News

Carole Hayes Collier, Director of Community Based Peer Initiatives and Psychiatric Activist

“I had the privilege of meeting with Michele Galvin to learn more about her Great Great Grandfather, Thomas Elliott.  Her discoveries with the NYS Archives have offered a missing piece of history that needs even further research.  By the time the family learned the whereabouts and gravesite of their dearly departed relative, they also knew of some of his heroic and powerful actions as one of the Dover Eight who escaped the clutches of slavery and eventually returned to the US after the Civil War and lived as a free man in Auburn.  While Mr. Elliot may have received a mental illness diagnosis, his story and the WHOLE story of Harriet Tubman and her family needs to be shared with the world.  Understanding more of the story helps us to assure that history is not repeated and in fact that more humane and progressive opportunities are offered to people who experience the challenges of life.”

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