to persist throughout the ongoing settler colonial project. The overarching goal of settler colonialism has consistently revolved around replacing the original inhabitants of Lenapehoking with waves of settlers who, in substantial numbers, arrived in the early 1600s, solidifying and imposing their distinct national identity and notions of sovereignty. This nefarious process, marked by genocide, enslavement, dispossession, and coupled with the insidious practice of paper genocide, has tragically contributed to perpetuating the mistaken belief that the people of Lenapehoking were rendered extinct.

“Repairing Erasure: Indigenous Identity and Paper Genocide ” can be read here: VegaTeresaRepairing ErasureIndigenousIdentityandPaperGenocideAAHGSJournal 2024_Winter_