This past weekend, the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum and the Smithfield Community Association hosted a three-day event in Peterboro, NY commemorating the 175th Anniversary of the Inaugural Meeting of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society. Over the course of the festivities, two leaders of the American abolitionist movement, Lewis Tappan and Theodore Dwight Weld, were inducted into the National Abolition Hall of Fame. Ribbon cutting ceremonies also celebrated the selection of two sites in Peterboro, the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark and the Smithfield Community Center, as New York State Heritage New York Underground Railroad Trail Sites.
Other commemorative events included a dramatic re-creation of the Utica Riots and the Inaugural Meeting of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society, written and directed by Hugh C. Humphreys; the annual dinner of the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum, which preceded the induction ceremonies of Tappan and Weld and included a keynote address by Dr. Milton C. Sernett, professor emeritus of History at Syracuse University and a noted authority on the antislavery movement in upstate New York, and a ribbon cutting ceremony that included Civil War Reenactors and members of the Smithfield Community Association dressed in full period dress, and speeches by local and state officials and politicians.
The Saturday afternoon lecture by Milton C. Sernett, “North Star Shining: New York State’s Freedom Trail – An Illustrated Journey along the Underground Railroad,” was presented as a Speaker in the Humanities event underwritten by the New York Council for the Humanities. Dr. Sernett’s lecture, which included a PowerPoint presentation of photographs and illustrations, summarized the historiography of the Underground Railroad from early works like William Stills’ The Underground Rail Road (1872) and Wilbur Henry Siebert’s 1898 study, The Underground Railroad: From Slavery to Freedom, to recent works like Fergus M. Bordewich’s Bound for Canaan (2006). The heart of Dr. Sernett’s presentation outlined the efforts of a small number of professional and local historians to reconstruct the history of the Underground Railroad in upstate New York, and bring to light the efforts of the many heroic New York State citizens who conducted runaway slaves north to Canada and freedom.
Other commemorative events included a dramatic re-creation of the Utica Riots and the Inaugural Meeting of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society, written and directed by Hugh C. Humphreys; the annual dinner of the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum, which preceded the induction ceremonies of Tappan and Weld and included a keynote address by Dr. Milton C. Sernett, professor emeritus of History at Syracuse University and a noted authority on the antislavery movement in upstate New York, and a ribbon cutting ceremony that included Civil War Reenactors and members of the Smithfield Community Association dressed in full period dress, and speeches by local and state officials and politicians.
The Saturday afternoon lecture by Milton C. Sernett, “North Star Shining: New York State’s Freedom Trail – An Illustrated Journey along the Underground Railroad,” was presented as a Speaker in the Humanities event underwritten by the New York Council for the Humanities. Dr. Sernett’s lecture, which included a PowerPoint presentation of photographs and illustrations, summarized the historiography of the Underground Railroad from early works like William Stills’ The Underground Rail Road (1872) and Wilbur Henry Siebert’s 1898 study, The Underground Railroad: From Slavery to Freedom, to recent works like Fergus M. Bordewich’s Bound for Canaan (2006). The heart of Dr. Sernett’s presentation outlined the efforts of a small number of professional and local historians to reconstruct the history of the Underground Railroad in upstate New York, and bring to light the efforts of the many heroic New York State citizens who conducted runaway slaves north to Canada and freedom.
Sunday’s ribbon cutting ceremony began with a presentation of arms by Civil War re-enactors from the 12th U.S. Infantry Co. A, and a rousing a cappella rendition of Star Spangled Banner by Alden Max Smith, Co-Chair of the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historical Landmark Emancipation Days. While Mr. Smith moved attendees with several additional performances of African-American spirituals, most of the ceremony involved speeches by representatives of the various state and local agencies and organizations involved in restoring the Smithfield Community Center, and in acquiring the land and reconstructing the Gerrit Smith Estate. The address by Cordell Reaves, Coordinator of History Sites for the New York State Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, noted the extraordinary achievement of the Smithfield Community Association in reestablishing the historical importance of Peterboro as a key site of antislavery activism in upstate New York in the years leading up to the Civil War.
The ribbon cutting ceremony concluded with the presentation by State Assemblyman Bill Magee and State Senator David Valesky of two proclamations by the New York State Legislature honoring the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum and the Gerrit Smith Estate for its exemplary public service and the 175th anniversary of the formation of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society, and with a symbolic breaking by everyone present of the chains of slavery and injustice.
The ribbon cutting ceremony concluded with the presentation by State Assemblyman Bill Magee and State Senator David Valesky of two proclamations by the New York State Legislature honoring the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum and the Gerrit Smith Estate for its exemplary public service and the 175th anniversary of the formation of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society, and with a symbolic breaking by everyone present of the chains of slavery and injustice.
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