(Peterboro, NY – June 2013) During Path through History Weekend June 1 and 2, the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum (NAHOF) will begin its 2013 screenings and studies of the three part series The Abolitionists, which aired in January 2013 from the PBS American Experience at WGBH in Boston. The complete series will be shown at 1:30 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday at NAHOF during the NYS history weekend.
At 2 p.m. Sunday, June 30, Timothy G. McLaughlin Ph.D. will show Part I of The Abolitionists series and then lead a discussion on that film segment. The five abolitionists who represent the movement in the film are introduced in the first film: John Brown, Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Angelina Grimke, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Violent opposition to the anti-slavery movement such as the death of abolitionist Elijah Parrish Lovejoy and the burning of the new Pennsylvania Hall did not deter the abolitionists in their moral pursuit – it radicalized them! McLaughlin is Vice-President of NAHOF, and Professor of History and Associate Dean of the Faculty at Cazenovia College. Among the courses that McLaughlin teaches in African-American Studies are Race, Rights, and Resistance and Long Walk to Freedom.
At 2 p.m. Sunday, July 28, Jessica Clarke will show Part II of The Abolitionist series and conduct a discussion. In this film segment Frederick Douglass emerges as the authentic speaker on slavery. The federal legitimizing of slavery is shown through the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act and Stowe writes Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852. Clarke is a social studies teacher at Camden Central School who teaches Advanced Placement classes, coaches two Odyssey of the Mind teams which placed in state competitions, attends NEH programs for teachers, and is the Hall Chair for the NAHOF Cabinet of Freedom.
At 2:00 p.m. Sunday, August 18, Norman K. Dann Ph.D. will show Part III of The Abolitionists with discussion on, as Lincoln stated, “the logic and moral power of the antislavery people (who) had done it all” to bring about the Civil War in 1863, and the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 which abolished slavery in the United States. Dann is professor emeritus Morrisville State College, and researcher, speaker and author on abolitionist Gerrit Smith. Dann has been a member of the NAHOF Cabinet of Freedom since its creation in 2004.
Participants in The Abolitionists screening and study sessions may want to read and view information on the abolition movement between sessions. The PBS DVD The Abolitionists and other readings on the abolition movement are available at mercantile.gerritsmith.org. The Peterboro Mercantile is a community heritage shop which supports heritage efforts in Peterboro.
In November the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Peterboro NY joined in partnership with AMERICAN EXPERIENCE on the Abolitionist Map of America, an interactive website that explores events, characters and locations connected to the anti-slavery movement, one of the most important civil rights crusades in American history. On December 4, Casey E. Davis, Special Projects Assistant announced that the Abolition Hall of Fame in Peterboro had won the Abolitionist Map of America Pin Drive Contest by pinning the most information on abolitionists.
The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum is open from Saturday, May 18 to Sunday, September 22 from 1 – 5 p.m. on weekends, for special events, and by appointment. For more information: www.nationalabolitionhalloffameandmuseum.org, and nahofm1835@gmail.com.