During Black History Month volunteers at an Underground Railroad site and at an antislavery hall in Peterboro will finalize plans for 2011 programs that help to tell the story of African American freedom seeking in 19thCentury America.
Stewards for the Gerrit Smith Estate (GSE) are planning programs about the role that Gerrit Smith and his home played in Underground Railroad operations. The season opens Saturday, March 5 at 3 p.m. for the annual birthday party and lecture for Gerrit Smith, an adamant foe of slavery. Smith’s estate was designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 2001 by the Secretary of the Interior because it was “found to possess national significance in the history of the United States.” The goal of the Smithfield Community Association, the governing board of the estate, is to preserve the remaining buildings of that estate in which the historical stories can be told of the courageous African Americans who took great risks to flee from slavery and the courageous persons who took risks to help fugitives flee.
Stewards for the Gerrit Smith Estate (GSE) are planning programs about the role that Gerrit Smith and his home played in Underground Railroad operations. The season opens Saturday, March 5 at 3 p.m. for the annual birthday party and lecture for Gerrit Smith, an adamant foe of slavery. Smith’s estate was designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 2001 by the Secretary of the Interior because it was “found to possess national significance in the history of the United States.” The goal of the Smithfield Community Association, the governing board of the estate, is to preserve the remaining buildings of that estate in which the historical stories can be told of the courageous African Americans who took great risks to flee from slavery and the courageous persons who took risks to help fugitives flee.
Smith biographer and author Norman K. Dann Ph.D. will present Gerrit Smith’s Beginnings as an Abolitionist, which will describe how Gerrit Smith began his work against slavery, including his early support of the American Colonization Society, an organization formed to return freed blacks to Liberia. Abolitionists’ opinions and strategies changed as they struggled in the fight against slavery. Smith’s evolution as an abolitionist serves as an example of these developments. Dann also describes Smith’s moral convictions to equal rights, and the unusual nature of the “second revolution” in which the Civil Rights movement had its origin. Sonya Lydford, a steward for the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark (GSENHL), will describe the development of Liberia by Americans in the early 1800s and its current relationship to the U.S., and, in particular to her family.
The 19th Annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend on Saturday and Sunday June 11 and 12 will commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War which brought the end to American chattel slavery. Smith’s relationship with John Brown led to the ignition of the War Between the States. During Civil War Weekend the Smith-Brown fight against slavery will be addressed in programs such as The Secret Six: Gerrit Smith, Five Colleagues, and John Brown by Madison County historian Matthew Urtz, and Portrait of John Brown by Warren F. Broderick.
The Laundry building on the Gerrit Smith Estate is the centerpiece of the African American stories. Harriet Russell, having been purchased from slavery with her family by the Smiths, earned economic freedom by managing the busy estate’s washing and ironing. Exhibits installed in 2010 briefly describe the various reasons that many black people came to Peterboro. Emancipation Day was held in 2010 to replicate the days in the 1920s and 30s that African Americans celebrated their freedom history in Peterboro. This event will be expanded in 2011.
Members of the Cabinet of Freedom for the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum (NAHOF) are making final plans for the 2011 programs on 19th C. abolitionists. The programs include Jonathan Walker: The Man with the Branded Hand on Tuesday evening May 17; a 160th anniversary program on the rescue of freedom seeker Jerry Henry Saturday, October 1 at 2 pm; a November 26 description of Hall of Fame inductee Lydia Maria Child and her connection to a common song sung at Thanksgiving; and the induction of the 2011 abolitionists at Colgate University on Saturday, October 22. In recognition of Equality Day, Carol Faulkner Ph.D. presents her newly published biography on abolitionist Lucretia Mott on Sunday, August 28 at 2 p.m. Dr. Milton C. Sernett’s fourth in a five part Lyceum Series on the history of American Abolition from the Colonial period to the Civil War is part of the NAHOF conference at Colgate University on October 22.
Special programs on Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman are arranged. Douglass and Tubman were prominent 19th C. black leaders, first inductees to the Hall of Fame, and had close ties to Peterboro. Frederick Douglass’ Fifth of July Speech will be observed on Sunday, July 3 and the keynote for the annual NAHOF event is The Gerrit Smith-Frederick Douglass Partnership delivered at Colgate University by John C. McKivigan, PhD on Saturday, October 22. July 17th at 2 pm Milton C. Sernett PhD speaks on his biography Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory, and History. This program is funded by the New York Council for the Arts Speakers in the Humanities.
