"When I got down to John Brown's Farm and Blue Mountain Lake, I was blown away to know that there was a piece of New York State's history that was pretty much hidden away from a lot of us," says J.W. Wiley, Director of the Center for Diversity, Pluralism and Inclusion at Plattsburgh State University.

In 1846, abolitionist and wealthy philanthropist Gerrit Smith resolved to give away 120,000 acres of his land in the Adirondacks. The donation of such a large parcel of land was notable. But what was far more impressive was that the recipients were 3,000 African American men from nearly every county in the state.

"Dreaming of Timbuctoo" is a joint project of John Brown Lives!—a nonprofit organization—and the Essex County Historical Society.

Martha Swan and her team produced the "Dreaming of Timbuctoo" exhibit. Swan found out about the story from Boston area educator and writer Katherine Butler Jones, a descendant of a grantee, who was researching her background.

The traveling exhibit "Dreaming of Timbuctoo" opened at the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, New York, in May 2001. It was at the Brooklyn library for a month and has been to Spellman University and Utica College. The exhibit is currently located at Paul Smith's College until it moves on to the African American Museum in Nassau County.

Wiley, a philosophy professor and an applied ethicist, explains that although he is familiar with John Brown, he did not know that Brown had a farm up in this area. He expressed his surprise that a white man had come up with the concept or idea, like that of Gerrit Smith, to help black people get to vote.

The exhibit tells the story of a visionary and pragmatic response to the harsh political and social climate in ante-bellum New York State. Unusual artifacts like John Brown's surveying compass, historic photographs, and Gerrit Smith's writing chair, were discovered in the original research and can be seen at the Adirondack Museum. An interactive land grant ledger was made to illustrate Smith's land reform and voting rights plan that led to the settlement of an African-American community in the Adirondacks.

The name of the settlement, Timbuktu/Timbuctoo was spelled differently in a few letters, including some from John Brown to his son. By the 1830s and 1840s, Westerners started penetrating the interior of Africa, specifically Timbuctoo in Mali, West Africa. Timbuctoo was a fabled city considered to be the center of commerce, trade, and learning. The Westerners were amazed by the place and sent stories of their explorations to newspapers back home.

According to Swan, Gerrit Smith gained prominence because he was one of the wealthiest men in New York state with vast land holdings. Since acquiring land was an important way for slaves to become citizens and gain voting rights, he had the means to make a difference in the eyes of American law. Smith was a close friend of Fredrick Douglass and enlisted him and other black abolitionists to help.

In 1849, John Brown heard of Smith's Adirondack land grants being offered to poor black men, and proposed to relocate his family among the new settlers to establish a farm and provide them with guidance and assistance.

Smith accepted the proposal, and sold Brown a piece of property for $1 per acre, which was paid off in November 1849. Brown spent little time at the farm, and his attentions were soon preoccupied by the "Bloody Kansas" conflict, a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. However, he did make occasional visits to the settlement until his raid on Harper's Ferry.

How successful was the project, "Dreaming of Timbuctoo"? No one actually knows, though researchers are uncovering the mystery of African Americans' lives in the North Country, and whether or not they prospered.

However, in response to the voting privilege the land ownership allowed, the settlers became free New York state residents. "We are unlikely to find a paper trail of votes from the election register of any settlers as a result of the land they acquired," explains Swan.

"In terms of how many people (there were) and how long they stayed, most didn't stay very long," says independent historian Amy Godine. "Most families, even if they stayed forty years, moved away—there is no way to tell, from a political dimension, who voted, though it's assumed that it was a success because the gifts of land made it easier to vote in their own interest."

Swan says that some settlers were successful as farmers, maple syrup makers, and homesteaders. Several settlers went back to the city, down-state, or moved to the West. One settler froze to death in a winter blizzard because he got lost, and at least two men fought in the Civil War. Others adapted and contributed to the life and development of the community. It's arguable whether they were as much a part of the Adirondacks as their white neighbors.

Swan acknowledges that homesteading was most difficult for the settlers. Smith gave them land, but no capital to help develop it. The settlers didn't have sufficient funds to finance equipment or supplies necessary in helping them clear forests to build log cabins and farm the land. They had a scanty supply of tools, and it was a struggle to make a go of it. There was a feeling of isolation among the settlers from their community and family living in the remote wilderness.

Godine says the settlers were diversified and did what everybody had to do in the Adirondacks to survive. They gave tours, worked as migratory laborers in Vermont and CO-founded libraries and churches in white communities. They had no farming background, having arrived from New York City where their occupations included cobbling, poetry, tailoring and preaching. They did not have the know-how or capital to buy seeds, livestock, tools, or oxen, and they needed more than an ax and a dream to flourish in the North Country.

"There might be descendants of the black settlers but it's not something talked about and some aren't aware of their background," explains Godine. "'Dreaming of Timbuctoo' is a moving chapter that hides within it the strong connection that was formed in the fight for human rights between blacks and whites."

Questions or comments? E-mail us!