Slave Graves in Pioneer Cemetery
Slavery in Phelps
It will probably not come as a surprise to find out that Phelps is (and has been for the past 100 years or so) very white. According to towncharts.com, which draws its information from the US Census Bureau, Phelps has the smallest percentage of black citizens of any towns in the surrounding area. Phelps town is 96% white and Phelps village is 98.4% white. This, however, was not always the case in our history. I counted fifty-one slaves in Phelps during the first two decades of 19th century (from the database entitled “Uncovering the Underground Railroad, Abolitionism, and African American Life in Wayne County, New York, 1820-1880," Judith Wellman and Marjory Allen Perez, with Charles Lenhart and others). There were, of course, free black citizens as well.
Helen Post Ridley provides us with most of the information readily available about slaves and free people of color in Phelps during the Antebellum Period (late 18th century to the Civil War). While she did not have a great deal to say on the subject in her book When Phelps Was Young, it is still a good place to begin. Check her information on pages 26 to 32. The morality of slavery was certainly a subject of discussion in Phelps. Clearly, there were differing opinions about the morality of slavery. Helen said, The Abolitionist and Pro-slavery man (sic, men) defended their positions until war ensued and President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation put an end to the subject for all time. This is an overstatement by Helen. In fact, the Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in the Confederate States of America not the United States of America. Technical emancipation came to the whole country with the passage of Articles 13 and 14 of the United States Constitution.
But still, Helen, with or without documented opinions about the moral and legal dispute over slavery in Phelps, is undoubtedly right that there were expressed opinions. Hopefully, as we do more research about free black and enslaved residents of Phelps that part of our story will emerge.
Dr. Ronald R. Grube
January 2021
It will probably not come as a surprise to find out that Phelps is (and has been for the past 100 years or so) very white. According to towncharts.com, which draws its information from the US Census Bureau, Phelps has the smallest percentage of black citizens of any towns in the surrounding area. Phelps town is 96% white and Phelps village is 98.4% white. This, however, was not always the case in our history. I counted fifty-one slaves in Phelps during the first two decades of 19th century (from the database entitled “Uncovering the Underground Railroad, Abolitionism, and African American Life in Wayne County, New York, 1820-1880," Judith Wellman and Marjory Allen Perez, with Charles Lenhart and others). There were, of course, free black citizens as well.
Helen Post Ridley provides us with most of the information readily available about slaves and free people of color in Phelps during the Antebellum Period (late 18th century to the Civil War). While she did not have a great deal to say on the subject in her book When Phelps Was Young, it is still a good place to begin. Check her information on pages 26 to 32. The morality of slavery was certainly a subject of discussion in Phelps. Clearly, there were differing opinions about the morality of slavery. Helen said, The Abolitionist and Pro-slavery man (sic, men) defended their positions until war ensued and President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation put an end to the subject for all time. This is an overstatement by Helen. In fact, the Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in the Confederate States of America not the United States of America. Technical emancipation came to the whole country with the passage of Articles 13 and 14 of the United States Constitution.
But still, Helen, with or without documented opinions about the moral and legal dispute over slavery in Phelps, is undoubtedly right that there were expressed opinions. Hopefully, as we do more research about free black and enslaved residents of Phelps that part of our story will emerge.
Dr. Ronald R. Grube
January 2021
An article about one of our residents in the early part of the 19th century:
Hannah Riney
Looking through the Pioneer Cemetery for people of significance to the history of Phelps, I came across a name that jogged a memory from a book I’d read a few years ago. The stone read, “Hannah Riney, died April 3rd, 1849, aged 85 years.”
When I returned home, I opened my 1939 copy of When Phelps was Young, by Helen Ridley. In the chapter titled “Slavery in Phelps” Helen had written a few paragraphs about Hannah Riney. These paragraphs touched on Hannah’s life, but relayed a deeper story that was happening in Phelps and in the United States. Helen’s few lines betrayed what was accepted as a part of history that has been glossed over and forgotten by the overwhelmingly white community of Phelps.
Hannah was a slave, owned by Zebedee Beall. Zebedee and his brother, Archibald, had brought their slaves to Phelps from Maryland. Zebedee had taken Hannah and her four children away from her husband, her children’s father, to serve him on his farm in the northwest part of Phelps. Archibald settled on another farm near the Outlet, with his slaves.
To put this in an historical perspective, in 1788 New York State passed a law prohibiting the sale of slaves in the State. In 1799 the State law was that all children born to slave parents in New York were free. And finally, in 1827, came the end of slavery in New York State.
Around 1799, Hannah fell in love with, and married Joe Riney, a slave from Archibald’s farm. Hannah and Joe had a baby girl, Jane, who was born a free person because of the recent New York State law. In one sentence in Helen Ridley’s book, Helen states that Hannah’s husband was whipped to death. It is implied that the whipping was condoned because Joe Riney was a slave, Archibald Beall’s property. Nothing else is written to clarify this murder of Hannah’s husband. Imagine Hannah’s sorrow.
