The first registration for the Fourth Annual Abolition Walk was from James M. Jackson from Amasa, Michigan, who wrote: 190 years ago, my great-great-great grandfather James Caleb Jackson was one of the 104 who made the trek from Canastota to Peterboro. Although I'd love to be around for the 200th anniversary, actuarial tables suggest that might be pushing my luck. Jim, his wife, sister, and children will be walking in the footsteps of his ancestor on Saturday, October 11, 2025, along the Abolition Road from Canastota NY to Peterboro NY.
The firsthand account of the October 21, 1825, canal boat ride from Utica to Canastota - followed by a nine mile walk up the hill to Peterboro for an abolition meeting - was provided by James Caleb Jackson from Mexico in Oswego NY. He attended that October 22, 1835, inaugural meeting of the New York State Antislavery Society and then moved to Peterboro in 1838 to work with Gerrit Smith in the abolition movement. His residence in Peterboro is one of the sites on the 2006 Madison County Freedom Trail. He lectured on abolition for a short time in Massachusetts and became corresponding secretary for the Massachusetts Antislavery Society. Jackson came back to Peterboro in 1842. He became secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1840, and published antislavery newspapers including The Albany Patriot, The Liberty Press, and the Madison County Abolitionist in Cazenovia. Jackson was also the inventor of granula. When Kelloggs in Battle Creek began producing the same cereal with the same name, there was a lawsuit- at which time Kelloggs started making granola!
The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum invites folks to join the Jacksons to follow in their ancestor’s footsteps from the “brink of the canal” on Saturday, October 11, 2025, at 102 South Peterboro Street in Canastota NY. Registration starts at 8:00 am. The launch program is at 9:00 am, and the sheriff-escorted walk steps off at 9:30 am traveling along The Oxbow at an easy group pace for 2.7 miles to Clockville, where David Sadler, Town of Lincoln Historian, will speak to the recently installed Pomeroy sign in recognition of the abolitionists who walked there in 1835. The walk returns to Canastota for a party at Erie Canal Brewing. A bus is at ready for registrants unable to manage all or part of the walk along Abolition Road.