NATIONAL ABOLITION HALL OF FAME & MUSEUM

INDUCTION WEEKEND

October 18 ~ 20, 2024

INDUCTEES

Catharine White Coffin

Levi Coffin

Leonard Andrew Grimes

James McCune Smith


Friday

7 pm ~ North to Freedom, an original documentary film 

 

Presented by Brian Frey, WSKG Public Television

(Admission: Induction Registration or Donation)


Saturday

 

 

9 am ~ Tour of Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark

Guided by Norman K. Dann PhD, biographer of Gerrit Smith and family

(Admission: Induction Registration or Donation)

 

1~5 pm ~ Abolition Symposia

(Admission: Induction Registration or Donation)

 

1 pm

Catharine Coffin: Able Partner in Justice

Presented by Joanna Hahn, Central Region Director,

Catharine and Levi Coffin State Historic Site in Fountain City Indiana.

 

2 pm

The Mysterious Road: Levi Coffin’s Underground Railroad Journey

Presented by Joanna Hahn, Central Region Director 

Catharine and Levi Coffin State Historic Site in Fountain City Indiana

 

3 pm

Abolitionist Rev. Leonard A. Grimes & His Unrelenting Quest to Lead His People to the Morning of Emancipation and the Noonday of Equality.

Presented by Stephen Wyman, Falmouth, Maine

 

4 pm

Dr. James Mc Cune Smith, the First Black Doctor in America

Presented by Christopher Webber, San Francisco, California

 

5 pm ~ Antislavery Dinner 

Menu inspired by Elizabeth Smith Miller’s 19th C. Cookbook In The Kitchen

Presented by Peterboro United Methodist Church 

(Reservations Required)

 

7 pm ~ Induction Ceremonies and Presentation of the Inductee Banners

Catharine White Coffin

Levi Coffin

Rev. Leonard Andrew Grimes

Dr. James Mc Cune Smith

(Admission: Induction Registration or Donation)

 


Sunday

9 am ~ Cazenovia Convention and the Fugitive Slave Law

Presented by Tom Bennett

Location: 9 Sullivan Street Cazenovia NY 13035

(Admission: Induction Registration or Donation)


 

Catharine White Coffin (1803-1881)

 

Catharine Coffin focused her time and efforts on ending slavery and gaining rights for women. Raised an anti-slavery Quaker in North Carolina, and then moving to Ohio and Indiana, she and her husband Levi Coffin managed one of the most successful Underground Railroad depots in the United States. Coffin was one of the Underground Railroad persons honored on a forever stamp by the U.S. Postal Service in March 2024.

 

Levi Coffin (1798-1877)

 

Levi Coffin, an anti-slavery Quaker, committed his life to the eradication of slavery. With his wife Catharine Coffin, Levi assisted hundreds of freedom seekers in Indiana and Ohio as part of the Underground Railroad. Coffin was also a noted abolitionist in both states, with involvement in many anti-slavery activities and societies. Due to his tireless support, he gained the title of “President of the Underground Railroad.” 

 

Leonard Andrew Grimes (Born between 1812 and 1815-Died in 1873)

 

Leonard Andrew Grimes assisted at least four hundred freedom seekers in escaping bondage.  Grimes was imprisoned for helping an enslaved mother and her six children escape to freedom. He became a minister and his family restarted Underground Railroad activities at their new home in Boston.  He played a leading role in a widely publicized case involving the capture of three members of his congregation following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850. 

 

James McCune Smith (1813-1865)

 

James McCune Smith was born into slavery in 1813 in New York City where his mother emancipated herself at the time of his birth. Smith earned a medical degree in Scotland, returning to the USA in 1837 as the first black credentialed doctor. He challenged pseudoscientific justifications for the oppression of African Americans and false data presented by pro-slavery advocates. Smith was a prolific writer for the abolitionist movement, including being a regular columnist in "Frederick Douglass' Paper". 

The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum is located at 5255 Pleasant Valley Road in Peterboro NY in the building of the inaugural meeting of the New York State Antislavery Society October 22, 1835.  Stay tuned for more information and registration: www.PeterboroNY.org 315.308.1890  www.NationalAbolitionHallofFameandMuseum.org nahofm1835@gmail.com

Share this page:

Copyright ©2024 Smithfield Community Association

PO Box 6, Peterboro, NY 13134

‭(315) 308-1890‬