About Rokeby

There`s still time to join Rokeby Museum`s Winter Book Club! Our next discussion will take place this Tuesday, 3/17, at 6:00 pm on Zoom. Registration is quick and easy. Simply go to https://rokeby.org/event/2026-virtual-winter-book-discussion-group/ and fill out your name, email, and the discussions you are interested in attending.

Our March book is "The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery" by NY Times bestselling author Siddharth Kara. Kara dives into the chilling yet true story of the "Zorg," a Dutch slave ship that in late October 1780 chose to throw one hundred enslaved individuals overboard to save supplies. The resulting legal battle over insurance payments led to concepts such as human rights and morality entering the discourse on slavery for the first time. The Zorg case brought the horrors of slavery to the attention of England, sparking the growth of the abolition movement.

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Rokeby Museum`s Conversations in History series continues Sunday, March 29th, with featured speaker and professor of constitutional law, Meg Mott, Ph.D! Join us from 3:00pm - 4:30pm for "A Dramatic Constitution," a discussion on the merits of the highest law in the land. Lavishly praised and sharply criticized since its inception, activists have long argued whether our founding document hinders or enables social progress. This interactive presentation invites attendees to consider both arguments and offers a third, an opportunity to develop new habits of political engagement.

Admittance to this event is free. Rokeby Museum will be open from 10:00am - 5:00pm on March 29th. "A Dramatic Constitution" is a Vermont Humanities Council program hosted by Rokeby Museum.

About Meg Mott, Ph.D.:
After twenty years of teaching political theory and constitutional law to Marlboro College undergraduates, Meg Mott has taken her love of argument to the general public. Her award-winning series Debating Our Rights on the first ten amendments brings civil discussions on contemporary issues to public libraries and colleges.

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Rokeby Museum continues our series on Rowland E. Robinson (1833-1900) with a fitting excerpt from his 1896 work, "In New England Field and Woods."

MARCH DAYS
“Back and forth across the land, in swift and sudden alternation, the March winds toss days of bitter cold and days of genial warmth, now out of the eternal winter of the north, now from the endless summer of the tropics.
Repeated thawing and freezing has given the snow a coarse grain. It is like a mass of fine hailstones and with no hint of the soft and feathery flakes that wavered down like white blossoms shed from the unseen bloom of some far-off upper world and that silently transformed the unseemliness of the black and tawny earth into the beauty of immaculate purity...

…The woods are astir with more life than a month ago. The squirrels are busy and noisy, the chickadees throng about you, sometimes singing their sweet brief song of three notes; the nuthatches pipe their tiny trumpets in full orchestra, and the jays are clamoring their ordinary familiar cries with occasional notes that you do not often hear…

…Warmer shines the sun and warmer blows the wind from southern seas and southern lands. More and more the tawny earth comes in sight among puddles of melted snow, which bring the mirrored sky and its fleecy flocks of clouds, with treetops turned topsy-turvy, down into the bounds of fields…

…Down from the sky, whose livery he wears and whose song he sings, comes the heavenly carol of the bluebird; the song sparrow trills his cheery melody; the first robin is announced to-day, and we cry, "Lo, spring has come." But to-morrow may come winter and longer waiting.”

- “March Days”, In New England Fields and Woods, 5 - 12

Read the essay in full here: https://rokeby.org/march/

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Rokeby Museum is celebrating International Women`s Day by honoring Rachel Gilpin Robinson (1799 - 1862). Often overshadowed in official records by her husband, Rowland T. Robinson, Rachel was an active participant in the abolition movement.

In the 1820s and 1830s, Rachel served as clerk of the Women`s Meeting in Ferrisburgh, VT. Her signature can be found on joint anti-slavery petitions to Congress. Dissatisfied with the New York Yearly Meeting`s refusal to commit to abolition, Rachel and Rowland withdrew from the Society of Friends in the 1840s.

Rachel`s activism is difficult to separate from her husband`s. We know Rachel worked in tandem with Rowland. In some areas, Rachel`s gender gave her special authority, such as ensuring that no goods made with enslaved labor crossed her threshold.

No less than William Lloyd Garrison praised Rachel for her commitment to this boycott, declaring, "Not a particle of the productions of slave labor, whether it be rice, sugar, coffee, cotton, molasses, tobacco or flour, is used in her family." He also praised her writing for its "tender, yet decisive spirit" and "high degree of consciousness."

Rachel passed away in 1862, not living long enough to witness the fulfillment of abolition. Nevertheless, Rachel touched the hearts of many and helped create a safe refuge at Rokeby for abolitionists and freedom seekers alike.

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On this day in 1857, the United States Supreme Court handed down their infamous decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, ruling that people of African descent were not included as citizens under the Constitution. This denied the enslaved the right to sue for their liberty, overturned the Missouri Compromise, and inflamed tensions across the nation. It is recognized as the worst decision in the Court`s history, poorly reasoned and motivated by overt racism.

Today, Rokeby Museum takes a moment to recognize the injustice of the ruling and honor the life of its plaintiffs. Born into enslavement, Dred Scott and his wife Harriet Robinson Scott sued for their family`s freedom in 1846. Since their enslaver had voluntarily leased them out in the free territory of Wisconsin several years prior, they argued that, by virtue of that territory`s laws, they were free. Though they won the initial case, subsequent appeals extended the legal battle for years.

Despite the disastrous ruling, the family was deeded to Republican Congressman Taylor Blow, who manumitted them on May 26, 1857. Sadly, Scott`s life was cut short as he passed away from tuberculosis only a year after his gaining his freedom. For the next 20 years, Harriet Scott lived a quiet life in St. Louis, witnessing the Civil War and Reconstruction. Passing in 1876, she lived long enough to see the ratification of the postwar amendments that overturned the Dred Scott decision.

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Rokeby Museum is seeking volunteer guides for its 2026 season! Guides are needed for public and educational tours.

Public tour guides lead visitors through our historic house and grounds, introducing them to four generations of the Robinson family. Tours run twice daily, Wednesday to Monday, mid-May through mid-October.

Education guides work with the Education Programs Manager to deliver specialized tours of the museum to school groups (Elementary, Middle, and High School). Education tours are held on request, Monday to Friday, mid-April through mid-November.

Interested? Visit https://rokeby.org/volunteer-at-rokeby-museum/

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