KINGSTON, N.Y. – The Hudson River Maritime Museum is pleased to announce the upcoming lecture “Espionage and Enslavement in the Revolution: The True Story of Robert Townsend and Elizabeth,” held virtually on Wednesday, March 16, 2022 at 7:00 PM.

The American Revolution has a new story to tell. Join historian and author Claire Bellerjeau for a talk about her new book, Espionage and Enslavement in the Revolution: The True Story of Robert Townsend and Elizabeth and discover the story of Elizabeth, or Liss, enslaved by the Townsend family whose son was Washington's spy in Manhattan as part of the Culper Spy Ring.

As Robert and Elizabeth’s story unfolds, prominent figures from history cross their path, including Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Jupiter Hammon, Benedict Arnold, John André, and John Adams, as well as participants in the Boston Massacre, the Sons of Liberty, the Battle of Long Island, Franklin’s Paris negotiations, and the Benedict Arnold treason plot. Her escape with the British, re-enslavement, and struggle for freedom gives a new perspective to the country's founding, from the point of view of an enslaved Black woman seeking personal liberty in a country fighting for its own.
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The book was written with encouragement from singer Vanessa Williams, whose own family history can be traced back to Oyster Bay, Long Island, where many of the events of the book took place. Williams writes, “At a time when historically marginalized voices and stories are at last being brought to the forefront, it’s exciting to learn about a true story explaining details of the Revolutionary War on Long Island, African American history in New York, and the valiant fight for independence in a world full of loss, heartache, and eventual triumph. Claire’s research and commitment bring history to life and reveal a new African American female hero . . . Liss.”

Claire Bellerjeau is the author of Espionage and Enslavement in the Revolution: The True Story of Robert Townsend and Elizabeth. Until recently she served as historian and director of education at Raynham Hall Museum in Oyster Bay, New York, and has been researching the Townsend family and those they enslaved for over sixteen years, including curating a yearlong exhibit on the Townsend “Slave Bible” in 2005. In 2015, during a research visit to the New York Historical Society, she discovered what may be one of the earliest poems ever written by Jupiter Hammon, America’s first published African American writer. She has developed educational programs about slavery in Oyster Bay and is currently establishing a non-profit organization called Remember Liss, developing new programs to educate students and the community about the life and times of Liss.

Tickets are $7 for the general public and free for Hudson River Maritime Museum members. To register, visit www.hrmm.org/lecture-series.

About the Follow the River Lecture Series
For more than a decade the Hudson River Maritime Museum's "Follow the River Lecture Series" has hosted historians, authors, and maritime experts for engaging illustrated talks on a variety of regional history and maritime subjects. In recent years, many of the lectures have also been recorded and are available on YouTube. For more information about upcoming lectures and to access recordings of past lectures, visit www.hrmm.org/lecture-series. The series is sponsored by Rondout Savings Bank.

The Hudson River Maritime Museum is dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of the maritime history of the Hudson River, its tributaries and related communities. In addition to extensive collections documenting maritime transportation, industry, recreation, and natural science, the museum offers classes and programs at its Wooden Boat School, Sailing and Rowing School, and aboard its floating classroom, Solaris. The museum is located along the historic Rondout waterfront in downtown Kingston. Visit www.hrmm.org for more information.

History in the United States is largely recorded from a white perspective. Black stories and histories can be hard to find because what was saved from the past does not reflect the whole picture. At the Hudson River Maritime Museum we are working to add more Black history resources to our collection and partner with organizations in our region that are expanding access to the knowledge of the way in which Africans and their descendants have profoundly shaped American history, including the maritime history of the Hudson River.

Museums play a unique role in shaping the narrative and connecting communities to resources that help everyone better understand local and national histories. To that end, here are some of the organizations working in the Hudson Valley, as well as some local and national resources, that show how Black history is American history.

The Library at the A.J. Williams-Myers African Roots Center works in the Ponckhockie neighborhood and throughout Kingston with community programs, children’s literacy and after school programs, and more, with hundreds of books available. The African Roots Library partners with the Hudson River Maritime Museum in co-hosting the Conference on Black History in the Hudson Valley. You can learn more and donate at africanrootslibrary.org.

The Underground Railroad Education Center in Albany, NY tells the story of Stephen and Harriet Meyers, the Underground Railroad in New York, and its connections to today. The Underground Railroad Education Center is a new partner in the Conference on Black History in the Hudson Valley. You can learn more and donate at undergroundrailroadhistory.org.

