October 22, 1835 may be the date that determined that Central New York would become the epicenter of 19th Century abolition activities. When a Utica mob forced abolitionists to leave that city in order to organize a state anti-slavery organization, Peterboro became, not only the 1835 “capital city” of New York abolition, but a haven for freedom seekers and abolitionists dueto the galvanizing of Gerrit Smith’s commitment to immediate abolition.
In commemoration of that historic event 175 years ago, retired Madison County Judge and playwright laureate Hugh C. Humphreys has written a dramatic re-creation of two days in late October 1835 recounting the violent Utica mobs that forced state abolitionists to move their inaugural meeting to Peterboro. With Morrisville-Eaton Central School elementary teacher Carrie Martin as production manager, the dramatic readings will be staged at the Smithfield Community Center in the upstairs assembly hall. Owned by the Town of Smithfield, the Community Center has been renovated upstairs with grants from the Underground Railroad Heritage Trail, a program of NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and a legislative grant from Assemblyman Bill Magee. The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum exhibits and offices are located in this restored area.
In commemoration of that historic event 175 years ago, retired Madison County Judge and playwright laureate Hugh C. Humphreys has written a dramatic re-creation of two days in late October 1835 recounting the violent Utica mobs that forced state abolitionists to move their inaugural meeting to Peterboro. With Morrisville-Eaton Central School elementary teacher Carrie Martin as production manager, the dramatic readings will be staged at the Smithfield Community Center in the upstairs assembly hall. Owned by the Town of Smithfield, the Community Center has been renovated upstairs with grants from the Underground Railroad Heritage Trail, a program of NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and a legislative grant from Assemblyman Bill Magee. The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum exhibits and offices are located in this restored area.
During the re-creation Humphreys will narrate as a Spirit of 1835. Dick Enders, familiar as a host on Mohawk Valley Living in the Utica area, will portray Gerrit Smith at the abolitionist’s turning point. Melanie Martin, of Morrisville and a steward for the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark, will play Ann Smith. Steve Joeckel, President of the Smithfield Community Association, will portray Beriah Green, President of the Oneida Institute in Whitestown, and the person who persuaded Smith to attend the meeting that was mobbed in Utica. Young James Caleb Jackson, from whose written accounts the side stories of the 1835 event were known, will be played by Rob Lingo, Syracuse University J.D. /M.P.A., who is no stranger to Humphreys’ productions. Jackson came to live in Peterboro and became the secretary to the American Antislavery Society. Jackson’s records have been assembled and written by descendent Ted Jackson of Rochester.
The people attending the dramatic re-creation will also be the first to view a wall mural depicting an anti-slavery meeting. Months in its creation by Hugh Humphreys, the painting ties the 21st Century to the 19th Century. The public is encouraged to attend the free evening to see the program, the mural and the renovations.
At 11:00 on Sunday, October 24 at the Smithfield Community Center, citizens and dignitaries will convene for the official opening of the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark and the Smithfield Community Center as two of the twenty-six sites on the Underground Railroad Heritage Trail, a program of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Exhibits at both sites will be open after the ribbon cutting. CNY Bounty will provide local refreshments. The program, exhibits and refreshments are free.
On Saturday, October 23 the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum will hold its annual October event at the Smithfield Community Center and across the street at the Peterboro United Methodist Church. At 12:30 p.m. Milton C. Sernett Ph.D. presents the third program in a five year /five part Lyceum series on American Abolitionism. This year the presentation is free and made possible through Speakers in the Humanities, a program of the New York Council for the Humanities. Dr. Sernett’s illustrated talk North Star Shining: New York State’s Freedom Trail – An Illustrated Journey along the Underground Railroad places the story of the Underground Railroad in the context of the religious and reform movements of the pre-Civil War period.
The Peterboro United Methodist Church will be serving bag lunches at the church from 11:30 – 1:30. Reservations for ten dollar lunches are due October 17.
At 2:00 at the church Ellen Percy Kraly Ph.D., Director of the Upstate Institute at Colgate University, will open the Abolition Inductee Symposia, and Moana Fogg, Upstate Institute Fellow will facilitate the presentations on the 2009 inductees: At 2:30 p.m. Meredith Ellis, doctoral student at Syracuse University, presents Lewis Tappan and the 1834 Race Riots: Abolition, Bioarchaeology, and the Spring Street Presbyterian Church. Directly following at 3:30 p.m. Dr. Carol Faulkner, Department of History at Syracuse University, speaks on Theodore Dwight Weld vs. Anti-Abolition Mobs. The public is encouraged to attend the free programs.
