The Erie Canal hauled more than people and products. The purpose of the construction of the Erie Canal was economic benefit, but the secondary benefit of cultural change has lasted for the Canal’s 200 years.
The Erie brought ideas from the East to the Mid-West. New religious notions fostered individual self-empowerment and the ability to control one’s own destiny vs. a fatalistic life pre-determined by original sin. This revival was so hot, the western region along the Erie Canal was called the Burned-Over District.
One of the hot topics was the anti-slavery issue. The idea that the country had not yet risen to its freedom heritage drove the abolition movement. The first meeting of New York state abolitionists happened, in part, due to travel on the canal when 104 abolitionists, threatened by violent mobs in Utica, rode from Utica to Canastota on the canal then walked nine miles up nine hundred feet of elevation to meet 400 other delegates in Peterboro to form the New York State Antislavery Society Oct. 22, 1835 in the Presbyterian Church – now the Smithfield/Peterboro municipal building – and home of the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum.
NAHOF invites all to participate in a reenactment of those abolitionist first steps walking from “the brink of the Canal” in Canastota to Peterboro for the first meeting of the New York State Antislavery Society Oct. 22, 1835. The sheriff-escorted Abolition Walk begins at 102 S. Peterboro St. in Canastota. Registration begins at 8 a.m., followed by a brief program at 9 a.m. and the walk launch at 9:30 a.m.
Walkers arrive in Clockville at about 10:30 a.m. and return to Canastota to meet at Erie Canal Brewing for a party at approximately noon. Folks can also ride a bus for the walk, and the bus is available for brief rests for walkers.
Registrants receive a long-sleeved tee shirt with the Abolition Walk logo; the first 104 students who register are free.
To register for or sponsor the event, visit AbolitionRoad.org.
For more information, email NAHOFm1835@gmail.com, visit NationalAbolitionHallofFameandMuseum.org or call 315.308.1890.