The Mysterious Black Migration 1800-1820

The Van Vranken Family and Other “Free” Families of African Descent in Washington County, New York”

The story that unfolds in this work manifests the pursuit of one of the many historical mysteries that plague the early history of people of African descent in New York State - a mass migration of thousands of African descendants to Washington County, New York at the turn of the 19th century. The impact of this de-valued history and its absence from the historical record has distorted the recollection and remembrance of people of African descent in New York, whose ancestors were trapped in the confinement of enslavement and second-class citizenship. This unrecorded migration transpired while New York was beginning to alter its highly profitable economic system from an enslavement-based economy to a more capitalist system of production. They journeyed to Washington County, families and expectations in tow under the suggestion of a rumor of opportunity and anticipation that a better life was possible for them at the end of this arduous journey. Newly disposed of the day to day dehumanizing nature of enslavement, they struggled to find a more sustainable, prosperous and humane way of life. The correlation between my family, the Van Vrankens and the thousands of other individuals of African descent who migrated to Washington County during this period, is the personal, festering wound of omission that is still not healed or resolved. This work is a continuing byproduct of genealogical research begun by the author in 2000. It represents the second in a series of books relating to his families experiences in early New York. The first Book A Far Cry From Freedom: Gradual Abolition (1799-1827) New York States Crime Against Humanity, was published in 2006.