May 20th the Peterboro heritage organizations will honor Hugh C. Humphreys for his creation of a painting of an anti-slavery meeting in Peterboro which is now mounted at the Smithfield Community Center (SCC) in the Hall of Fame. The SCC will also be a site for the Oneida Public Library presentation on Louisa May Alcott planned for Sunday afternoon, May 22.
The Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark will officially open its National Park Service Network to Freedom exterior exhibits on Sunday, October 23. Heritage programs conclude with holiday shopping on Sunday, November 27 at the Peterboro Mercantile with a program on Peterboro resident George Putnam’s relationship with Charles Dickens.
Sites and exhibits on the Underground Railroad and abolition are open from June to October on weekends from 1 – 5 p.m. Admission: $2 Exhibits, $2 Program and Exhibits, $2 Guided Tour, and Free for Stewards and Students. For completed program schedule, changes, and more information contact www.sca-peterboro.org and www.AbolitionHoF.org , Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark, 4543 Peterboro Road, Peterboro NY 13134-0006, National Abolition Hall of Fame & Museum, 5255 Pleasant Valley Road, Peterboro NY 13134-0055, mail@AbolitionHoF.org, 315-684-3262.
The 19th Annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend on Saturday and Sunday June 11 and 12 will commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War which brought the end to American chattel slavery. Smith’s relationship with John Brown led to the ignition of the War Between the States. During Civil War Weekend the Smith-Brown fight against slavery will be addressed in programs such as The Secret Six: Gerrit Smith, Five Colleagues, and John Brown by Madison County historian Matthew Urtz, and Portrait of John Brown by Warren F. Broderick.
The Laundry building on the Gerrit Smith Estate is the centerpiece of the African American stories. Harriet Russell, having been purchased from slavery with her family by the Smiths, earned economic freedom by managing the busy estate’s washing and ironing. Exhibits installed in 2010 briefly describe the various reasons that many black people came to Peterboro. Emancipation Day was held in 2010 to replicate the days in the 1920s and 30s that African Americans celebrated their freedom history in Peterboro. This event will be expanded in 2011.
Members of the Cabinet of Freedom for the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum (NAHOF) are making final plans for the 2011 programs on 19th C. abolitionists. The programs include Jonathan Walker: The Man with the Branded Hand on Tuesday evening May 17; a 160th anniversary program on the rescue of freedom seeker Jerry Henry Saturday, October 1 at 2 pm; a November 26 description of Hall of Fame inductee Lydia Maria Child and her connection to a common song sung at Thanksgiving; and the induction of the 2011 abolitionists at Colgate University on Saturday, October 22. In recognition of Equality Day, Carol Faulkner Ph.D. presents her newly published biography on abolitionist Lucretia Mott on Sunday, August 28 at 2 p.m. Dr. Milton C. Sernett’s fourth in a five part Lyceum Series on the history of American Abolition from the Colonial period to the Civil War is part of the NAHOF conference at Colgate University on October 22.
Special programs on Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman are arranged. Douglass and Tubman were prominent 19th C. black leaders, first inductees to the Hall of Fame, and had close ties to Peterboro. Frederick Douglass’ Fifth of July Speech will be observed on Sunday, July 3 and the keynote for the annual NAHOF event is The Gerrit Smith-Frederick Douglass Partnership delivered at Colgate University by John C. McKivigan, PhD on Saturday, October 22. July 17th at 2 pm Milton C. Sernett PhD speaks on his biography Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory, and History. This program is funded by the New York Council for the Arts Speakers in the Humanities.
May 20th the Peterboro heritage organizations will honor Hugh C. Humphreys for his creation of a painting of an anti-slavery meeting in Peterboro which is now mounted at the Smithfield Community Center (SCC) in the Hall of Fame. The SCC will also be a site for the Oneida Public Library presentation on Louisa May Alcott planned for Sunday afternoon, May 22.
The Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark will officially open its National Park Service Network to Freedom exterior exhibits on Sunday, October 23. Heritage programs conclude with holiday shopping on Sunday, November 27 at the Peterboro Mercantile with a program on Peterboro resident George Putnam’s relationship with Charles Dickens.
Sites and exhibits on the Underground Railroad and abolition are open from June to October on weekends from 1 – 5 p.m. Admission: $2 Exhibits, $2 Program and Exhibits, $2 Guided Tour, and Free for Stewards and Students. For completed program schedule, changes, and more information contact www.sca-peterboro.org and www.AbolitionHoF.org , Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark, 4543 Peterboro Road, Peterboro NY 13134-0006, National Abolition Hall of Fame & Museum, 5255 Pleasant Valley Road, Peterboro NY 13134-0055, mail@AbolitionHoF.org, 315-684-3262.
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