Juneteenth Weekend in Peterboro

Songs of Slavery and Emancipation, a new film, will debut at The National Abolition Hall of Fame in Peterboro NY and at 320 West 37th Street New York NY at the same time Saturday, June 18, 2022. Admission in Peterboro for the program, film and access to NAHOF is $5.

The film opens at 7 pm with the sight and sound of Max Smith, Co-Chair of the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark’s Annual Peterboro Emancipation Day and a member of the Cabinet of Freedom for the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Peterboro NY. Film producer Mat Callahan filmed in Peterboro and at Berea College in Kentucky. 

Mat Callahan presents, in the Song of Slavery and Emancipation film, book, and CD, recently discovered songs composed by enslaved people explicitly calling for resistance to slavery. Some songs originated as early as 1784 and others as late as the Civil War. He also presents long-lost songs of the abolition movement, some written by fugitive slaves and free Black people, challenging common misconceptions of abolitionism.  Songs of Slavery and Emancipation features the lyrics of fifteen slave songs and fifteen abolitionist songs, placing them in historical context and making them available again to the general public. These songs not only express outrage at slavery but call for the destruction of the slave system. There can be no doubt as to their purpose: the abolition of slavery, the emancipation of African American people, and a clear and undeniable demand for equality and justice for all humanity. 

Manisha Sinha PhD, author of The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition, stated, “Mat Callahan’s carefully documented and richly interpreted book is the first modern comprehensive compilation of the musical archive of Black Resistance to slavery and abolition. I cannot praise the labor of scholarly passion and conscience enough. It is a game changer in the histories of musicology and abolition.”

The public is encouraged to engage in part or all of the programs. Five dollar admission includes the film and the Hall of Fame and Museum. Books and CDs of Songs of Slavery and Emancipation will be sold to benefit the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum.

To mitigate Covid spread, masks, proof of at least the first two vaccines, and contact information registration are required. No food will be served.

For more information and for updates: www.nationalabolitionhalloffameandmuseum.org, nahofm1835@gmail.com, 315-684-3262

In this third and final program of his Underground Railroad Historical Series, Norman K. Dann PhD will present The Underground Railroad as a Moral Statement  at the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark. Dann will draw upon his thirty years of research and writing to describe the existence of the Underground Railroad as a moral statement about a corrupt nation. By 1830 the abolition movement was heating up because the nation had failed to implement its ideals of freedom and justice for all. 

Five dollar admission includes the presentation and the tour following. www.GerritSmith.org

More about this series