| State: | New York |
|---|---|
| Address: | 3 Meeting House Rd, Pawling, NY 12564, USA |
| Postal code: | 12564 |
| Phone: | (845) 855-9316 |
| Website: | https://www.pawlinghistory.org/oblong-friends-meeting-house.html |
A stop on Dutchess County tour. See my Clinton Historical review.
A walk back in time. Unfortunately there's o way to gain entry. It would be wonderful to do so.
Closed and a plaque to read a bout it
A beautiful historic Quaker meeting house, yearning for repairs.
This Morning Hyewon and I went to the Oblong Quaker Meeting House in Pawling. Members of the Oblong Quaker Meeting House are credited with being the first group in the colonies to condemn slavery in 1769 declared slavery unacceptable — a resolution believed to be the first official action to free slaves in the colonies. Dutchess County where we live, had the largest concentration of Quakers outside Philadelphia and set up most of the early school. This part of Quaker NY was a command center of sorts for the Underground Railroad. As early as the 1810s, students at the school were required to memorize a lengthy antislavery catechism that described the practice as a “dreadful evil.” Famous reformers and abolitionists — including Lucretia Mott, often dubbed the first American feminist; and Daniel Anthony, father of Susan B. Anthony — were schooled there.
I think many people do not know that slavery was alive and well in NY from the time of the Dutch. In 1799, New York passed a Gradual Emancipation act that freed slave children born after July 4, 1799, but indentured them until they were young adults. In 1817 a new law passed that would free slaves born before 1799 but not until 1827. By the 1830 census there were only 75 slaves in New York and the 1840 census listed no slaves in New York City. The largest concentration of slaves in New York were the farms in the Hudson Valley. But, because the Quakers believed you couldn’t own a fellow human being, blacks were accepted in their community from 1769 on there were free blacks living in Quaker communities, working alongside them on the farm or as cobblers or blacksmiths.