Among its innumerable offenses to humanity, slavery erased the individuality of enslaved people from the historical record. We can learn much about eighteenth and nineteenth century white, landowning families, like the Odells, from genealogical research and by delving into government records and personal archives that have been haphazardly collected and preserved. We know from that research that during the late eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century, the Odell family was intertwined with Black people as employees, neighbors, household members and, for many decades as enslaved laborers. But information about these individuals remains frustratingly elusive despite the many hours of research at multiple libraries, scholarly sources, and government archives. We can catch only glimpses that hint at who they were and how they lived. Drawing on the practices of slavery in the Lower Hudson Valley and all the sources we studied, this report attempts to describe the lives of the Black people who toiled for the Odell family. By doing so, we hope to commemorate their lives and open the door to further research.

On December 22, 1785, Col. John Odell paid 740 pounds for a parcel of 185 acres "forfeited to the people of [New York] by the Attainder of Frederick Philipse." Philipse was a British loyalist in the Revolutionary War. All his land holdings were seized by the Commissioners of Forfeiture after the war and sold to patriots. The Philipse property that John Odell purchased had been leased by Gilbert and Sarah Bates who had expanded an existing house on the property in the 1760s. A map belonging to the Westchester County Historical Society shows the boundaries of the property holders of the Philipse lands at or shortly after the 1785 forfeiture proceedings. The property holds a central position in the highlands of Greenburgh, between the Saw Mill and Bronx Rivers. This area later became known as part of Hartsdale. John Odell and his family took up residence in the Bates house. The 1790 United States Census reports five individuals – three men ages sixteen and over and two women of undetermined ages – all white, comprising John Odell's household. (1)

The Odell home itself, just north of the historic road connecting Hart's Corner with Dobbs Ferry (to become Ridge Road with slight variations), sits on a plateau which, in 1785, was located near the middle of a circle of large farm properties. (2)

It is unclear how many landowners lived on their central Hartsdale parcels that were largely devoted to farming and livestock. Some residents were white tenants, but the laborers working the stony, hilly soil and tending the herds included enslaved people of African descent.

Slavery Among Landowners in the Lower Hudson Valley

The enslavement of Black people on the Philipse Manor lands had a long history, stretching back nearly a century prior to the 1785 forfeiture sales. The Philipse family had enslaved a few dozen Black people laboring at their mills and other operations on their vast landholdings. The excellent film, "People not Property," produced by Historic Hudson Valley, chronicles the story of the enslaved people working at the Philipse Mill. Many of the Philipse tenants held slaves too. Sarah Bates, then living in New York City, is listed in the 1790 census as owning one enslaved woman and, it is likely, the Bates family, like other Philipse tenants, utilized slave labor during their twenty-five-year leasehold on the property that John Odell would purchase. (3)

The farms in the Odells' neighborhood were larger than most in the New York City area. In late eighteenth-century New York, the larger the landholding, the more likely the landowners were to own slaves. The Odells and many of their neighbors with large acreage exemplified this trend. While no slaves are recorded in the 1790 census for the John Odell household, several of their neighbors did own slaves. Among landowners within the Odell farm environs, Israel Honeywell held six enslaved people, James McChane, Sr. held five and William Underhill held one. Talman Pugsley held two enslaved people, but his land holdings were much larger than the Hartsdale parcel and the 1790 census found him in West Chester (today, the Bronx). James Oakley was not listed in Greenburgh in the 1790 census, but the many Oakleys living in adjacent White Plains included several slaveowners. (4)

Sometime in the 1790s John Odell acquired four enslaved people (ages and genders not recorded) which event, or purchases, resumed the near continuous presence of Black people on the Odell property stretching over at least five decades. (5)

