The public is invited to attend a presentation by historian Diane Galusha Sunday, Sept. 18 at 2 p.m. at the Hunting Tavern Museum, 288 Main Street /Route 28, Andes. The presentation will examine what the institution of slavery looked like in Delaware County as farms, towns and industry developed following the Revolutionary War. The talk, for the Andes Society for History and Culture, will identify specific local slaveholders – Thomas Card Jr., William Shaver and Gideon Hawley - a distillery and tavern owner, a farmer and a hotel keeper, respectively - who appear in the 1820 census as owning one individual each.
Andes was formed from Middletown in 1819.
In the four federal census counts from 1790 to 1820, some 88 Delaware County property owners enslaved 133 men, women and children.
Citing personal documents, official records, memoirs, newspaper accounts and other period sources, Galusha will bring this disturbing, little-known aspect of local history out of the shadows.
Diane is the author of several books on local and regional history and is president of the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, Delaware County.
There is no charge for this event. Attendees may take this opportunity to view the museum exhibits after the presentation.
