A facsimile of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, a gift from the New York State Museum, will be on exhibit at the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum (NAHOF) at 11:00 am Wednesday, December 31 at 5255 Pleasant Valley Road, Peterboro NY 13134.
On September 22, 1862, following the Union victory at Antietam, President Lincoln issued the document ordering that in 100 days the federal government would deem all slaves free in those states still rebelling against the Union. The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation is the only surviving Proclamation document in Lincoln’s own hand. Lincoln probably glued in sections of the Congressional Confiscation Act to save time – the fingerprint visible on the first page of the document is probably his own.
In 1864, Lincoln donated the document to the U.S. Sanitary Commission, which raffled it off at the Albany Relief Bazaar to help raise money for the Union war effort. Abolitionist Gerrit Smith won the raffle after buying 1,000 tickets at $1 apiece. Smith then sold the document to the New York State Legislature, with funds going to the Sanitary Commission. The Legislature, in turn, deposited the document in the New York State Library, where it remains today.
100 days later, on the night of December 31, 1862, enslaved and free African Americans gathered, often at fires, to watch for the news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect.
Since 2012 Owen Corpin has facilitated a commemoration of that Watch Night. The public is invited to participate in all, or parts of, Peterboro Watch Night 2025.
- At 11:00, NAHOF will open with exhibits, fellowship, coffee, and finger foods, followed by lunch refreshments at noon.
- At 1:00 Corpin leads a program with history announcements, military stories, a description of the first Watch Night December 31, 1862, and the collaborative reading of the Emancipation Proclamation.
- At 2:30 the event moves down the street to the grounds of the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark (5304 Oxbow Road, Peterboro NY 13134) for the ignition of the symbolic Watch Fire for freedom – just steps from the building where Corpin’s ancestors found freedom from enslavement.
- At 4 pm the Lingo Family Singers, reenacting the 19th C. Hutchinson Family Singers who presented songs of reform for abolition, temperance, and suffrage, will present at the Peterboro United Methodist Church, 5240 Pleasant Valley Road, Peterboro NY 13134.
Owen Corpin was an honor graduate of Morrisville-Eaton High School and an honor graduate and Trident Scholar from the United States Naval Academy. He spent over twenty years in the Navy as a Naval Aviator flying fighter aircraft making over five hundred carrier landings during six deployments in defense of the United States. Owen was an NROTC instructor and earned a Masters degree from Central Michigan University. After retiring from the Navy at the rank of Commander, Owen then joined Morrisville State College as an EOP advisor for seventeen years until he retired. He served on the Madison County Head Start board, the local library board before joining the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum (NAHOF) Cabinet of Freedom in 2012.
Information: www.PeterboroNY.org, NAHOFm1835@gmail.com, and 315.308.1890.
