PETERBORO — Peterboro Heritage Sites invite the public to all portions of the Abolition Induction Weekend October 21-23 with a focus on 19th Century experiences.
Guests can reflect as they walk down abolitionist street on their way to the New York State Antislavery Convention, stand on bricks where the enslaved and the reformers stood, marvel at the site of a home that was a haven for freedom seekers and abolitionists, open the gate through which Harriet Tubman took her mother to recover, smell the colors of the Equality Garden where bloomers were made, and much more.
The special events begin on Friday, October 21 at 7pm with a Welsh Music and Poetry Tribute to recruit Robert Everett. The music night will be held at the Peterboro United Methodist Church.
The next morning, Saturday, October 22, at 10:00 a.m., Norman Dann, Ph.D. will provide a guided tour of the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark Underground Railroad.
At 5:00 p.m., the Peterboro United Methodist Church, in the building where the New York State Antislavery Society was founded in 1835, serves a 19th-century boxed dinner with menu suggestions from Elizabeth Smith Miller’s In the Kitchen cookbook. The meal includes Peterboro cheddar cheese with hardtack crackers, fall vegetable pot pie with Greene Smith’s Bird Pie Vent, mixed leaf salads with fall fruit, caramelized winter squash and praline nuts, and individual apple chips.
The inductions of abolitionists Robert Everett, Calvin Fairbank and Stephen Myers into the Abolition Hall of Fame will be held on Saturday, October 22 at 7 p.m. in the Smithfield Community Center building, where the New York State Antislavery Society’s charter meeting was held October 22 1835
On Sunday, October 23 at 7:30 am, walkers will sign up for the Abolitionist Freedom Walk, which recreates the walk of 104 abolitionists who escaped mob threats in Utica by renting a wooden boat to walk around to transport them to Canastota – from there they walked to the anti-slavery meeting in Peterboro. The 2022 five-mile Freedom Walk will run from Canastota to Clockville and back to Canastota. Brief re-enactments and sign unveiling will take place in Canastota and Clockville, and at 1:00 p.m. in Peterboro, where reenactors Ann and Gerrit Smith will welcome the abolitionists to the safety of Peterboro for a public reception.
