The Adirondacks in Northern New York State can be a pretty tough place to live, in an

even tougher place to farm.

Dance forest, harsh winter, short growing seasons, there's a lot of obstacles.

Now, imagine how it was over 150 years ago.

The country is in knots over slavery and folks in the north are fighting over what rights

free African Americans should have.

Like in New York State, for example, African Americans only had the right to vote if they

own property.

Enter abolitionist Garrett Smith, whose father was one of the state's richest landowners.

As part of his inheritance, Garrett Smith owned over 120,000 acres of undeveloped land in

the Adirondacks.

He decided he divided into plots and grant them to a few thousand free African Americans.

And boom, they would become homeowners, thus able to vote and use that ability to help

end slavery.

Only thing is, these free African Americans didn't have experience farming, let alone

farming in Northern New York.

Around that same time, another, more famous abolitionist, John Brown enters the picture.

He heard about what Garrett Smith was doing and figured he might be able to help the African

Americans learn how to farm in the harsh Adirondacks.

John Brown had grown up in the Northeast and had experience working on farms in the cold

at climate.

So he reached out to Garrett Smith and bought one of those plots of land, thinking that

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