While we do not know how and exactly when John Odell acquired these enslaved people, both John Odell and his first wife, Hannah McChane, came from slave owning families. In the 1790 census, John's father, Jonathan Odell, Sr., enslaved four persons, and, as mentioned above, Hannah's father, James McChane Sr., held five people in bondage. It is possible that some of John Odell's slaves came from McChane, who had reduced his holdings to two enslaved people by 1800. John's father, Jonathan, on the other hand, had expanded his slave property from four to six people by 1800. (6)

Enslaved Farm Labor in the Hudson Valley

We do not know the tasks that Odell compelled his enslaved people to perform but we can assume that they were expected to do a variety of farm work. We know that in 1810, the census taker again found four Black enslaved people in John Odell's household. We do not know if they are the same four people identified in 1800, nor do we find any details distinguishing them as individuals. (7)

We have learned that 18th and 19th-century documents still exist that could give additional insight into life on the Odell farm. We hope in the future to study these primary sources and any others that may come to light.

We can make some assumptions about the workings of the Odell Farm based on the research of Dr. Vivienne Kruger. Enslaved people in New York, according to Dr. Kruger, "provided the much-needed extra general labor required on the diversified family farm." While the extent of land cultivation and livestock herding at the Odell property during the period from 1800 to 1835 when John Odell died is not known, the 1850 agricultural census gives us precise details which may inform about previous decades. In 1850, the Odell estate included 200 "improved' acres (out of 250 acres total) and four horses, twenty-four milch cows, two oxen, three "other cattle," thirty-three sheep, and five swine. The Odells grew wheat, rye, corn, oats, potatoes, buckwheat and hay. They also produced butter and wool in significant volumes. In prior decades, enslaved laborers certainly assisted with or performed all the necessary labor associated with such farm production. (8)

Enslaved men and women on New York farms also worked at innumerable other tasks. As Dr. Kruger writes:

Slave labor was well-utilized all year long in New York, not only during the shorter northern growing season and at harvests. Just to cut, pile, haul, and split the family's firewood could consume weeks of labor. Slaves carted dung, mended fences, thatched roofs, and repaired farm buildings and dwellings. Animals had to be fed. Slaves were also sent on errands to local shopkeepers or on other business for their masters. An annual routine of seasonal agricultural chores kept slaves constantly busy. Spring meant days of picking up stones in the field, plowing, and planting the field crops and garden vegetables. In June wild strawberries could be picked, and August/September was haying time, with hands needed to mow the meadow grasses. Late September and October were harvest time, with potatoes to be dug and corn to be cut, carted home, and husked. Hogs were butchered in the late Fall between November and January; they had to be slaughtered, cut into merchantable pieces, salted and barreled. Other animals might have to be taken to town and given to merchants to help balance farmers' accounts.

Male and female slaves were often assigned to different kinds of labor. Runaway males and black men advertized for sale were described as being proficient in a number of occupations: farmer, butcher and sawyer, "attends a grist mill," "acquainted with management of horses," house carpenter, boatman, and blacksmith--skills in high demand in farm and town. Male slaves commonly accompanied their masters while hunting and fishing. Female slaves generally were employed at cooking, housekeeping, sewing, spinning, knitting, repairing clothing, attending at table, and in dairy work (milking cows and processing milk into cheese and butter). The absence of ready-made consumer goods in seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth-century America meant that New York women, aided by their female slaves, had to produce all of the household's food, clothing, and such other necessities as soap and candles from scratch. In a world without refrigeration breads had to be baked daily, meats had to be smoked, salted, or pickled, and fruits and vegetables had to be preserved in the Fall for use through the Winter until the following June. Colonial kitchens also produced apple cider and medicines and fragrances from herb gardens. The production of cloth was a major domestic enterprise. Flax was grown and laboriously fashioned into linen. Woolen cloth was made at home: sheep were shorn, the wool was sorted, picked, and carded; it was then turned into yarn on spinning wheels, dyed with berry, plant, or insect colorings in large iron pots over open fires, and woven into cloth which would be sewn into clothing, bedding coverings, and curtains." (9)

Where Did the Enslaved Live at the Odell Farm?

