Timbuctoo, New York

[1] It was located in the vicinity of 44°13′N 73°59′W / 44.22°N 73.99°W / 44.22; -73.99, near today's Lake Placid village (which did not exist then), in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York.

The only thing remaining is the restored (to its 1859 state) house of its farming instructor John Brown, in whose barn a permanent exhibit on Timbuctoo is installed.

However, that farmhouse of the John Brown Farm State Historic Site had not yet been built; the rented house he and his family lived in was destroyed by fire in 1900.

What was supposed to have been a healthful escape from disease-ridden cities ended up being a great deal of hard work felling trees in a very cold climate.

In its Constitution of 1821, New York State enacted a law that required free black men (only) to own real estate worth at least $250 (equivalent to $8,478 in 2023) or a house in order to be able to vote.

It created rural land ownership and self-sufficiency for black people as an alternative to urban city life; gave black men access to the right to vote; and was an alternative response to the influx of Irish and white immigrants competing for urban employment.

[2][12][13][14][15] Rural life seemed a way to escape from slave catchers looking for fugitives, some of whom would kidnap and sell free blacks into slavery.

political aspect would be exhibited of a town in New York controlled by negro suffrages, and represented in the county Board by colored supervisors.

"[16] Frederick Douglass and Henry Highland Garnet worked with Smith to promote the land distribution and recruitment to the Adirondacks.

Some of the characteristics that those who wanted to live in Timbuctoo should possess included being completely sober, showing self-restraint, being responsible, and having good morals.

...The inhabitants replied that he was a fool, and that Mr. Smith, he (Lewis) and the blacks, ought to be banished to Africa, that if Smith and others would let the blacks alone that were here, they could starve them out, and the land would be settled by whites; that they would not live in a town surrounded by colored people, and if he (Lewis) surveyed the land, he would have to go armed, or he would get shot.

[8]: 137 In 1848, Gerrit Smith gave Willis Hodges, a free black man from Virginia, 200 acres to settle in the Loon Lake area with ten families.

To this end, they should quit the towns, in which they are wont to congregate, and where they are but servants, and should scatter themselves over the country in the capacity of farmers and mechanics.

The majority of the recipients of Smith's gifts were "not generally accustomed to farm labor", and "still less familliarized to clearing off heavy timber".

[32] Many were literate city folk, such as James Henderson, a shoemaker from Troy with five children, who got lost in the snow and froze to death.

[7] "They had none of the qualities of farmers," said an article in the Journal of Negro History, adding that they had been "disabled by infirmities and vices".

[32] Those setting out to live on the land Smith had given them found that the first task was to build themselves a "house", a one-room structure whose walls were logs the new resident had chopped down himself.

Due to Smith's principles that helped found the settlement, many of the white men backed Thomas and warned the bounty hunters that they would protect him at all cost.

A historical marker was placed at the corner of Old Military and Bear Cub roads in Lake Placid in June 2022 (see picture above).

Miller’s film Searching for Timbuctoo reveals the history of this community and follows SUNY-Potsdam archaeologist Dr. Hadley Kruczek-Aaron who, since 2009, has tried to unearth the elusive settlement.

Miller filmed Kruczek-Aaron and her team of students who have permission to break ground at the John Brown State Historic Site.Kruczek-Aaron did her doctoral dissertation on her public digs at the Gerrit Smith Estate in Peterboro.

Amy Godine, author, historian and noted expert on the Timbuctoo Black settlement, and Martha Swan, founder and executive director of John Brown Lives!, share historical background in the film.

District 20 Congressman Paul D. Tonko performs the voice of abolitionist Gerrit Smith in the film.

The festival is held at the historic John Brown Farm, and includes music and conversations around race relations.