About this Event
Meet Debra Bruno, author of A Hudson Valley Reckoning which tells the long-ignored story of slavery's history in upstate New York through Debra Bruno's absorbing chronicle, uncovering her Dutch ancestors' slave-holding past and leading to a deep connection with the descendants of the enslaved people her family owned.
Bruno, who grew up in New York's Hudson Valley knowing little about her Dutch heritage, was shaken when a historian told her that her Dutch ancestors were almost certainly slaveholders. The more she expanded her family tree, the more enslavers she found. Bruno reached out to Black Americans tracing their own ancestry, and by serendipitous luck became friends with Eleanor Mire, a descendent of a woman enslaved by Bruno's Dutch ancestors.
A Hudson Valley Reckoning recounts Bruno's journey into the nearly forgotten history of Northern slavery and of the thousands of enslaved people brought in chains to Manhattan and the Hudson Valley. With the help of Mire, who provides a moving epilogue, Debra Bruno tells the story of white and Black lives impacted by the stain of slavery and its long legacy of racism.
Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian Jonathan Eig, author of King, said of the book, "An enthralling story and an important work of history, impressively researched and beautifully told. In reckoning with her own family's history, Debra Bruno helps us better understand ourselves."
Copies of A Hudson Valley Reckoning will be available for purchase during the event and a portion of the sales will support the Ten Broeck Mansion. Donations to support the Ten Broeck Mansion's archives preservation and transcription gratefully appreciated.
1:30 pm: Doors open. Visitors can enjoy a talk and special exhibit by ACHA staff about the c. 1850 Van Allen family register, a historic manuscript containing an first-person account of Dutch families and enslaved individuals.
2 pm: Presentation, reading & facilitated Q&A from audience. Book signing and refreshments/reception on the Ten Broeck Mansion porch to follow. Event concludes at 3 pm.
Space is limited, please cancel your registration if you are not able to attend so that others may.
Parking: please use GPS address 136 Livingston, Albany, for free off-street parking.
About the Author:
Debra Bruno is a lifelong journalist whose articles regularly appear in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Washingtonian Magazine, the Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Lawyer, and many other publications. She previously worked as an editor and reporter at Roll Call, Legal Times, and Moment Magazine. With her husband Bob Davis, formerly of the Wall Street Journal, she wrote Beijing A to Z: An Expat Couple’s Adventures in China, published by the Wall Street Journal as an e-book in 2014. Her article on her hunt for her Dutch slave-owning ancestors, “History Lessons,” appeared in the Washington Post Magazine July 26, 2020. The article received 100,000 unique page views, more than 800 comments, and attention from NPR, filmmakers, and podcasters.
Learn more about Debra Bruno: https://www.debrabruno.com/
Image captions: book cover, A Hudson Valley Reckoning (detail), author Debra Bruno, courtesy Cornell University Press. Below: Van Allen Family Register, Funeral Account in Dutch, c. 1780 [manuscript will be on special exhibit as part of program]. Van Allen Family Papers, ACHA Collections.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Albany County Historical Association, 9 Ten Broeck Place, Albany, United States
USD 0.00