We can make some guesses about where the enslaved people on the Odell Farm lived. The recent archeological study conducted by Hartgen Associates, did not reveal any evidence of a separate slave quarters. Such a structure would have been situated close to the house. A recently published book, Spaces of Enslavement by Andrea Mosterman, gives a thorough background of the interaction of Dutch and English enslavers and their slaves in the New Amsterdam and New York colonies. The original Dutch colony needed more inhabitants to support their claims to the land and to establish successful commerce. The Dutch West India Company brought enslaved men and women to North America as early as the 1620s. Enslavement of these men and women was different from slavery in the Southern plantations. They lived in an urban environment, in close proximity to their owners and to other slaves. They moved alone through the streets of the city on errands and to perform their various labors. They earned wages that were subject to taxation. In most cases, they lived in the same structure as their owners, usually in the basement or attic. (10)

Nonetheless, like Southern plantation slaves, their lives were not their own to determine. Their families were subject to separation upon the whim of an owner or dissolution of an estate. Loved ones, even small children, might be sold out of state, never to be heard from again. Legal rights were few and corporal punishment might be ruthlessly inflicted. The rewards of their labors belonged to their owners and they had limited opportunity to accumulate wealth.

As the original colony moved northward along the Hudson River Valley, the Dutch traditions remained even under British rule. With his Dutch heritage, John Odell likely followed these patterns. In a book written about the memories of Sojourner Truth, her enslaver, Col. Hardinger, is described as a low Dutch property owner in nearby Ulster County, New York. Her recollection of her childhood in the late eighteenth century describes all the enslaved members of the household living together in the unheated basement of the farmhouse. (11)

It could be speculated that John Odell's enslaved people lived either in the large attic or the equally large basement. When he bought the house, Odell built the second floor and added the attic above to the 1760s timber frame cottage originally built by Sarah Bates and her husband. It is also speculated that the full basement underneath was added at the same time. Further archeological studies are needed to explore to these possibilities.

Emancipation and the Odell Farm

Only with the 1820 census do we begin to find hints about the individuality of Black people living on the Odell estate and can begin making some guesses about them. At a time when most enslaved people in New York were emancipated under the state's manumission laws, John Odell still enslaved one male between fourteen and twenty-six years old. Also residing with his household in 1820 were one free Black male between the ages of 26 and 45, an additional Black male of 45 years or older, and a Black female also 45 years or older. Are the older man and woman a married couple, enslaved together on John Odell's property since their young adulthood? Are the younger males their sons? We have no idea. We can only guess as the most basic facts of their individuality are concealed by slavery's dehumanizing erasure. (12)

Emancipation was a convoluted process in New York that stretched out over forty years. Manumission had previously been discouraged in New York by requiring that enslavers post a bond as security that the freed slave would not require public support. New York enacted a gradual abolition law in 1799 providing that children born to enslaved mothers after July 4, 1799, were "born free but owed twenty-five (females) or twenty-eight (males) years of service to their mothers' masters, after which time they were fully free." Another law passed in 1817 declared that all enslaved people born before July 4, 1799, were to be freed on July 4, 1827. Still, children born to enslaved mothers might be bound to their mothers' masters as indentured servants until as late as 1848. (13)