That evening Milton C. Sernett Ph.D. will provide an illustrated program Mobbed in Utica: Welcomed in Peterboro as the keynote address for the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum Annual Dinner in the Smithfield Community Center. For the occasion Dr. Sernett has published a book Come to Peterboro: Commemorating the 175th Anniversary of the Founding of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society October 21-22, 1835. The publication will be available for ten dollars at the event and at the Peterboro Mercantile. The Copper Turret will cater the annual dinner at which no “slave sugar” will be served. Forty-five dollar reservations for the dinner are due October 17 to NAHOF, P.O. Box 55, Peterboro NY 13134.
At 7 p.m. in the Smithfield Community Center, Master of Ceremonies Larry Baker will conduct the commemoration ceremonies to complete the 2009 induction of Lewis Tappan and Theodore Dwight Weld to the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum. Abolition poetry and song will accompany the unveiling of the hall banners by family and sponsors for Tappan and Weld.
The weekend events are hosted by the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark, the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum, the Peterboro Area Museum, the Smithfield Community Association, and the Town of Smithfield. For more information: www.sca-peterboro.org, www.abolitionHoF.org, mail@abolitionhof.org, 315-684-3262.
The people attending the dramatic re-creation will also be the first to view a wall mural depicting an anti-slavery meeting. Months in its creation by Hugh Humphreys, the painting ties the 21st Century to the 19th Century. The public is encouraged to attend the free evening to see the program, the mural and the renovations.
At 11:00 on Sunday, October 24 at the Smithfield Community Center, citizens and dignitaries will convene for the official opening of the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark and the Smithfield Community Center as two of the twenty-six sites on the Underground Railroad Heritage Trail, a program of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Exhibits at both sites will be open after the ribbon cutting. CNY Bounty will provide local refreshments. The program, exhibits and refreshments are free.
On Saturday, October 23 the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum will hold its annual October event at the Smithfield Community Center and across the street at the Peterboro United Methodist Church. At 12:30 p.m. Milton C. Sernett Ph.D. presents the third program in a five year /five part Lyceum series on American Abolitionism. This year the presentation is free and made possible through Speakers in the Humanities, a program of the New York Council for the Humanities. Dr. Sernett’s illustrated talk North Star Shining: New York State’s Freedom Trail – An Illustrated Journey along the Underground Railroad places the story of the Underground Railroad in the context of the religious and reform movements of the pre-Civil War period.
The Peterboro United Methodist Church will be serving bag lunches at the church from 11:30 – 1:30. Reservations for ten dollar lunches are due October 17.
At 2:00 at the church Ellen Percy Kraly Ph.D., Director of the Upstate Institute at Colgate University, will open the Abolition Inductee Symposia, and Moana Fogg, Upstate Institute Fellow will facilitate the presentations on the 2009 inductees: At 2:30 p.m. Meredith Ellis, doctoral student at Syracuse University, presents Lewis Tappan and the 1834 Race Riots: Abolition, Bioarchaeology, and the Spring Street Presbyterian Church. Directly following at 3:30 p.m. Dr. Carol Faulkner, Department of History at Syracuse University, speaks on Theodore Dwight Weld vs. Anti-Abolition Mobs. The public is encouraged to attend the free programs.
That evening Milton C. Sernett Ph.D. will provide an illustrated program Mobbed in Utica: Welcomed in Peterboro as the keynote address for the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum Annual Dinner in the Smithfield Community Center. For the occasion Dr. Sernett has published a book Come to Peterboro: Commemorating the 175th Anniversary of the Founding of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society October 21-22, 1835. The publication will be available for ten dollars at the event and at the Peterboro Mercantile. The Copper Turret will cater the annual dinner at which no “slave sugar” will be served. Forty-five dollar reservations for the dinner are due October 17 to NAHOF, P.O. Box 55, Peterboro NY 13134.
At 7 p.m. in the Smithfield Community Center, Master of Ceremonies Larry Baker will conduct the commemoration ceremonies to complete the 2009 induction of Lewis Tappan and Theodore Dwight Weld to the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum. Abolition poetry and song will accompany the unveiling of the hall banners by family and sponsors for Tappan and Weld.
The weekend events are hosted by the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark, the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum, the Peterboro Area Museum, the Smithfield Community Association, and the Town of Smithfield. For more information: www.sca-peterboro.org, www.abolitionHoF.org, mail@abolitionhof.org, 315-684-3262.
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