Saturday, June 21 at 9 am at the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum

Matthew Urtz, Madison County Historian, will introduce Judith Wellman PhD, author of the five point scale to determine the authenticity of an Underground Railroad site. (This scale has become known as the Wellman Scale.) Professor emerita, State University of New York at Oswego, and Director of Historical New York Research Associates, Dr. Wellman is also author of surveys, books, and studies specializing in nineteenth Century America, women’s history, the Underground Railroad, and historic preservation. Judy has been a leader in the studies of the 19th C. reform era and is one of the three incorporators of the Underground Railroad CONSORTIUM of New York State. 

Urtz will then share a brief history of the Madison County Freedom Trail Commission, explain the placement of the Madison County Underground Railroad records,  and introduce members of that Commission who will share how the commission got started, the roles and research they undertook, and why they did the work. The session will end with a question and answer period. This program is sponsored by the Friends Meeting House in Farmington NY and the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Peterboro NY.

At 11:30 Saturday, June 21, Kate Clifford Larson PhD will return to Peterboro to continue her advocacy for Peterboro 19th C. history, speak to the legacies of Fannie Lou Hamer and Harriet Tubman, and describe the merits of the 550 mile Tubman Corridor being developed in New York State. Larson is an author of critically acclaimed biographies including Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero, and Walk with Me: A Biography of Fannie Lou Hamer. With two degrees from Simmons University, an MBA from Northeastern, and a doctorate in American History from the University of New Hampshire, Dr. Larson is an award-winning historical consultant who has worked on feature film scripts, documentaries, museum exhibits, curriculum guides, public history initiatives, heritage tourism products, and numerous publications. She is a primary consultant for the National Park Service Harriet Tubman sites in Auburn NY and Cambridge MD, and was a consultant for the movie Harriet in 2019.

The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum is grateful to former New York State Senator Nancy Larraine Hoffmann’s Civil Rights Connection for its support of the Larson program. From 1996-2008 the Civil Rights Connection provided high school students from Hoffmann’s legislative district to go to Mississippi to help with community service projects and to meet Civil Rights activists. 

At 12:30 pm Saturday, June 21, Donald Yacovone PhD, Associate at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, will present on his publication Teaching White Supremacy: America's Democratic Ordeal and the Forging of Our National Identity. Yacovone addresses “What We Face: The Historic Battle Over American Identity” and shows evidence of white supremacy’s deep-seated roots in our nation’s education system with an in-depth examination of America’s wide assortment of texts, from primary readers to college textbooks and other higher education course materials. 

Yacovone received a PhD at Claremont Graduate University and has taught at several colleges and universities. He helped edit the Black Abolitionist Papers, and before becoming the Manager of Research and Program Development at the Hutchins Center, Yacovone was the Senior Associate Editor of Publications at the Massachusetts Historical Society where he was a founder and editor of the Massachusetts Historical Review. He has written widely on abolitionism, gender, the African American role in the Civil War, white supremacy, and American cultural history. He has received the W.E.B. Du Bois medal, Harvard’s highest honor in the field of African American studies.

At 3 pm June 21 the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark (5304 Oxbow Road, Peterboro NY 13134) will present the Peterboro Freedom Folk Festival with Rod Mac Donald, Sean Ceilly, and the Cadleys with John Dancks. 

Click here for festival details