"the Society of Negroes Unsettled": A History of Slavery in New Paltz, NY‪.‬

THE FOUNDATION LAID: SOME BASIC ELEMENTS DEFINING SLAVERY IN NEW PALTZ The issue of slavery is a controversial one. Even today, communities are still grappling with the question of how to discuss the subject fairly without turning it into a political minefield. The subject is not a pleasant one, and is supercharged with the issues of forced labor, family separation, poverty, violence, racism, miscegenation, and rape. But the subject must be confronted if an accurate picture of early American society is to be formed. Indeed, the worst approach to history is the one that promotes silence. Thus, the main focus of this essay will be to bring the issue of slavery out in the open for discussion, examination, and in the end, one would hope, some degree of understanding and reconciliation.