As we do not have age or gender information about the four Black persons living in the Odell household in 1800 and 1810, we can only guess that they are the same four people in residence in 1820. While the three older people were all born before July 1799, we can also assume that the young man, listed as between the ages 14 and 26, was at least twenty-one years old at the time of the 1820 census as Westchester County officials listed all Black children born after July 4, 1799 as free (although such children were subject to indenture). John Odell's reasons for freeing three of his slaves in the 1810s but keeping in bondage a young man in his early twenties is unknowable. This youngest man would have been too old to be subjected to the indenture imposed on children of slaves born after 1799. Perhaps Odell clung to bondage as a way to compel the young man's labor at ages when his work value was highest. If this young man was the child of the older Black man and woman recorded in the 1820 census, his enslavement by Odell might also have served Odell as a means to pressure the parents into remaining on his property to keep their family intact and to continue working for Odell. Whatever Odell's motivations, his freeing three of his four enslaved persons did track the manumission rate of his Greenburgh neighbors between 1810 and 1820. Whether Odell compelled the younger man to patiently wait until the final day of slavery in New York, July 4, 1827 (when he would have been between twenty-eight and thirty-three years old) to gain his freedom, or emancipated him earlier, is similarly unknown. (14)

Life After the End of Slavery in New York

By 1830 no enslaved or indentured people remained in the Odell household. One Black female, however, between the ages of thirty-five and fifty-five lived on the Odell property. Although it is impossible to assert a connection, Harry Hunt, a Black male, of at least thirty-six and less than fifty-five years of age, follows the John Odell household in the 1830 Greenburgh census and presumably lived close to the Odell property. Was Harry Hunt the free Black male between twenty-six and forty-five who lived in the Odell household in 1820, or possibly even the younger man who remained enslaved by John Odell in 1820 (who could have been born as early 1794). Was he related to the Black woman still living with the Odells? Frustratingly, the evidence is too vague to allow any such conclusions to be drawn.

John Odell died in 1835. The 1840 census does not report any Black people living in the Odell household or appearing in adjacent households. The story of the people enslaved by John Odell appeared to have come to an end, shrouded in the mystery of absent historical records. (15)

The Odell Household After 1850

In 1850, the Odell household, headed by John Odell's widowed daughter-in-law, Anna Ward Odell, consisted of her adult four children and three Irish born people: Eliza Kelly, a twenty-two-year-old servant, Thomas Connell, a thirty-year-old laborer, and fifteen-year-old James Brenan, also a laborer. Listed next on the census rolls is Moses Bonnet (also possibly Barnet), identified as a thirty-year-old Black laborer, his wife Philis, thirty years old, and daughters Caroline (fourteen years old) and Mary (ten years old). As the Bonnets are not listed as having taxable real property of their own, they could possibly have resided as tenants on the estate of the Odells or a close neighbor. What role, if any, did Moses and Philis with their daughters play in the economy of the active Odell agricultural operations? After 1850 the family disappears from the historical record. In the 1860 census, two Black households, with young women who could possibly be the grown daughters of Moses and Philis Bonnet, appear to live in the vicinity of the Odell household. Any further connections between these young women, their families, and the Odells would be purely speculative. (16)

Conclusion

Our research reveals that from soon after John Odell's acquisition of the Odell property through the first half of the eighteenth century, Black people were an important and integral part of the Odell family and Odell House story. While inferences may be made from limited census information, no known resources offered details to describe these people and their individual stories. The possibilities we have suggested in this essay lead us to hope that the people Odell enslaved formed a family that eventually found freedom. This Black family may have remained in Greenburgh for decades after emancipation. It is important that we recover and tell their stories.

Free and Enslaved People Residing at the Odell House Property Reported in the U.S. Census 1790-1850

Abbreviations: FWM: Free White Male, FWF: Free White Female, FCM: Free Colored Male, FCF: Free Colored Female, B: Black

1790 Census

John Odell

• FWM: 3
• FWF: 2
• Slaves: 0

1800 Census

John Odell

• FWM: 2 (age 10-16; and 45+)
• FWF: 2 (age 16-26; and 45+)
• Slaves: 4 (ages/sex not provided)

1810 Census

John Odell

• FWM: 4 (10-16; 16-26; 26-45; 45+)
• FWF: 2 10-16; 45+)
• Slaves: 4 (age/sex not provided)

