Author | Lightnews

APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

but signaling the distinctive nature of their people. This original understanding will be brought out time and time again, here we have reference to the maintenance of such ideals on the eve of the American Revolution.

APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

This original 1613 agreement signed with the Dutch, laid out the Iroquois League’s vision for their relations with the Europeans. It depicted two parallel lines of purple wampum separated by a white band, which symbolized the common waters everyone used,

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APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

This is wild because the letter not only proves the enslaved were entrusted with delicate diplomatic missions, but also highlights the continued maintenance of the “Two Row Wampum Covenant Chain.”

APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

From the Schuyler Historic Mansion in Albany: We're back with some more personal details about some of the people enslaved by the Schyulers. This one comes to us via a 1775 letter written by Dr. Samuel Stringer, doctor to and friend of the Schuylers.

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APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

This letter gives us a glimpse into an important trip Stephen and Peter took, and the knowledge that they played a role in an important diplomatic mission.

APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

The bringing of the “antient belts of Aliance” to the Six Nations would have been a major signifier from the colonial settlement of Albany that peace and communication were desired.

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APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

The two men mentioned in the letter, Stephen and Peter, were enslaved by the Schuylers. They had been sent to German Flatts carrying what was most likely wampum belts, which were essential in establishing continuing relations between the colonists and the Six Nations.

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APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

In Dr. Stringer’s letter, he mentioned that “by some of [illegible] Schuyler Family, of whom we got long Stephen and Peter [illegible], and sent by them to antient belts of Aliance as tokens of the Old Covenants…”

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APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

The letter discusses the present state of affairs with the Six Nations, who had recently visited Albany as part of a peace negotiation.

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APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

From the Schuyler Historic Mansion in Albany: We're back with some more personal details about some of the people enslaved by the Schyulers. This one comes to us via a 1775 letter written by Dr. Samuel Stringer, doctor to and friend of the Schuylers.

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APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

Now the drummers are dead too, but sometimes they come back to the places where their villages were and beat their drums again, and sing the death songs for the Senecas killed by the cruel white army.”

—Carl Carmer, Listen for a Lonesome Drum

APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

They destroyed our villages, they burned our granaries filled with harvest, they killed our women and children. When they had gone, the Seneca who were left, starving and homeless, beat on their water drums and sang their death songs.

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APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

But many of the tribe joined with the English armies in fighting against the white man who had taken their land from them. And so, towards the end of the war, the American Congress sent a revenging army against the Seneca and the other Iroquois nations.

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APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

Perhaps Chief Jesse Cornplanter of the Seneca Nation was right when he told me, ‘The New York State drums are the death drums of my people. When the British fought the colonies, my forefather, Chief Cornplanter, was a friend of General Washington.

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APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

but none have given an explanation any more reasonable than that offered by an old fisherman who said, ‘It’s the sound of drums beneath the water.’

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APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

I have heard the professors of universities and colleges in the region speculate learnedly on the causes that underlie the Guns of Cayuga,

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APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

but there are a few upstate farmers who have not, at some time or another, heard that faraway tattoo. Among the Finger Lakes to the west, the sound is greater still, so loud, in fact, that it is sometimes mistaken for firearms.

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APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

The little winds that wander the labyrinth of New York State valleys sometimes bring with them, however, a sound that is not a voice. It is the beat of a drum. The roar of the cities overwhelms it,

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APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

And so it happens that in almost every little land today, people tell the story of someone who saw visions few may see, a voice meant only for pointed ears.

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APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

they would raise their eyes to the earthen walls of their cleared lands and find spiritual release above them in those starry reaches where men have often fancied the gods walked.

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APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

the Onondaga kept their sacred fires, interpreting to the Iroquois nations the message of the Creator and those of the warrior who found paradise at the end of the right fork of the Milky Way. And when the Indians had been exiled by the white pioneers,

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APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 7h

“New York is a land of near horizons, lifting high-angled screens between its folded valleys. Its days are full of clouds that drift over green summits and cast effervescent figures on tilted fields, of sunny elms inexorably darkened by the march of shadow from straight-edged slopes. In these halls,

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APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 8h

We are the stewards of this great house, and now, in partnership with New York State, we are working together to preserve and share the incredible stories contained within these walls.

APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 8h

The Friends of Philipse Manor Hall saved America’s first Georgian Mansion from destruction in 1996, helping to stabilize the House and launching a 30 year campaign to turn this site into one of America’s premier early Colonial Museums.

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APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 8h

Front- “Declaring Dependence since 76,” maybe with a small version of the actual document or possibly the united empire loyalists banner.

Back- “Loyalty Runs Deep in this House,” with Friends Logo & small text underneath marking our 30 anniversary!

APTeacher1754 @nyqcpodcast1754.bsky.social · 8h

Ok I’m trying to design an apparel logo for the FPMH for the 250th year, I wanted to see what folks thought of the following rough sketch:

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