Timbuctoo, New York

Timbuctoo was a short-lived mid-19th century farming colony of African-American homesteaders in the remote town of North Elba, New York.^[1] It was located at N 44.223450912424, W -73.991793394089, near Lake Placid, in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York.^[2] The land was called "the highest arable spot of land in the State, if, indeed, soil so hard and sterile can be called arable."^[3]

Timbuktu is a city in northern Mali, in the Sahara Desert, that has come to represent a place far away, at the end of the world, extraordinarily remote.^[4]

History[]

In 1846, New York State enacted a law that required free black men (only) to own real estate worth at least $250 (equivalent to $7,201 in 2020) or a house in order to be able to vote.^[5] Gerrit Smith, a wealthy abolitionist and land owner, gave away 120,000 acres of land to 3,000 black New Yorkers in 40 acres (16 ha) lots, creating the community of Timbuctoo, as well as Negro Brook near Bloomingdale, and Blackville near Loon Lake, New York. It created rural land ownership and self-sufficiency for black people as an alternative to urban city life; gave black men access to the right to vote; and was an alternative response to the influx of Irish and white immigrants competing for urban employment.^{[2][6][7][8][9]}

Rural life seemed a way to escape from the racist atrocities that many Black people faced during this time, especially from slave catchers looking for fugitives, some of whom would kidnap and sell free Blacks into slavery. It was also a solution to the housing shortages and epidemics that plagued their crowded neighborhoods.^[2]

Frederick Douglass worked with Smith to promote the land distribution and recruitment to North Elba.^[10][11][9] Smith wanted a certain type of person to inhabit Timbuctoo as they would be representing the masses. Some of the characteristics, that those who wanted to live in Timbuctoo, should possess included being completely sober, showing self-restraint, being responsible, and having good morals.^[2][10]In 1848, John Brown moved his family to North Elba to support the development Timbuctoo.^[12][13] Smith was a supporter of John Brown's antislavery activities was accused of supplying John Brown with guns for the 1859 raid on Harper's Ferry.^[14][15]

In 1848, Gerrit Smith gave Willis Hodges, a free black man from Virginia, 200 acres to settle in the Loon Lake area with 10 families. The named it Blacksville. The community was disbanded after two winters due to harsh conditions. The difficulty of farming in the Adirondack region, coupled with the settlers' lack of experience in house-building and the bigotry of white neighbors, caused the Timbuctoo experiment to fail by 1855.^{[16]: 17–18}

Legacies of Timbuctoo inhabitants[]

Although Gerrit Smith proposed a good deal to those who were chosen to live in Timbuctoo, a lot of these families were not able to handle the transition from city life to rural farm life. Many of those chosen had previously worked in domestic professions and were not experienced farmers. Between 1850 and 1870 only thirteen families remained in the settlement and by 1871 that number dropped down to only two.^[17]

Lyman Epps Sr. and Jr.[]

Lyman and Anne Epps were said by their son, Lyman Jr., to have been fugitive slaves.^[18][19] They moved with their two children from Troy, New York, to North Elba. The Epps family was one of the two that managed to remain in North Elba. Lyman became a music teacher,^[20] leader of the community and helped to found the local sabbath school, the Lake Placid Public Library, and the Lake Placid Baptist Church.^[21] Epps was able to make a living by becoming a sheep herder and cultivating the land. His family lived in the area for over 100 years. Lyman Epps Sr. died at the age of eighty-three in 1897. The last member of the Epps family, Lyman Epps, Jr., was the last person alive who had seen, as a young man, Brown's funeral and burial. He shared his recollections with an interviewer.^[22] He died in 1942, aged 102.^[23][13] A marker at his grave was paid for by the John Brown Memorial Association.^[24] This marker is the only visible record of Timbuctoo's existence—there are no other markers, street or road signs, or ruins of the cabins. No map shows where it was.^[25]

John Thomas[]