Other local Black history organizations to seek out and support include:

• TMI Project: Black Stories Matter, also a conference partner – tmiproject.org/blackstoriesmatter
• Pine Street Burial Ground, Kingston Land Trust, also a conference partner - kingstonlandtrust.org/initiatives/pine-st-african-burial-ground
• Harambee, also a conference partner – harambeekingstonny.org
• The African American Historical Society of Rockland County – aahsmuseum.org
• The Mid-Hudson Antislavery History Project – pages.vassar.edu/mhantislaveryhistoryproject
• The Sadie Peterson Delaney African Roots Library in Poughkeepsie – africanrootslibrary.tripod.com

For information on Africans and African Americans in the Hudson Valley:

• People Not Property: Stories of Slavery in the Colonial North – a project of Historic Hudson Valley, including Philipsburg Manor, which has been interpreting the history of slavery and enslaved people for decades. You can learn more at peoplenotproperty.hudsonvalley.org.
• Long Hammering: Essays of an African American Presence in the Hudson Valley to the 20th Century by A.J. Williams-Myers. Dr. Wiliams-Myers addresses the integral role that African Americans played in every aspect of Hudson Valley society, which historically is the embryo of New York history.
• In Defiance: Runaways from Slavery in New York’s Hudson River Valley, 1735-1831 by Susan Stessin-Cohn and Ashley Hurlburt-Biagini. In Defiance documents 607 fugitives from slavery in the 18th and 19th-century Hudson River Valley region of New York State.
• Freedom’s Gardener: James F. Brown, Horticulture, and the Hudson Valley in Antebellum America by Myra B. Young Armstead. James F. Brown escaped slavery in Maryland and became a gardener at Mount Gulian in Beacon, NY. Dr. Armstead uses his diary to illuminate his life and the history of slavery and freedom in the Hudson Valley.
• Peekskill's African American History: A Hudson Valley Community's Untold Story by John C. Curran. Highlighting African American stories in Peekskill from the American Revolution through to the Paul Robeson and the Peekskill Riots of 1949 and beyond.
• Slavery and Freedom in the Mid-Hudson Valley by Michael E. Groth. Focusing on the struggle for freedom in the central Hudson Valley prior to the Civil War.
• The Missing Chapter: Untold Stories of African American Presence in the Hudson Valley – an online exhibit hosted by Hudson River Valley Heritage. Visit the exhibit at omeka.hrvh.org/exhibits/show/missing-chapter
• Historic Huguenot Street’s digital collection, African American Presence in the Hudson Valley, viewable at nyheritage.org/collections/African-american-presence-hudson-valley

For information on Black maritime history:

• The oral histories of Henry Gourdine, a Hudson River commercial fisherman from Peekskill known as the “Dean of the Hudson.” You can view the Hudson River Maritime Museum’s collection of Gourdine's oral histories at cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/hrmm/id/0/rec/6
• Filmmaker Ken Sergeant has featured portions of a video oral history he did with Henry Gourdine called “Tales From Henry’s Hudson,” available online at vimeo.com/7400161
• Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail by W. Jeffrey Bolster. Although not specifically about the Hudson Valley, this book illuminates the lives of Black sailors and mariners, many of whom also plied the waters of the Hudson, either as enslaved or free men.
• For New York City Black maritime history, check out PortSide NewYork’s African American Maritime Heritage program, which has an excellent list of stories and resources available at portsidenewyork.org/afam-maritime
• You can view articles on the Hudson River Maritime Museum’s History Blog related to Black History by visiting this link: www.hrmm.org/history-blog/category/black-history

Several organizations have also collected readings lists about Black history and addressing racism with children, including:

• The collection of the Library at the A.J. Williams-Myers African Roots Center, available at librarything.com/catalog/AfricanRoots/yourlibrary
• The Underground Railroad Education Center has a list for teaching children about racism, available at undergroundrailroadhistory.org/teach-your-children-well/
• Diverse Book Finder – search a collection of diverse children’s books with library information. Diversebookfinder.org
• Embrace Race – an organization focused on nurturing children of color and raising kids to think critically about racial inequality. You can find their children’s books resources at embracerace.org/resources/childrens-books
• Laurie Halse Anderson’s The Seeds of America trilogy, chapter books geared for ages 11+ and featuring enslaved protagonists in New York during the American Revolution – Chains, Forge, and Ashes. 

​To learn more about race relations today, how to become anti-racist, and the history of racism in the United States:

• The National Museum of African American History & Culture has developed “Talking About Race,” including information on becoming anti-racist. You can find more information at nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race
• How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi.
• Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land by Leah Penniman. Soul Fire Farm is located in Rensselaer County on 80-acres of land that historically was stewarded by the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of the Mohican Nation.
• The work of Ta-Nehisi Coates. You can find more information at ta-nehisicoates.com.
• Humanities New York’s Community & Protest Reading List available at humanitiesny.org/humanities-history-power-protest-reading-list/

We encourage you to use your local library or local independent booksellers when sourcing the books listed here.

This list was compiled by Hudson River Maritime Museum staff with assistance from our community partners. Please let us know of other sources and organizations. Email us at education@hrmm.org and we’ll add them to this post.