When Did Pinkster Become an African American Holiday?

Pinkster as an African-American creative expression reached its zenith in Albany during the period between 1790 and 1810. In the weeks prior to the holiday, temporary shelters woven from brush and clearly based on African forms were set up on three sides of a square at the top of "Pinkster Hill" (the present-day site of the New York State Capitol).

During these years Pinkster was always presided over by King Charles, a figure of great local renown and preeminence within Albany's African community. Charles, an Angola-born captive claimed by the Mayor of Albany, was tall, handsome, an athletic and tireless dancer, and a gifted speaker. As the Master of Ceremonies, he was responsible for directing the event and keeping up the spirits of participants during the long sessions of drumming and dancing that crowned the celebration. The style of dance and the complex layering of contrasting rhythms by the drummers and clappers attest to the survival and retention of West African traditions.

Although Pinkster still attracted African Americans, Euro-Americans, and Native Americans to its festivities, by the early 1800s it was viewed by observers as a primarily African-American holiday. The Dutch had shifted their focus to newer American holidays like Election Day and Independence Day.

What Did Pinkster Mean?

Pinkster meant different things to different people. To Dutch celebrants, Pinkster was a religious holiday, a break from work, and an opportunity for visiting. For enslaved people, gathering in rural areas or at urban markets, the holiday was all this and more. African men and women enjoyed temporary independence, made money, and purchased goods. More importantly, Pinkster meant the opportunity to reunite with family and loved ones and the chance to preserve, reshape, and express African traditions despite the restrictions of enslavement.

During the late 1700s and early 1800s, the festival in Albany was presided over by a King who was himself a captive - an inversion of the usual social order. The crowning of the Pinkster King, like the election of generals or governors during other holidays celebrated by African people elsewhere in the northeast, invested respected members of the African community with symbolic power over the whole community and with distinction within their own community. Celebrations featuring this sort of inversion of rank can be traced both to West African and European antecedents. Pinkster is related in this way to more famous New World festivals such as Mardi Gras.

Another significance of Pinkster was the opportunity for enslaved Africans to slyly mock their white captors through caricatures of European fashions and behavior, and to voice their own anguish through speeches, storytelling, and improvised call and response singing.