14TH ANNUAL
Emancipation Day Celebration
Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark
5304 Oxbow Road, Peterboro, NY 13134
August 3-4, 2024
9:00-4:00
Saturday August 3rd
9:00 am
Gerrit Smith Estate Tour
The Laundry Exhibit
10:00 am (main program)
Assembly
Awards
Spirituals
Group Picture
11:00 am
Procession to Cemetery
Wreath Laying Ceremony
Presentation
Afternoon Presentations
Dissolution of Segregation in American Baseball
Black Family Connections Between Peterboro and Chenango County
NYS Underground Railroad Corridor
Sunday August 4th
The event commemorates the families that came from enslavement by replicating the Emancipation Days held by the generations of the 1920s and 1930s. James Corpin, John Smith, and Max Smith, co-chairs of the event, gather the descendants and public together at 10:00 am, as their ancestors did, for announcements, historical notes, group pictures, and song.
The gathering is followed by a processional to the cemetery, by walking or driving, to lay wreaths. One wreath is laid upon a tombstone selected from the many labeled Born a slave. Died a free (wo)man and the second wreath is laid upon the humble gravestone of Gerrit Smith, the wealthiest land owner in New York State, an ardent abolitionist who believed his wealth was a divine gift to provide for those less fortunate.
Sunday 1:00
Daniel Koch will discuss his publication of Land of the Oneidas: Central New York State and the Creation of America, From Prehistory to the Present. At the National Abolition Hall of Fame & Museum. Land of the Oneidas tells the story of the land and the people who made their homes there from its earliest habitation to the present day. The book examines this region's impact on the making of America, from its strategic importance in the Revolution and Early Republic to its symbolic significance now to a nation grappling with challenges rooted deep in its history. The book shows that in central New York—perhaps more than in any other region in the United States—the past has never remained neatly in the past.
Sunday 2:30
In New York's Burned-over District, co-editors Spencer W. McBride and Dorsey invite readers to experience the early American revivals and reform movements through the eyes of the revivalists and the reformers themselves. The anthology highlights how Christian revivalism transformed Central and Western New York into a critical hub of social reform in nineteenth-century America. Between 1790 and 1860, the mass migration of white settlers into New York State contributed to an historic Christian revival and reform movement. Contemporary observers referred to the region as on fire with religious enthusiasm.
Peterboro Area Museum
Peterboro Historian Donna Burdick will share family files with those interested in learning about their connection to the area.
National Abolition Hall of Fame & Museum
Will be open from Noon to 4:00, Saturday & Sunday
