Debra Bruno is the author of the new book A Hudson Valley Reckoning: Discovering the Forgotten History of Slaveholding in My Dutch American Family. Also a journalist, she lives in Washington, D.C.
Q: What inspired you to write A Hudson Valley Reckoning, and how much did you know about your family history before starting work on the book?
A: I was inspired to write the book because an historian friend of mine said to me, if you have Dutch ancestors in the Hudson Valley, they were probably enslavers. I didn’t believe her, so she told me to check it out.
All I knew of the Dutch side of my family before that time was that they were farmers and had lived in the Hudson Valley since the 1600s. Not only did I not know that New York State had had almost 200 years of slavery, I had no idea that my family would be so involved in it.
When I learned the truth, I knew that the most resonant thing I could do was to write about it, first in an article for the Washington Post Magazine (RIP) and now in this book.
Q: What do you think are some of the most common perceptions and misconceptions about the history of slaveholding in the Northern United States?
A: One of the most fascinating things I found in my research was how much Northerners feel separate from, and superior to, our country’s history of enslavement. We were supposed to be the good guys, the ones who had the Underground Railroad and who fought for the Union in the Civil War.
What many people do not realize is that before that time, the North had a system of slavery that was as long and cruel as slavery in the South. Enslavers in the North tended to have fewer numbers of slaves, but the stories I found proved that they were often treated cruelly and inhumanely.
Q: The writer Jonathan Eig called the book an “enthralling story and an important work of history, impressively researched and beautifully told.” What do you think of that description, and how did you research the book?
A: I was honored that Jonathan Eig, one of my role models in writing compelling history, offered read the book and give me an assessment. His book King, which won the Pulitzer Prize, took many of the supposedly well-known stories of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and told them in a new light.
My own research took me back as far as the 17th and 18th centuries, and of course that meant spending many hours in libraries, especially the Vedder Research Library, home of the Greene County (NY) Historical Society, poring over letters written during the American Revolution, sales records, newspaper advertisements, and oral histories.
Online, I also was lucky to be able to find ancient wills, census records, and genealogical books through Ancestry. It was often frustrating and time-consuming work because the enslaved were not given family names and often barely acknowledged.
Q: What impact did it have on you to write this book, and what do you hope readers take away from it?
A: Writing the book made me realize, more than I did before, how much of our country is founded in built-in inequities that linger today. It also made me believe even more fervently in the power of education. If we know our true history, we can grow as a country with a better perspective of equality and fairness.
This is not, as some pro-censorship folks have said, about feeling guilt. It’s about knowing our entire history.
I hope readers think about looking into their family histories, and what else we may not have been taught about the origins of our beautiful democracy.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Besides scheduling book talks and spending time with my two sweet grandchildren, I have started to think a bit about a new project. So many of my writer friends have come out with novels recently, and they seem to be having so much fun doing it. I have an idea for a ghost story that I’d like to try.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Um, register to vote! Make sure your voice counts! Off topic, I know, but that’s another topic that keeps me up at night.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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