A newspaper article from July 1884 of the Dedication of the Nathaniel Sylvester Monument at the Quaker Cemetery at Sylvester Manor. + etching of Julia from 1887 Magazine of American History with incorrect caption
Maya
In November 1887, The Magazine of American History published a long essay titled “The Manor of Shelter Island.” In this detailed account, writer Martha J. Lamb explores the “remarkably interesting and romantic history” of the island for over two centuries, highlighting the Sylvester family, the island’s proprietors, and the development of their estate. The significance of the Manor to the island's historical narrative also offers a glimpse into an often overlooked story - that of its black residents. While acknowledging the existence of enslaved people on Shelter Island over the years, Lamb gives it minimal attention. She briefly notes that “during the period immediately prior to the Revolution, there were less than two hundred negro slaves on the island. They gradually dwindled away, but many of their descendants remain, and are, as a rule, industrious and respected.” Juxtaposed with this paragraph is a black-and-white engraving of an aging black woman, accompanied by the caption: “One of the last slaves on the Sylvester Manor.” This caption erases not only her name, but her biography as well, which at this point was already publicly known. The woman in the engraving is Julia Dyd Havens Johnson, who was not one of the last slaves of the Manor—she was never enslaved at all. Born on the island as a free person to an enslaved woman, Julia was indeed considered “industrious and respected” by Sylvester’s descendants, almost as one of their own.
In fact, a July 1884 article in The Sun covering the dedication of the Nathaniel Sylvester Monument at the Quaker Cemetery revealed a moving moment: Professor Eben Horsford, who led the ceremony, asked Sylvester’s descendants to rise. Suspicion arose regarding the relationship of the people who rose to the original owner, except for one—Julia. Acknowledged as a descendant of Sylvester’s “colored servant,” Julia was praised as a “faithful friend and servant of Mr. Horsford,” earning a round of applause from the crowd.
How can we explain this inconsistency—the gap between profound recognition and blatant erasure? Perhaps it reflects Julia’s own duality: bi-racial, born free but marked by enslavement, a respected figure in the community yet not fully equal to her peers. This in-betweenness, in which Julia appears as a present-absent figure, mirrors the experience of black people in her time and place.