William McClaughry

William McClaughry was one of three former slaves who became upstate land barons during the post-American Revolutionary War period, when most Blacks were still enslaved.

Most formerly enslaved people were doomed to a life of abject poverty. Land ownership in those days, even in New York, was a privilege enjoyed only by a few wealthy whites.

However, according to three historians who researched the topic, formerly enslaved William Thomas and John McClaughry acquired large real estate holdings-almost 500 acres of fertile farmland in Walkill, Orange County, New York-in a series of wise transactions that won the respect and admiration of their White neighbors.

The McClaughrys called their land "Guinea", which in their native language means "Africa".

Black historian D. Kevin Barrett Bilali of nearby Newburgh, New York, who conducted a year-long research of Orange County archives for information about the McClaughry family, notes, however, that the three Black McClaughrys had some unexpected help.

It came from their enslaver, James McClaughry, a popular resident and an officer in the Continental Army. Bilali says McClaughry granted them their freedom. A team of early 1900 historical writers in Orange County, Ruttenver and Clark, reached the same conclusion.1

Probably none of it would have occurred if McClaughry had not been wounded and captured during a battle in 1777 with British and Hessian forces near Fort Montgomery, New York. McClaughry spent the rest of the war in a British prison in New York City. Prison life changed McClaughry's attitude about slavery, according to Ruttenber and Clark.

Most prisoners were soon exchanged, or paroled, but McClaughry was not and suffered sufficiently to deepen and broaden his hatred for the English, they wrote. In other words, the British treated McClaughry as if he was enslaved.

As a result of his maltreatment, he freed all his enslaved Negros except two females, the Ruttenber and Clark report continues. The two females were retained for his wife. In addition to freedom, McClaughry gave them (the formerly enslaved people) oxen, farming implements, etc., and from 180 to 200 pounds each. Two of the enslaved men bore the names Thomas and William McClaughry. The name was kept by several "Colored" families in the district. They were considered the better class, generally thrifty and well-to-do.

The formerly enslaved people used the money to purchase the land.

Bilali's research revealed that McClaughry was married twice. His first wife was Catherine Clinton, daughter of Charles Clinton and sister of George Clinton, New York State's first governor. She died in 1762. McClaughry married Agnes Humphrey a year later. He had no children.

None of the uncovered records tell whether the three Black McClaughrys were related. They could have been brothers, cousins, or not related at all. But they took the name of their enslaver and put the gifts they received from him to good use.

Research has uncovered an entirely different story. Bilali wrote about his findings in a press release. There was more to the brief account written by the White historians of the time.

Bilali's research quickly became more of a passion for the real story than a mere history project, taking him to many libraries and county archives.