Location
Abolitionist Place
227 Duffield Street
Healing Medicine Grows Wild Here
Mugwort—the wild one. Stretching across the fields, bringing
restful dreams to the young and the anxious, easing and
regulating the cyclical pain of childbearing years.
Loving Memories Remain Here
Mama Joy Chatel breathed life into the abolitionist legacy of Harriet and Thomas Truesdell.
Mama Joy was a living library, preserving and passing on stories about the rich history of abolitionism throughout Downtown Brooklyn.
We remember Mama Joy Chatel, lift her name and celebrate her work.
FOUNDING FREEDOM
Downtown Brooklyn was once a hub for African American liberation by way of an advanced Underground Railroad network of homes, including the Truesdell home at 227 Duffield. The Underground Railroad was not a railroad but a system of hidden spaces such as basements and tunnels. Conductors were everyday people who collaborated to move people seeking freedom from one stop to another. Downtown Brooklyn’s Underground Railroad was a multi-racial, economically-diverse network of individuals, families, congregations, and local business owners working to receive, host, and transport enslaved individuals from New York’s waterways and ports to destinations across the boroughs and the state. Thomas and Harriet Truesdell moved into 227 Duffield in 1850, joining the network of abolitionists and Underground Railroad conductors in Brooklyn.
We know the names and legacy of the Truesdells because of the work of Mama Joy Chatel. The Chatel family purchased the building in 1948. Mama Joy began living there when she moved in with her husband, Albert Chatel, in 1987. She joined forces with neighbors and local organizations to push back against the destruction of Brooklyn’s history in the name of development. Through her activations, such as turning her home into an Underground Railroad storefront museum, hosting community events, and lobbying to save the building from demolition, 227 Duffield is finally landmarked to serve as a monument to the power of everyday people standing together to fight injustice.
Goldfarb, Kara. “The Battle for 227 Abolitionist Place Part II.” Park Slope Reader, 24 Dec. 2020, www.psreader.com/the-battle-for-227-abolitionist-place-pt-two/.
Goldfarb, Kara. “The Protests Heard Around the World.” Park Slope Reader, 28 Sept. 2020, www.psreader.com/the-protests-heard-around-the-world-pt-1/.