Enslavement & Freedom in the Genesee Valley
Program Goals
The Seeking Freedom initiative is centered around four buildings in the Historic Village:
- Towar Land Office
- Quaker Meeting House
- Livingston-Backus House
- Nathaniel Rochester House
At the conclusion of this three-year project (2027), each building will:
- Display interpretive panels telling the story of its historical relation to slavery in New York State
- Host non-costumed interpreters for engagement and questions
- Be included in a walking tour, to be led daily
- Have an updated audio tour available both onsite and online
- Include educational opportunities for K-12 students in line with New York State Curriculum Standards
Walking Tour
The Toward Freedom & Fairness walking tour is a guided 45-minute – one hour tour led by GCV&M staff.
Beginning at the Tollhouse and visiting the Towar Land Office, Quaker Meeting House, Livingston-Backus House, and Nathaniel Rochester House, guests will:
- Expand learning about enslavement and freedom beyond Frederick Douglass.
- Interact with the stories of real individuals in Western New York using primary source accounts, building an understanding of how we learn and know about the past, and engage in critical thinking related to history.
- Make connections between the past and the present and forge personal connections to the stories that we share.
- Become familiar with the current terminology and language used to talk about enslavement in the United States.
- Consider the connection between enslavement in the 19th-century and our lives today.
Towar Land Office
Originally located in the town of Lyons in Wayne County, this building was used by Henry Towar, a land agent who sold small parcels of land to farmers colonizing the Genesee Country.
In 1805, Tower visited Captain William Helm to inquire about renting enslaved labor to develop the village of Alloway along the Canandaigua Outlet. Helm had forcibly brought over 100 enslaved people to New York from Virginia after selling his plantation to pay off gambling debts and escape his tarnished reputation.
Austin Steward was one of Helm’s enslaved men. Towar rented Steward’s labor from Helm in 1805; Steward remained in Towar’s employ for 7 years, until 1812. After returning to Helm, Steward courageously freed himself with the help of Darius and Otis Comstock, started a successful business, led the Wilberforce Colony in present-day Ontario, and authored Twenty-two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman.
Quaker Meeting House
The Quakers started arriving in the Genesee Valley around 1803, and by 1816 they had established the Farmington Quakers, one of the most prominent groups in the Genesee Valley. This location, the 1816 Farmington Meeting House, is preserved as a museum which you can still visit today.
Isaac and Amy Post and other prominent Quakers in the mid-19th-century worked alongside Black and white abolitionists toward freedom and fairness for all people in Western New York. The Quakers, or “Friends,” were not all of one mind, but many participated in the Underground Railroad and supported Frederick Douglass, Austin Steward, Harriet Jacobs, Sojourner Trouth, and others.
Genesee Country Village & Museum’s Quaker Meeting House was originally in Wheatland, NY, about four miles from the Museum. It was active from the time it was built in 1854 until 1873.
Livingston-Backus House
Built in 1827, the year the Gradual Emancipation Act freed all enslaved and indentured people in New York State, the Livingston-Backus House tells the story of three prominent Rochester families and their views on slavery and abolition: the Backuses, the Fitzhughs, and the Smiths.
The house was originally located in the Corn Hill neighborhood of Rochester, not far from Frederick Douglass’ printing press and the site of Harriet Jacobs’s Anti-Slavery Reading Room.
While living in this house, Rebecca Backus, wife of Frederick Backus and the daughter of William Fitzhugh, an enslaver, and her brother-in-law, Gerrit Smith, an abolitionist, exchanged letters about slavery, freedom, and the recent publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s now problematic novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Nathaniel Rochester House
In 1810, Col. Nathaniel Rochester left his comfortable circumstances in Hagerstown, MD, to move north to this house on 155 acres in Dansville, which he had bought on his first trip to the Genesee Country in September 1800.
At least ten of the people who accompanied Nathaniel Rochester on this journey were individuals he enslaved. Rochester was a businessman, soldier, and politician who profited from the labor and sale of enslaved people for most of his life, and for as long as it was legal in New York.
Little is known about the majority of the people that Rochester enslaved throughout his lifetime. Two enslaved children who lived in this house were a 16-year-old boy named Benjamin, and a 14-year-old girl named Casandra. In 1811, Rochester manumitted – or freed – them, but further indentured Casandra until she was 18 years old. During this time, Casandra was not paid, but Rochester received financial support from the state. It is unknown what happened to Benjamin after he was freed.
The Toward Freedom & Fairness tour, as well as exhibit material in each of the listed buildings, is made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute for Museum and Library Services, and the Friends & Foundation of the Rochester Public Library. Any views, findings, or recommendations expressed in this exhibit do not necessarily represent those of these funders.