THE SLAVES
FROM ULSTER COUNTY

Nicholas Dupui's general store ledger occasionally refers to area Negroes that were doubtless brought to the region by those settlers that had followed Dupui by emigrating from their former home in New York's Ulster County. 

Ulster County was an area known for its significant slave population.  As per the Ulster County historian, in 1746 "slaves numbered 1,100 with the white population at about 4,100."  The Ulster County Historical Society further notes that the practice of holding slaves was “almost universal, so that all persons of consequence were expected to be in possession of a greater or lesser number of slaves”.  Nicholas Dupui was certainly a man of consequence.

Tax records from the Rochester area commencing in 1711 mark family members as the wealthiest and also as the second wealthiest freeholders in the region.  As such, it can be expected that Dupui launched his 1727 Pennsylvania Indian trading post venture with the aid of a rather large coterie of slaves that assisted in the construction of his home, mill and plantation. 

Apparently, most of those slaves eventually ran away seeking refuge among the Shawnee, leaving Dupui with but two household slaves, Abraham and Thomas. 

Dupui's ledger also reveals that Daniel Brodhead was the owner of slaves, his account containing these entries:  May 1745: “To a pair of Stockins for your Negro John” and January 1762: “By Black John’s work settled.”

Other slaves were mentioned in the accounts of Benjamin Schoonmaker and Hugh Pugh (who reference "Harry's Negro," "my Negro Abraham," and "your Negro wench").