1820 Census

John Odell

• FWM: 5 (10 or younger; 16-26 (2); 26-45; 45+)
• FWF: 3 (10 or younger; 26-45; 45+)
• Slaves: 1 (male 14-26)
• FCM: 2 (26-45; 45+)
• FCF: 1 (45+)

1830 Census

John Odell

• FWM: 8 (under 5; 5-10; 10-15 (2); 20-30 (2); 30-40; 70-80)
• FWF: 5 (5-10 (2); 10-15; 30-40; 40-50)
• FCF: 1 (36-55)

1840 Census

Anna Odell

• WM: 3
• WF: 2

1850 Census

Hannah (Anna) Odell age 57, farmer; real estate assessed at $25,000. John Odell 30; Elizabeth 26; William 24, Hene? 21m (all born NY); & Eliza Kelly 22f servant; Thomas Connell 30m laborer; James Brenan (Branan) 15m laborer (all born Ireland)

Next residence in census:

Moses Barnet (Bonnet/Bennet) 30M/B laborer; Philis 33F/B; Caroline 14F/B; Mary 10F/B. All born in NY

Source: www.familysearch.org

Footnotes

1. For the description of the property acquired by John Odell, see Commissioners of Forfeiture Proceedings, pp. 15-16 (recoverable: https://collections.westchestergov.com/digital/collection/forfeiture). With no evidence to the contrary, we rely on this 1785 map to be as accurate as possible within the limits of eighteenth-century land surveying. The Westchester County Historical Society version of the map, created in 2010, helpfully superimposes the 1880 recreation of the 1785 map over an aerial photographic land survey dated 1947. Philipsburgh Manor Map, Courtesy of the Westchester County Archives. https://collections.westchestergov.com/digital/collection/forfeiture/id/108/rec/9. United States Census, 1790. Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 14 October 2022. Citing NARA microfilm publication M637. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. (U.S. Census citations herein utilized familysearch.org). Research by Emily Yankowitz (ph.d. candidate, Yale University) for this project was funded by the Westchester County Legislature.

2. The immediate environs of the Odell House consisted of a dozen large, farm lots (each nearly 200 acres and larger) that emerged from the Philipse forfeiture sale in central Greenburgh/Hartsdale. These properties, cumulatively 2600 acres (about 4 square miles), extended from the Odell House 1.5 miles to the Saw Mill River to the west, 2/3 of a mile to the east to lowlands now paved by Central Avenue, nearly ¾ mile to the north, and then 1.7 miles to the current Ardsley Road to the South. The Odells owned one of the smallest parcels in this circle. Talman Pugsley (variously Salman) to the immediate west held 333 acres along the west bank of the Sprain Brook. James Oakley to the immediate north, had 233 acres, John Tompkins to the east with 262 acres and Cornelius Ray, to the south, had 234 acres. Odell's father-in-law, James McChaine, owned 325 acres extending south from Odell's property along the east side of the Spain Brook. Other close-by large landowners included Abraham Emmins (231 acres), William Underhill (223 acres), John Hart (97 sloped acres squeezed to the west of current Central Ave. and South Washington Streets), and Israel Honeywell, the largest close-by landowner with 500 acres between the Sprain Brook and Sawmill River. Philipsburgh Manor Map, Courtesy of the Westchester County Archives.

3. The 1755, "slave census" lists tenants with their slaves who live in the "north part of the Manor of Philipseburgh." O'Callaghan, E. B. (Edmund Bailey)., Durst, S. B., New York (Colony). (1850). Census of slaves, 1755. [New York: s.n.], p. 852 (recovered at: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc2.ark:/13960/t64483m5t&view=1up&seq=12,). U.S. Census, 1790.