Zebedee Beall took Hannah’s four older children, Betsy, Isaac, Mary and Jake Hill, from her in Phelps, where they would have eventually become free. Zebedee owned Hannah’s children and saw them as “valuable property”. He could not take baby Jane, because she was a free person, due to the 1799 State law, and so left her with Hannah in Phelps on the Outlet farm. Hannah knew that her children were returning to Maryland where they would remain slaves, perhaps to be sold, perhaps to continue to be owned by Zebedee, a man so heartless that he thought nothing of taking them from their father and mother. I can not imagine the grief that Hannah must have felt.
A young man, Phillip, a slave owned by Archibald Beall was also feeling grief, as his wife, Hannah’s daughter Betsy, was taken from him. He had to remain in Phelps with his slave master. Helen Ridley implies that he was a fun loving, lively young person “full of song and merriment.” However, when his wife was taken from him, he turned to alcohol and became what Helen Ridley describes as “a poor, worthless creature.” Hannah Riley took Phillip, her son-in-law, in after all slaves in New York became free and cared for him until 1830, when he died “a broken man.”
Hannah died at 85, so when Helen Ridley wrote When Phelps was Young, she had known and talked to people who knew Hannah. Helen Ridley reflects what people said about Hannah by stating, “Her sorrows only seemed to instill in her heart a great love toward all who mourned.” Hannah was known as a person who helped others to bear their grief.
Hannah proved herself to be a kind woman who didn’t dwell on the pain or the bitterness she was justified to feel. She exemplifies the horrors and dehumanization suffered by those forced to endure slavery, even in the quiet community of Phelps. Hannah was an example of strength and goodness, a person in whom Phelps can feel pride. Reading about her trials and strength instilled in me a desire to know more of that history of Phelps which has been forgotten.
Rosa Grube, MA Education
August 2020
Looking through the Pioneer Cemetery for people of significance to the history of Phelps, I came across a name that jogged a memory from a book I’d read a few years ago. The stone read, “Hannah Riney, died April 3rd, 1849, aged 85 years.”
When I returned home, I opened my 1939 copy of When Phelps was Young, by Helen Ridley. In the chapter titled “Slavery in Phelps” Helen had written a few paragraphs about Hannah Riney. These paragraphs touched on Hannah’s life, but relayed a deeper story that was happening in Phelps and in the United States. Helen’s few lines betrayed what was accepted as a part of history that has been glossed over and forgotten by the overwhelmingly white community of Phelps.
Hannah was a slave, owned by Zebedee Beall. Zebedee and his brother, Archibald, had brought their slaves to Phelps from Maryland. Zebedee had taken Hannah and her four children away from her husband, her children’s father, to serve him on his farm in the northwest part of Phelps. Archibald settled on another farm near the Outlet, with his slaves.
To put this in an historical perspective, in 1788 New York State passed a law prohibiting the sale of slaves in the State. In 1799 the State law was that all children born to slave parents in New York were free. And finally, in 1827, came the end of slavery in New York State.
Around 1799, Hannah fell in love with, and married Joe Riney, a slave from Archibald’s farm. Hannah and Joe had a baby girl, Jane, who was born a free person because of the recent New York State law. In one sentence in Helen Ridley’s book, Helen states that Hannah’s husband was whipped to death. It is implied that the whipping was condoned because Joe Riney was a slave, Archibald Beall’s property. Nothing else is written to clarify this murder of Hannah’s husband. Imagine Hannah’s sorrow.
Zebedee Beall took Hannah’s four older children, Betsy, Isaac, Mary and Jake Hill, from her in Phelps, where they would have eventually become free. Zebedee owned Hannah’s children and saw them as “valuable property”. He could not take baby Jane, because she was a free person, due to the 1799 State law, and so left her with Hannah in Phelps on the Outlet farm. Hannah knew that her children were returning to Maryland where they would remain slaves, perhaps to be sold, perhaps to continue to be owned by Zebedee, a man so heartless that he thought nothing of taking them from their father and mother. I can not imagine the grief that Hannah must have felt.
A young man, Phillip, a slave owned by Archibald Beall was also feeling grief, as his wife, Hannah’s daughter Betsy, was taken from him. He had to remain in Phelps with his slave master. Helen Ridley implies that he was a fun loving, lively young person “full of song and merriment.” However, when his wife was taken from him, he turned to alcohol and became what Helen Ridley describes as “a poor, worthless creature.” Hannah Riley took Phillip, her son-in-law, in after all slaves in New York became free and cared for him until 1830, when he died “a broken man.”
Hannah died at 85, so when Helen Ridley wrote When Phelps was Young, she had known and talked to people who knew Hannah. Helen Ridley reflects what people said about Hannah by stating, “Her sorrows only seemed to instill in her heart a great love toward all who mourned.” Hannah was known as a person who helped others to bear their grief.
Hannah proved herself to be a kind woman who didn’t dwell on the pain or the bitterness she was justified to feel. She exemplifies the horrors and dehumanization suffered by those forced to endure slavery, even in the quiet community of Phelps. Hannah was an example of strength and goodness, a person in whom Phelps can feel pride. Reading about her trials and strength instilled in me a desire to know more of that history of Phelps which has been forgotten.
Rosa Grube, MA Education
August 2020
“Hannah Riney, died April 3rd, 1849, aged 85 years.”
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Hannah’s grave is in the southwest corner of the Pioneer Cemetery.
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Hannah’s son-in-law, Phillip, is buried in the weeds to the right of her grave.
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