Oct 09, 2009 — Historian Zoe Trodd gives a lecture Saturday afternoon in Lake Placid to mark the 150th anniversary of John Brown's legendary raid at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. That raid struck a blow against slavery. Trodd will talk about the North Country's most famous abolitionist at the John Brown State Historic Site at 2 pm. Her talk kicks off a series of commemorative events this fall that will include a symposium and a reenactment of the return of Brown's body to North Elba. Trodd describes herself as modern-day abolitionist who takes inspiration from John Brown for today's movement against slavery and human trafficking. Todd Moe asked her how Brown is still relevant 150 years after his death.  Go to full article

May 08, 2009 — This year, communities across the U.S. will commemorate abolitionist John Brown. Brown was hanged 150 years ago, after his famous raid on Harpers Ferry in Virginia. The remembrances begin tomorrow in Lake Placid with events at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site. Later in the year, organizers hope to re-enact the funeral procession that carried Brown's body across Lake Champlain from Vermont and then through Elizabethtown to Lake Placid. Brian Mann first reported on Brown's legacy in 2002.  Go to full article

Jan 23, 2009 — A group of SUNY Potsdam students performs an excerpt from Amiri Baraka's play Slave Ship live in NCPR's studios. It chronicles African-American history from the 19th century slave trade to the civil rights and black power struggles of the '60s and '70s. "Slave Ship" will be performed at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Canton next month as part of Black History Month.  Go to full article

Jan 16, 2009 — For NCPR Station Manager Ellen Rocco, two stories of slavery add meaning to the Obama inauguration.  Go to full article

Feb 07, 2008 — February is Black History Month, a time to focus on African-American pride and those who changed the world. A local historian is researching the lives of a number of African-Americans who lived in the North Country in the 19th century. Bryan Thompson says there was a strong abolitionist movement in the region before the Civil War, and both slaves and free African Americans lived in the North Country in the early 1800s. Todd Moe has more. Thompson will give a talk, Amnesia: Abolitionists and Black Pioneers of the St. Lawrence, this Sunday (10:30 am) at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Canton.  Go to full article

Feb 07, 2008 — The role of women in the Underground Railroad, a vast network of people who helped fugitive slaves escape to the North and Canada, will be celebrated with stories and music in Plattsburgh this weekend. The North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association presents, And Some Were Women, at the North Country Cultural Center for the Arts on Saturday (4 pm). Don Papson, president of the North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association, says without the participation of women, the Underground Railroad would have been derailed.  Go to full article

Sep 06, 2005 — The North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association is releasing a new DVD this month about the activities of the Underground Railroad along the Champlain Valley, Vermont and Quebec. The DVD will be used in classrooms to help interpret numerous sites that tell the story of New York's critical role in the Underground Railroad and anti-slavery movement. Todd Moe spoke with some of the folks working on the DVD project, including Don Papson, president of the history group. For more information about the DVD, contact the NC Underground Railroad Historical Association: NCUGRHA@aol.com  Go to full article

Mar 31, 2005 — "Once you learn to read you will be forever free." Frederick Douglass spoke these words when black slaves in the American south were forbidden to learn how to read and anyone who dared to teach them could be charged with a crime. A new picture book published by the Vermont Folklife Center tells the true story of a slave boy in mid-nineteenth century Virginia. Alec Turner's forbidden education led him to freedom in the north, specifically to a farm in Grafton, Vermont. Betsy Kepes has this review.  Go to full article

Nov 19, 2004 — The use of humans by other humans as sources of free labor and without regard to the right of self-determination of those dominated is, according to sociologist Kevin Bales, as old as humanity and very much a reality in the contemporary world. Bales is president of "Free the Slaves", a non-profit organization working to end slavery worldwide. Bales has spent years researching slavery and he's the author of the book, Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. Kevin Bales gives a lecture tonight (7 pm) at SUNY-Potsdam. He told Todd Moe that slavery began some five-thousand years ago and continues today. He says, there's been an increase in slavery in the last 50 years.  Go to full article

Jun 22, 2004 — Last Friday, Governor George Pataki signed a new law making June 19th a state holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, in the 1860s. But slavery isn't just history; it's contemporary. Martha Foley talks with a member of North Country Free the Slaves about modern day slavery.  Go to full article