I don't think anyone has mentioned A. J. Williams-Myers book, "Long Hammering: Essays on the Forging of an African American Presence in the Hudson River Valley to the Early Twentieth Century," published by Africa World Press (PO Box 1892, Trenton, NJ 08607)in 1994 in paperback. The notes should lead to primary (and secondary) sources. And also on the topic, albeit Long Island rather than upstate New York, see Lynda R. Day, "Making a Way to Freedom: A History of African Americans on Long Island" (Interlaken, NY: Empire State Books, 1997), under the auspices of Hofstra University's Long Island Studies Institute. Natalie Naylor, Hofstra University, Hempstead, 11549 [log in to unmask]