EVENTS
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JUNETEENTH Week
June 16 -22, 12-4pm ~ EXHIBIT: The Chronology of American Abolition from the Colonial Era to Reconstruction
Juneteenth 2026 Week in Peterboro NY begins with the opening of an exhibit at the Smithfield Community Center.
This traveling exhibit was created to introduce the plight of the enslaved and those that struggled to abolish the institution of slavery in America. The topics of the panels are
• The Colonial and Revolutionary Eras: Slavery and Anti-Slavery
• Freedom Now! From Colonization to Immediatism
• Proclaiming Liberty: Abolitionist Means
• The Politics of Slavery and Abolition:
“Right is of no Sex; Truth is of no color.” Frederick Douglass, North Star, 1848
• North Star Shining: The Underground Railroad
* The Terrible Swift Sword:
Freedom and Reconstruction: Days of Jubilee & Struggle
The free exhibit is open to the public June 16 - 22 from 12 – 4 pm
NATIONAL ABOLITION HALL of FAME and MUSEUM
Smithfield Community Center
5255 Pleasant Valley Road Peterboro NY 13134
www.NationalAbolitionHallofFameandMuseum.org
June 20 ~ 2nd Annual Peterboro Freedom Folk Festival
June 20 & 21 : EXHIBIT: Four For Freedom
On Saturday, June 20 and Sunday, June 21, from 1 to 4 p.m., the Peterboro Area Museum will introduce a new exhibit 4 For Freedom which will detail the experiences of four individuals escaping slavery: Harriet Powell, Harriet Russell, John Tyler, and John the Dominie West. Three of these people would make Madison County their permanent home. This display will include photographs, broadsides, and descriptive information.
June 21 ~ Madison County Free Churches & Churches of Peterboro Black Residents
A Presentation by
Donna Dorrance Burdick: Hamlet of Peterboro/ Town of Smithfield Historian
Sunday, June 21 ~ 11 am
PETERBORO UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
5240 Pleasant Valley Road
Peterboro NY 13134
July 5 ~ “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
A speech by Frederick Douglass on July 5, 1852
read by Owen Corpin
Norman K Dann, Phd: Gerrit Smith & Frederick Douglass
Featuring performances by the Lingo Family singers :
19th Century Reform Songs
Free and open to the public
Peterboro Methodist Church
5240 Pleasant Valley Road
Peterboro NY 13134
Co-sponsored by GSE & NAHOF
Contact [email protected]
July 19 ~ "Brothers in Spirit: Mutual Influence Between Frederick Douglass and Gerrit Smith"
Dr Norm Dann will present a program on his new book
2:00pm
Smithfield Community Center
5255 Pleasant Valley Rd
Peterboro, NY 13134
Co-sponsored by GSE & NAHOF
Contact [email protected]
August 1 ~ Annual Emancipation Day
Vanessa Johnson, Underground Railroad Storyteller
Venue: Gerrit Smith Estate NHL
5304 Oxbow Rd. Peterboro, NY 13134
Save the date! Schedule tba
Co-sponsored by GSE & NAHOF
Contact [email protected]
August 23 ~ Fugitives, Friends and The Fight for Freedom
The gripping true story of how Syracuse, NY became the front line of resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 — and what it means for us now.
Join Jeffrey M. Davis—Boston writer and third great-grandson of Rev. May—for a gripping multimedia journey through stories of courage and defiance. From harrowing escapes on the Erie Canal to the dramatic "Jerry Rescue" in Syracuse, NY, you'll meet the women and men who refused to bow to injustice.
Smithfield community Center ~ 2:00pm
Sponsored by National Abolition Hall of Fame & Museum
Contact: [email protected]
October 9 ~ Oneida County Freedom Trail Walking Tour
With Lingo Singers, Jan DeAmicis
Oneida County Freedom Trail, Mechanix Hall, Utica
Save the date! Details tba
Co-sponsored by NAHOF and Oneida County Freedom trail
October 10 ~ 5th Annual Abolition Walk
Walk with us and trace a portion of the footsteps of 104 abolitionists who escaped an angry pro-slavery mob in Utica in October, 1835, embarked on an Erie Canal barge to Canastota, and climbed the hills to Peterboro where they formed the New York State Antislavery Society.
Registration and details coming soon!