Black Catholics enjoy a rich heritage in the City of Buffalo. We have been counted among the Catholic faithful since the 1850s. Black Catholics weathered the Civil War, the Great Depression, two world wars, and the turmoil of social change in the 1960s. As we face the challenges of the approaching 21st century, it is instructive to review our past and its relevance to our direction for the future.
Blacks have lived in Buffalo since the late 18th century, when much of the area was still wilderness frontier inhabited mostly by English and French settlers and Native Americans. Some of the first Black pioneers were enslaved to white or Native American masters at the time of their residence in the Buffalo area. By the 19th century, Blacks were travelling north from the slave states in large numbers seeking their freedom. Buffalo was a waystation on the famous Underground Railroad, the informal linkage of concerned whites and blacks that assisted the escaping slaves. Although New York abolished slavery in 1817, most runaway slaves who passed through Buffalo were en route to Canada due to the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Act (1850), that enabled slave owners to apprehend slaves even on free soil in America.
The first Black resident of the Niagara frontier and Buffalo area was known as "Black Joe" Hodge. Hodge, a fugitive slave, initially worked as a trader in the vicinity of Cattaraugus Creek around 1790. Later, he moved to the area near Little Buffalo Creek and established a grog shop. Information about Hodge is sketchy. Some accounts say that he married a white woman, others that he married an Indian squaw. Hodge is said to have left Buffalo in 1807.
Blacks did not populate the Buffalo area in significant numbers until the early 1800s. A directory of the City of Buffalo, which lists the heads of families and householders for 1832 includes a separate list of the names of 68 "colored people." All the names are t...