4. U.S. Census, 1790; Northeast Slavery Records Index (herein "NESRI") available at https://nesri.commons.gc.cuny.edu/. Dr. Vivienne Kruger's unpublished doctoral dissertation, Born to Run: The Slave Family in Early New York, 1626-1827 (Columbia University, 1985) is an invaluable resource that has greatly shaped this essay with particular attention to Chapter 3: "The Implementation and Growth of a Slave Labor System in British New York." Dr. Kruger has made her entire dissertation available on-line at: http://newyorkslavery.blogspot.com. As the blog format is not paginated, refer to Kruger, ch. 3 (http://newyorkslavery.blogspot.com/2007/08/chapter-three.html) when cited as a source herein. Rockland County farms averaged 80 acres "which was generally sufficient to support a family in reasonable comfort with some marketable surplus." Kruger, ch. 3. U.S. Census, 1790.

5. In 1790, Greenburgh's population was 1,401 of whom 1,270 were white, 9 "other free persons" and 122 enslaved. Fifty-seven of 213 households (27%) held slaves. In Westchester County, 14.4% of households had slaves. U.S. Census, 1790; Kruger, ch. 3. Also see Table: FREE AND ENSLAVED PEOPLE RESIDING AT THE ODELL HOUSE PROPERTY REPORTED IN THE U.S. CENSUS 1790-1850 attached hereto.

6. In 1800, Greenburgh's population was 1,581 of whom 1,456 were white, 16 free Blacks and 109 enslaved (87% of Blacks and 7% of the total town population). Fifty-four of 250 households (22%) held slaves. 1800 United States Census, familysearch.org. In Westchester County, 14.4% of households had slaves. In Westchester County, 11.5% of households had slaves. U.S. Census, 1800; Kruger, ch.3.

7. In 1810, Greenburgh's population was 1,800, of whom 1,663 were white 37 free Blacks and 100 enslaved (80% of Blacks, and 6% of the total town population). Forty-four of 261 households (17%) held slaves. Three entirely free Black households appear for the first time in the 1810 census. In Westchester County, 10% of households had slaves. John's father, Jonathan Odell, then seventy-five years old, still held five slaves on his Greenburgh property. U.S. Census, 1810.

8. U.S. Census 1850, Agricultural Schedules.

9. Kruger, ch. 3.

10. Andrea C. Mosterman, Spaces of Enslavement: A History of Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York (Ithaca New York: Cornell University Press, 2021).

11. Sojourner Truth, Narrative of Sojourner Truth (Gildan Media Corporation, 2020).

12. In 1820, Greenburgh's population was 2,108, of whom 2,011 were white and 72 free Blacks and 25 enslaved (26% of Blacks, and 1% of the total town population). These 25 enslaved people consisted of 7 males and 6 females who were over 14 years and under 26 years old, 7 males and 3 females of 26 years and under 45 years, and 2 males of 45 years or older. In contrast to Greenburgh, where 74% of Blacks were freed by 1820, 89% of Westchester County Blacks were free that year, leaving 205 enslaved individuals county-wide. Most free Blacks lived in white households although three entirely free Black households appear in Greenburgh in the 1820 census. In Westchester County in 1820, 2.6% of households had slaves. U.S. Census, 1820, Kruger, ch. 3.

13. For a detailed review of the emancipation process in New York, see David N. Gelman, Emancipating New York: The Politics of Slavery and Freedom, 1777-1827 (2006); Kruger, Ch. 3. Also, Susan Stessin-Cohn, "Manumission Act of 1799," The Missing Chapter: Untold Stories of the African American Present in the Mid-Hudson Valley, Southeastern New York Library Resources Council, https://omeka.hrvh.org/exhibits/show/missing-chapter/manumission-act-of-1799.

14. Kruger, ch. 8, ft. 66; U.S. Census, 1800, 1810, 1820.

15. In 1830, Greenburgh's population was 2,201, of whom 88 (4%) were Black, none enslaved. In 1840, the population had risen to 3,361, of whom 108 (3%) were Black. U.S. Census, 1830, 1840. Nearly all Town of Greenburgh municipal records created prior to 1845 have disappeared.

16. U.S. Census, 1850, 1860.