John Thomas was born into slavery on the eastern shore of Virginia. He escaped up north in 1839 to Philadelphia before he continued on to Troy, New York. He married Mary Vanderhyden and they began a family in upstate New York.^[26] John was one of the people to accept Gerritt Smith's offer for the land grant. Bounty hunters eventually came for him in the Adirondacks. Due to Smith's principles that helped found the settlement, many of the white men backed Thomas and warned the bounty hunters that they would protect him at all cost. They also warned that Thomas was armed and dangerous and would do anything to prevent being sold back into slavery. The bounty hunters left and never returned.^[27] Like many of the families residing in Timbuctoo, Thomas did not live there very long. An 1880 U.S census says that he lived in Franklin, Franklin County, New York. He remained there for the rest of his life and died in 1894 at the age of eighty-three.^[26]

Legacy[]

The John Brown Farm State Historic Site is the only building of Timbuctoo still standing. Aside from that, there is no sign of Timbuctoo today.^[2] It cannot be found on many maps that showcase the Adirondacks, and none of the homes that black people in the community resided in were historically preserved and have disappeared due to excavation. There is no historical marker.

The exhibit "Dreaming of Timbuctoo'"[]

• In 2001, an exhibit called "John Brown 'Dreaming of Timbuctoo'", curated by Amy Godine, opened at the Adirondack Experience Museum in Blue Mountain Lake. The exhibit documents the story of these Black homesteaders that were given land in the Adirondacks in the mid-1840s.^{[28][29][11][30][31]}
• In 2002 it was displayed at the Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, New York,^[32][33] and at the Peterboro Area Museum in Peterboro, New York.^[34]
• In 2003–2004 it was at the New York State Museum, Albany, New York.^[35]
• It was shown at the Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York.
• From July 3–9, 2011, it was shown at the Whallonsburg Grange Hall, Whallonsburg, New York. An activity was a visit to the Timbuctoo Archeology Project dig underway at one of the Timbuctoo homesteads, under the direction of Dr. Hadley Kruczek-Aaron, SUNY–Potsdam.^[36]
• From July 29 to September 14, 2011, it was shown at Paul Smith's College, Paul Smiths, New York.^[37]
• In 2012 it was exhibited at the History Center in Ithaca, New York, inder the sponsorship of Cornell University and Ithaca College.^[38]
• In 2013 it was shown at the in Hempstead, New York.^[39]
• In 2016 the John Brown Farm State Historic Site became the permanent home of an updated “Dreaming of Timbuctoo” exhibit.^[40]

Blues at Timbuctoo[]

There is an annual Blues at Timbuctoo festival in Lake Placid. The festival is held at the historic John Brown Farm. It is presented by Jerry Dugger, and by the organization John Brown Lives! The festival is a combination of blues music and conversation around race relations. The festival was launched in 2015. Martha Swan is the founding executive director of John Brown Lives!, which coordinates events held at the John Brown Farm.^[41][42]

Media[]

• Voice of Timbuctoo is an oratorio composed by Glenn McClure.^{[citation needed]}

Videos[]

• Bradwell, Sean Eversley (2012), Dreaming of Timbuctoo: Seeing is Believing
• Basulto, Victoria (August 23, 2021), The Quest for Enfranchisement: Timbuctoo, National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum

References[]

Further reading[]

• Christian, Nichole M. (September 19, 2002). "Recalling Timbuctoo, A Slice of Black History". New York Times. p. B5.
• Godine, Amy (Spring–Summer 2003), "The Making of an Exhibition - Dreams of Timbuctoo" (PDF), Voices. The Journal of New York Folklore, 29 (1–2), archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-08-03, retrieved 2021-08-03
• Jones, Katherine Butler (Winter 1998), "They called it Timbuctoo" (PDF), Orion: 27–32
• Negro Brook Has It All: Thickets, Blowdown, Rapids
• Timbuctoo, New Jersey
• Timbuctoo, California