Sodus, near Rochester in Western New York, honored early African American Abolitionist Austin Steward with a historical marker near where he was brought to New York as a slave. The marker was dedicated on August 22, 2022 at the Jim Thomas Farm on Ridge Road. Austin Steward was born in 1793 in Virginia. When he was an eight year old boy he was brought to the Finger Lakes Region of New York by his enslaver William Helm. In 1814, Steward was able to escape to freedom by Quaker Abolitionist Otis Comstock. Steward was soon able to establish a store in what would become Rochester. When slavery was outlawed in New York in 1827, Steward was selected to deliver the emancipation speech in Rochester on July 5, 1827.
Thereafter, Steward was an active advocate for ending slavery. In 1831 he moved to Canada to help escaped slaves there establish lives as free people. In 1837 he returned to Rochester, where he resumed a leading position among Black Abolitionists in Upstate New York.
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