The raid of the armory in Harpers ferry, Virginia led by John Brown is incredibly well known and a date to remember for most U.S. History students. However, John Brown’s personal journey as an abolitionist is less well known, and his dealings in the Adirondacks even less so. Brown lived on a farm in the town of North Elba, located near Lake Placid, between 1849 and 1855 (and kept the land even after he moved). John Brown, along with a wealthy social reformer named Gerrit Smith, helped get black residents from New York land in the Adirondacks. John Brown’s story and energetic fight against slavery is still powerful today, and his farm attracts visitors to the Lake Placid area in the Adirondacks, but his and Gerritt Smith’s story in the Adirondacks is largely forgotten.
Gerrit Smith was a real estate baron in the Adirondacks who wanted to give land to black New York residents for a couple different reasons. The first reason Smith was donating this land to black residents is because of the New York State law that required African-Americans to own $250 of real estate in order to vote. So even if black residents who got this land did not use it, they could still keep ownership of it in order to secure their vote. Smith handed out free land was to encourage black residents to move out of urban areas and give them the chance to enjoy the beauties of the Adirondacks, while learning how to farm and survive in the climate. Three years into the project, Smith gave a plot of land to John Brown and his family with the agreement that he would help settle the black families moving into North Elba. Brown had yet to complete any violent raids that he is famous for such as the Pottawatomie Massacre or Harpers Ferry. Even before these famous acts of violence, John Brown was still an active and committed abolitionist who was looking to help out African-Americans in any way possible.
Unfortunately, Smith’s vision in North Elba was not successful as the new residents found it difficult to adjust to life in the Adirondacks. By 1855, nine years after the project was started, pretty much all of the people Smith had recruited were gone.
Gerritt Smith and John Brown’s project in the Adirondacks is not displayed or advertised well by the Park. Adirondack.net comments on Smith’s project commonly called Timbuctoo, “Today, Timbuctoo is mostly a lost part of Adirondack history. There are no remnants of settlers’ cabins, no historic markers, and no signage,” (Adirondack.net, 2021). It is hard to tell whether Timbuctoo is “lost” because it was just an insignificant part of history, or because no politician or person of power in that area has wanted to promote the story. Whatever the case is, I think this is a story that the Adirondacks and Lake Placid should be celebrating because it shows the Adirondacks has been a haven for minorities, and not just an area that was taken from Native Americans.
Literature Cited
Adirondack.net . (2021). Timbuctoo. https://www.adirondack.net/history/timbuctoo/
Figura, D. (October, 2020). Abolitionist John Brown’s ties to the Adirondacks, why it matters today. https://www.newyorkupstate.com/adirondacks/2020/10/abolitionist-john-browns-ties-to-the-adirondacks-why-it-matters-today.html
National Park Service. (2021). John Brown https://www.nps.gov/hafe/learn/historyculture/john-brown.htm
I’m intrigued by the question of whether this story isn’t told because it isn’t that relevant, or if it is an active decision. In this case, I honestly think its because no one has viewed it as particularly relevant because it was such a short-lived venture. I definitely think it should be talked about more, though – thanks for sharing!
This is a very interesting topic. I especially found it interesting how Gerrit Smith gave away land to Black Americans as a way to enfranchise them. I was surprised that even in the mid-19th century, people were aware of the lack of racial diversity in the Adirondack Park, a trend that continues to this day. Do you think there are any lessons we can take from Gerrit Smith and John Brown to help increase the racial diversity of the Adirondack Park today?
Cole! I was thinking some super similar thoughts as I read this post. I certainly think one of the lessons is that we can’t just give land (or resources) to people without some sort of process to help reap the benefits. However, I’m hesitant to write that because it feels like any process like that could lead to exploitation of given gifts, or a sense of superiority by advisers over minority people attempting to gain a foothold in the area. I think ideally, there would be peer-led, community oriented initiatives to help people with a wide variety of backgrounds feel at home in the park. I wonder about the degree of utopianism Brown and Smith envisioned – was this a complete failure, or was it just a failure to reach an impossible level of perfection?
Ben,
I definitely agree that Gerrit Smith and John Brown had good intentions but poor planning and execution in distributing land to African-Americans. You raise an interesting point about the power dynamic between those who (hypothetically) give land to or advise new minority landowners in the Park. I like your idea about the community initiatives to help acclimate new owners to the land. I think that North Elba was ahead of its time – looking to become a utopia when one was not possible given the surrounding social and political circumstances. Very interesting to consider!