In recognition of the Great Cazenovia Convention of August 22, 1850, Hugh C. Humphreys, will use images, research, and oratory to connect the famous 1850 event in Cazenovia, New York to events in Montgomery, Alabama. Humphreys, well known author of Agitate! Agitate! Agitate! The Great Fugitive Slave Law Convention and its Rare Daguerreotype, has researched and presented on the protest organized by Frederick Douglass and Gerrit Smith in response to the cursed Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The daguerreotype of that protest to agitate citizens against the abominations of the law has become a much-used and minimally-credited image of anti-slavery protests in 19th C. America. The daguerreotype taken by Cazenovia daguerreotypist Ezra Greenleaf Weld is a treasured possession of the Madison County Historical Society and will be enlarged to wall size at The Irrepressible Conflict exhibit to open at the New York State Museum on September 22, 2012.

In his program Agitate! Awakening of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (From Cazenovia NY to Montgomery AL : Douglass to King) at 7 p.m. Saturday, August 25, Humphreys will connect the Civil Rights protests of King to the 1850 Cazenovia protest of Douglass and Smith. This presentation is part of the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum’s 2012 program series Abolition Agitation in New York Sparks War for Liberty for All. Among the purposes of the series is to point out the important role that Central New York played in the 19th Century reform efforts which provided foundations for reform movements in the 20th Century. The series is supported by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities.

Humphreys’ program will take place at the Smithfield Community Center at 5255 Pleasant Valley Road in Peterboro where his 2011 painting of an anti-slavery meeting in Peterboro hangs in the Abolition Hall of Fame. Visitors to the program are encouraged to come early to visit the Abolition Hall of Fame and Abolition Museum. Copies of Humphreys’ publication (Madison County Historical Society Heritage # 19, 1994) will be available for purchase – as well as other anti-slavery meeting items.

The Madison County Historical Society and the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum are also sponsoring a coach tour to the New York State Museum for the opening of The Irrepressible Conflict exhibit on September 22, 2012. This is the exhibit that will enlarge the Cazenovia Convention daguerreotype. The coach leaves Peterboro at 9:00 a.m. (and then Oneida) and returns to Peterboro at 3 p.m. $35 reservations are due to National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum, 5255 Pleasant Valley Road, Cazenovia NY 13035 or mercantile.gerritsmith.org by September 8. For more information: 315-366-8101 or dwillsey@twcny.rr.com