As part of our commitment to celebrating our region, this monthly series aims to amplify the stories of communities of color and historically marginalized communities in the Hudson Highlands region.

  • From Built to Grown: Justice in Agriculture

    From Built to Grown: Justice in Agriculture

    Being a city slicker, I am always awed when I see vast expanses of green land. Now living in the Hudson Valley, I start my commute in New Windsor and make my daily trek to Manhattan for work. Descending Storm King Mountain, continuing straight through the town of Highland, I […]

  • Black History and Culture in Putnam County

    Black History and Culture in Putnam County

    Written by Cassie Ward, Executive Director, Putnam History Museum The Putnam History Museum (PHM) recently launched a new online resource page titled “Black History & Culture in the Hudson Valley, Hudson Highlands, and Putnam County.” The site serves as a landing page for exploring Black history in the Hudson Valley from colonial times to […]

  • Who Built the Stone Walls of New York?

    Who Built the Stone Walls of New York?

    “Stone walls are built by hands. How else would you bring them to life, other than to learn about and recognize all the people who were part of the stone wall building process?” -Susan Allport, author of Sermons in Stone: The Stone Walls of New England and New York “In any portrait […]

  • Antislavery in the Mid-Hudson Valley

    Antislavery in the Mid-Hudson Valley

    An Interview with Peter Bunten of the Mid-Hudson Antislavery History Project In our last installment of Relearning Highlands History, we introduced People Not Property and stories of enslavement in the colonial Hudson Valley. We learned that New York had more enslaved people than any place north of Maryland, and was one of the last colonies […]

  • People not Property: Stories of Slavery in the Colonial North

    People not Property: Stories of Slavery in the Colonial North

    An Engaging Interactive Documentary Created by Historic Hudson Valley In American classrooms, slavery is often presented as a southern institution. But slavery was an economic engine for all the American colonies, including those in the North. In fact, slavery persisted in the northern colonies, and in the Hudson Valley in […]

  • Land Heist in the Highlands

    Land Heist in the Highlands

    Chief Daniel Nimham and the Wappinger Fight for Homeland Researched and written by Peter Cutul, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation [The article below is an abridged version of the full article available here.]The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. They do not purport […]