The story of Uriah Boston’s life and its significance to Poughkeepsie shouldn’t be lost to history.
Frederick Douglass’s visit to Poughkeepsie and his famous “Emancipation Day” speech at College Hill on August 2, 1858, should be held in reverence.
Learning more about the historical interaction between these two men, their differences in opinion, and what they had in common, is something to delve into for a deeper understanding of our local history, and how we can gain wisdom from it.
Born in Pennsylvania in 1817, Uriah Boston was a well-known African American barber in Poughkeepsie. He started out as an apprentice to Jared Gray in the early 1840s. He went into business for himself in 1843. He plied his trade at various addresses in town, which included 4 Liberty Street, 12 Garden Street, and several Main Street locations (254, 286, 292, and 317). Uriah gained a large client base by providing many services to the public. It established him in a city with plenty of competition for hair stylists.
Advertisement from the Poughkeepsie Eagle 29 April 1844
Uriah was an active member in Poughkeepsie’s Moral Reform and Temperance Society. He was also nominated as Secretary of the Colored Citizens of Dutchess County during its convention at the Mill Street Temperance Hall in October of 1843.
Boston was an ardent and outspoken abolitionist who had helped his fellow citizen John Bolding, who had escaped slavery in South Carolina, in 1851. A federal marshal assaulted and detained Bolding in Poughkeepsie. Bolding was returned to South Carolina and back into slavery in large part due to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. With the aid of Uriah Boston and other prominent residents of Poughkeepsie, Bolding was able to regain his freedom and secured his safe return to Poughkeepsie.
Moral Reform Temperance Society; Poughkeepsie Journal 11 July 1846
Boston was a civic minded individual who had been accepted and embraced by his city’s community, though this acceptance was stilted by the parameters of the time, with its many social and cultural digressions for free black citizens in the pre-Civil War North.
In April of 1853, Boston reacted to an article written by Frederick Douglass the previous month, called “Make your Sons Mechanics and Farmers—not Waiters, Porters and Barbers.”
Article from The Frederick Douglass newspaper 18 March 1853
The article appeared in the Frederick Douglass Paper, published in Rochester, New York, which had a wide circulation from 1851 to 1863. In the article, Douglass claimed there was an over-reliance on service-related professions as a career for black professionals. He placed barbers in the category of degrading work, since white men wouldn’t get their hair cut in the same barbershop as a black man. Douglass also felt black barbers might have entrapped themselves in a false sense of economic security. He presented the “mechanical arts” and “high industry” (businesses that undertake large-scale projects), as a better route to “economic elevation and respectable citizenship.”
Boston countered that barbers constituted, “a very large class of businessmen among our people.” The occupation garnered economic success during a time when so many enslaved African Americans in the South had no rights at all. He also emphasized his disagreement that the barber profession was degrading for black professionals, nor were African American barbers servile, as Douglass also mentioned. He claimed they were as intelligent and respectable as any other businessmen in the city.
Quincy Mills, former Associate Professor of History at Vassar College, pointed out that, “…Douglass’s attitude about black barbers would undoubtedly have been more favorable if the barbers were taking black customers.” Many readers of his article agreed with Douglass. Mills continued: “…support of Douglass’s charge that in order to operate on equal footing with white citizens, black barbers, cooks, and waiters needed to stop serving them.”
Both sides of this argument made for a valid and important debate going forward into the remainder of the tumultuous 1850’s and beyond.
Uriah Boston Ad along with Civil War Recruitment Ad; Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle 15 Sep 1862
In 2021, a local organization, Celebrating the African Spirit (CAS), designed a summer program called “Hidden Histories” for Poughkeepsie High School students concentrating on the city’s history of enslaved Africans and their descendants. CAS emphasized stories that can arise from this history, especially ones that have gone unheard in the community as a whole.
The three week program immersed the students in a variety of historical presentations, exhibits, historical tours, and art workshops to help them create their own significant work.
Student and artist Mary Haddad created this poster that commemorates Uriah Boston, and utilizes the reply he’d sent to the Frederick Douglass Newspaper regarding his opinions on Douglass's prior article. Haddad mentioned that Douglass and Boston actually had a face to face meeting when Douglass came to Poughkeepsie for his “Emancipation Day” speech in 1858.
Haddad explains more about her striking work: “This letter surrounds Uriah's blurry, black-and-white portrait creating a mysterious and intriguing composition compelling the viewer to read every word.”
Further insights by Mary Haddad and other participants in the program can be found in this link: celebratingtheafricanspirit.org/activities/2021-youth-hidden-histories-summer-program .
Programs like this one enrich the lives of its participants’, both students and teachers, as well as bolstering the foundation of local history in Poughkeepsie. Our past is resonant and vital to our times. The histories resurrected through inventive works of art will help us learn more from it. They produce insights and discussions that are desperately needed for our present society.
For more information about the ongoing program, please visit this site: https://celebratingtheafricanspirit.org/summer-program .
You can also read archival issues of The Frederick Douglass Newspaper by visiting the Newspapers.com New York Collection, and The New York State Historic Newspaper Project. Both can be found on our website: https://poklib.org/learn/local-history-genealogy/newspaper-collections/
- “Poughkeepsie: A Local Path toward Racial Equality.” Dutchess County Historical Society; Created & Produced By © Bill Jeffway 2021. 4 Jan. 2024, storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/302c1a635a6849ecb1548ec54a9e326d.
- “Take Notice Gentlemen.” Com, The Poughkeepsie Journal & Eagle, 29 June 1844, newscomny.newspapers.com/image/115219911/?pqsid=gIbrwDZBnWNsVPfYNqjPQQ%3A26734%3A679670806.
- “In Pursuance of Public Notice...” NYS Historic Newspapers, Poughkeepsie Eagle, 21 Oct. 1843, nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=pge18431021-01.1.2&srpos=1&e=------184-en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22Uriah+Boston%22---------.
- Douglass, Frederick. “Make Your Sons Mechanics and Farmers—Not Waiters, Porters and Barbers.” NYS Historic Newspapers, Frederick Douglass Paper, 18 Mar. 1853, nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=fdp18530318-01.1.2&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN----------.
- Boston, Uriah. “Editorial.” NYS Historic Newspapers, Frederick Douglass Paper, 22 Apr. 1853, nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=fdp18530422-01.1.3&srpos=3&e=------185-en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22Uriah+Boston%22---------.
- Kosmacher, Jeffrey. “A Cutting Narrative.” A Cutting Narrative - Vassar, the Alumnae/i Quarterly, 2014, www.vassar.edu/vq/issues/2014/01/features/a-cutting-narrative.html.
- Mills, Quincy T. Cutting along the Color Line: Black Barbers and Barber Shops in America. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.
- “2021 Youth ‘Hidden Histories’ Summer Program.” Celebrating The African Spirit, 2021, celebratingtheafricanspirit.org/activities/2021-youth-hidden-histories-summer-program.
- Haddad, Mary. “Uriah Boston.” Celebrating The African Spirit, 2021, celebratingtheafricanspirit.org/activities/2021-youth-hidden-histories-summer-program.
- “Celebrating the African Spirit.” Org, 2024, celebratingtheafricanspirit.org/summer-program.