Dr. Justin Behrend Explores Slavery in Western New York

It’s something you associate with rich people and the South, not pioneers and Western New York. Chances are you never learned about it in school. What is it? Click the link below for this week’s episode of The State of Greater Western New York Report to about the latest research on the subject from a SUNY Geneseo professor.

How did Dr. Justin Behrend, born in Los Angeles, end up teaching history at SUNY Geneseo? And what led him to concentrate on slavery as a subject? The author/historian reveals all in the first half of the show, including what made him shift his focus from the South to the Greater Western New York Region.

After the break, Dr. Behrend talks about a new exhibit opening at the Livingston County History Museum that features the subject of slaves in Western New York. The highlight of the exhibit is an interactive digital journal of the Livingston County Anti-Slavery Society. He also adds more detail on Austin Steward and his autobiography Twenty-Two Years a Slave, Forty Years a Freeman as well as touching on the Underground Railroad.

Our guest happily answered questions from the live audience. In fact, these are probably some of the same questions you had. Would you like to be a live audience member so you can ask our guests questions? Click here to join the growing number of members who share your feelings on StateOf.GreaterWesternNewYork.com because then we can automatically send you the link to watch our shows live.

Theme music by “mansardian” courtesy of FreeSound.org under Creative Commons License Attribution 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/