An educational salute to a piece of New York State history has arrived in Queensbury for a two-week stay.
The Historical Society of the New York Courts, in collaboration with the New York State Court System, has brought a display to Warren County Courthouse detailing the Lemmon Case, a landmark 1852 New York State court case in the effort to end slavery.
The exhibit is intended to educate the public on the role of the New York courts in paving the way for the abolition of slavery. Through the facts of the case, we learn how the courts helped free eight enslaved young women and children who sailed into New York harbor with their owners from Virginia.
The New York courts’ ruling was in direct conflict with the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision of 1857, and it represented the most unyielding statement made against slavery by any court in the United States prior to the Civil War.
The exhibit will be on display at the Warren County Courthouse in Warren County Municipal Center, 1340 Route 9 in Queensbury, through Friday, March 24. There is no admission charge to view it.
You can learn more about the case here: https://history.nycourts.gov/the-lemmon-slave-case/.