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He was born in 1761 or 1762 in Weathersfield, Conn., to Benoni Latimor \u2014 who was freed from slavery in about 1748 \u2014 and Mary Freeborn, both described as \u201cmulatto\u201d in marriage records. They lived in Newburgh, where his father operated Lattimore\u2019s Ferry across the Hudson River. (Name spellings vary in the records.)<\/p>\n
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In September 1776, Lattimore, described later in his life as \u201ctall, thin and spare, with a light complexion and hazel eyes,\u201d enlisted in the 3rd New York New Regiment of the Continental Army. Within days, his company was in New York City fighting with George Washington in the lost battle for Manhattan. They retreated from Manhattan by ferry and were reorganized into the 5th New York Regiment, assigned to the Highlands at Fort Montgomery.<\/p>\n
The British captured the fort and Lattimore was taken to New York City as a house slave. Soon after, he was rescued by American forces, rejoined the Continental Army and fought in the Battle of New Town in 1779. He was discharged on Aug. 24 that year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After the war, he owned a farm in Poughkeepsie, where he and his first wife, whose name is not known and who died sometime thereafter, had a son, Benjamin Jr., born in 1792.<\/p>\n
By the late 1790s, Lattimore and his son were living in Albany. He joined and was baptized in the integrated Presbyterian church, remarried a former enslaved woman named Dina in 1804 and had three more children. He owned property near what is now South Pearl and State streets. And he became a licensed cartman.<\/p>\n
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Despite the humble title, that was a significant job. According to the Friends of Albany History, \u201cThe role of cartmen was critical to commerce and the life of the city. They were the only individuals permitted to move goods through the streets. Everyone, Black and white, knew the cartmen.\u201d<\/p>\n
A responsible, honest cartman, according to the Friends, was \u201cwell-known and well-respected by both the Black and white community.\u201d<\/p>\n
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A bill paid to Benjamin Lattimore for work done in 1811.<\/p>\n
Albany County Hall of Records Archival Collection<\/p>\n
The Albany African Society<\/p>\n
Lattimore\u2019s family was one of 50 to 60 comprising an emerging free Black middle class in Albany. The leaders of this community, including Lattimore, established the Albany African Society circa 1807-1811. It was modeled on the New York City African Society for Mutual Relief, founded in 1806, to collect money to help fund burial costs and aid widows and children, according to the Friends of Albany History.<\/p>\n
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But it had more ambitious goals, too, including building an \u201cAfrican school and an African church,\u201d according to the Friends.<\/p>\n
Lattimore, now about 50, bought property from none other than Eliza Hamilton, Alexander\u2019s recent widow, on Malcolm Street, now Broad Street. The Society then built and opened the first known school and church for African Americans in Albany. It cost $915, and while some of the funding came from the trustees and other Society members, \u201can astonishing 86% had been contributed by the citizens of Albany,\u201d most of whom were white, according to the Friends.<\/p>\n
That was remarkable, especially \u201cfrom a city in which there were probably 200 individuals still enslaved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrews believes that Lattimore\u2019s position as a cartman was critical for this.<\/p>\n
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\u201cHe was vetted, he was trustworthy. He knew everybody because he worked for everybody,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t think of him as a Black community leader; I think of him as a community leader who happened to be Black.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, when Lattimore\u2019s status as a freeman was questioned, in 1820, an attorney testified that he had known Lattimore for many years and that he was \u201ca free man (of) irreproachable character for integrity and uprightness.\u201d The judge declared him free.<\/p>\n
The School for People of Color opened in 1813. It was also used for church services of the Albany African Church. The school was incorporated by the state Legislature in 1816, with Lattimore named as one of the trustees.<\/p>\n
\u2018The people that built America\u2019<\/p>\n
Lattimore died on April 28, 1838. His legacy was largely forgotten.<\/p>\n
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\u201cA lot of Albany history has been just left in the past. The city doesn\u2019t do a good job promoting its history,\u201d Andrews said.<\/p>\n
Forgotten, that is, until the DAR got involved. Though they never found a gravestone, they approached the Pomeroy Foundation for a New York State Historic Marker grant. Last October, the marker was dedicated at Giffen Elementary School. The site of the original school was on Malcolm Street, now 90-92 Broad St., two blocks from\u00a0Schuyler Mansion and two blocks from Giffen School.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seemed fitting the marker should be placed at a current school,\u201d Newkirk said. Andrews added, \u201cThose were streets he would have walked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newkirk, who chairs the Mohawk DAR chapter\u2019s America 250 committee, said the organization is \u201cvery interested in recognizing patriots of color who are underrepresented in our patriot history.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Lattimore \u201cwas a remarkable man for his age, an illiterate Black man who probably came to Albany with almost nothing and became well respected as a cartman and a leader in his community,\u201d she added. \u201cThose are the people who built America. And 250 years later, we get to meet his descendants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Four of those descendants, siblings who are Lattimore\u2019s fifth-great-grandchildren on their mother\u2019s side, came to Albany from downstate to participate in the marker dedication. They had worked closely with the DAR committee to add to what they already knew about Lattimore.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was such a tribute, because so many people do not know that Black Americans fought on the side of the colonists in the Revolutionary War,\u201d Stacey Rose, one of the attendees, said. \u201cBenjamin was just the tip of the iceberg. There have to be so many more, but the families don\u2019t know.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Her 18th-century family \u201cknew freedom before the war; they knew from the experience of their father that they could be set free,\u201d Rose added. \u201cBut Benjamin wanted us all to taste freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benjamin Lattimore\u2019s descendants at the historic marker celebrating him. From left, Terry Jackson, JoAnn Ellis, Stacy Rose and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[30394,35603,881,611,40675,844,9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-189375","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-alco","9":"tag-black-history","10":"tag-history","11":"tag-hvexp","12":"tag-hvhistory","13":"tag-latestnews","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-news","17":"tag-new-york-state","18":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","19":"tag-new-york-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}