Young visitors gather at the Gerrit Smith Estate Barn for the Underground Railroad Exhibit during Emancipation Days 2012. The 2013 event will be held in Peterboro on Aug. 3 and 4.
Donna Dorrance Burdick receives recognition from Jim Corpin and Alden Max Smith, Co-chairs of Emancipation Days 2011, for her research on African-American families who lived in Peterboro. Burdick will be presenting her research on black soldiers in the Civil War on Saturday, Aug. 3 at 3:15 p.m. at the Smithfield Community Center.
Rev. Samuel Harrison.
(Peterboro, NY – July 2013) For the fourth time in the 21st Century, Peterboro Emancipation Days will be held to commemorate the 20th Century celebration of the 19th Century emancipation of slaves.
Descendents, friends of families of freedomseekers and the public will begin to gather at the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday Aug. 3 for the 10 a.m. Annual Tent Meeting followed by the group photo and the procession to the Peterboro Cemetery to lay wreaths at the graves of a freedom seeker and abolitionist Gerrit Smith.
This year, in honor of the Sesquicentennial of the recruitment of the United States Colored Troops, 35 star flags will be carried and placed at the graves of African-Americans who served in the Civil War.
Boss Billy, Gerrit Smith and Honest Abe: New York Acquires the Emancipation Proclamation
At 2 p.m. at the Smithfield Community Center, Paul Mercer will present Boss Billy, Gerrit Smith and Honest Abe: New York Acquires the Emancipation Proclamation. The New York State Legislature purchased the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation from the U.S. Sanitary Commission in 1865, shortly after Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train passed through Albany. Famed abolitionist Gerrit Smith had won the priceless artifact in a lottery held by the Albany Relief Bazaar, and donated it to the U.S. Sanitary Commission for resale in the winter of 1864. How it came to Albany, and eventually to the New York State Library, is a tale of politics and patriotism, redolent of the city’s storied history as the capital of New York State.
Learn about Smith, The Bazaar, and the shadowy political boss, William Barnes, whose behind-the-scenes maneuvers brought the proclamation to the Library. Paul Mercer, M.A., M.L.S, Senior Librarian, Manuscripts and Special Collections at the New York State Library in Albany will tell this story through words and pictures drawn from the Library’s special collections.
In the autumn of 2012 the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation made an historic journey to eight cities in New York State for exhibits in each municipality. The New York State Library gave a facsimile of that proclamation to the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Peterboro where it is on display.
Pamphlets from the 2012 traveling exhibit, “The First Step to Freedom: Abraham Lincoln’s Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation” will be distributed to attendees. Envelopes with a postal cachet of The First Step to Freedom and with a United States Postal Service cancellation honoring the United States Colored Troops from the Emancipation Station at the 21st Annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend are available at the Peterboro Mercantile and online at mercantile.gerritsmith.org. Copies of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation and the final Emancipation Proclamation are also available at the Mercantile.
Men of Color To Arms! Recognizing and Remembering Peterboro’s Black Civil War Soldiers
At 3:15 p.m. Smithfield Town Historian Donna Burdick will talk about the 12 African-American soldiers from Peterboro who served in the Civil War, with details on their units and experiences in battle, as well as the families they left at home. Six of these men are buried in Peterboro and Burdick will also discuss the other six veterans whose service is credited to the Town of Smithfield. “Men of Color To Arms! Recognizing and Remembering Peterboro’s Black Civil War Soldiers” is one of the 2013 Peterboro Heritage programs hosted by the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark and the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum to commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War.
Donna Burdick has been the Smithfield Town Historian for 18 years. While serving as research chair of the Madison County Freedom Trail Commission during Madison County’s Bicentennial celebration in 2006, she became interested in learning more about the African-American soldiers who served from Smithfield during the Civil War. She wanted to call attention to the lives and experiences of the black soldiers, whose contributions often seem to have been forgotten. Donna is a retired teacher, having taught business courses at Whitney Point Central High School for 29 years. She retired in 2001.
Trumpets at the Walls of Jericho: Relatives of Civil War Glory Unit Chaplain Speak in Peterboro
Blayne Whitfield, Vice President of the Samuel Harrison Society in Pittsfield Mass., and his aunt Ruth Edmonds Hill, Oral History Coordinator at the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, in Cambridge Mass., will travel back to Peterboro, an educational site of their ancestor Samuel Harrison, to reconnect Harrison to Peterboro.
At 1 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 4 the film “A Trumpet at the Walls of Jericho: The Untold Story of Rev. Samuel Harrison” will be shown. The film’s debut was Jan. 22, 2005 with an evening of celebration at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield to benefit the restoration of Harrison’s home in Pittsfield. The film was produced and directed by Mike Kirk, in conjunction with the Western Reserve Academy., and partially filmed in Peterboro. The story was narrated by Ossie Davis, Keith David, and Mario Van Peebles. Evan Martin plays young Harrison. Wynton Marsalis’ music is featured throughout the film and Marsalis speaks on Harrison.
At 2 p.m. following the film Whitfield and Hill will share the history of their ancestor who attended Gerrit Smith’s Manual Labor School in Peterboro, became the chaplain of the 54th Massachusetts United States Colored Troops of the movie Glory fame, and served for many years as the minister of the Second Congregational Church in Pittsfield MA. This program is supported by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities.
The Sable Arm of the Republic: Black Troops in the Union Army 1861-1865 – The Glory Story
The “sable arm” was the term that President Abraham Lincoln used to refer to the use of black troops in putting down the armed rebellion of the Southern Confederacy. In April, 1865 these troops represented almost 10 percent of the Union Army and slightly more than 10 percent of the combat deaths. In continuing recognition of the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War during Peterboro heritage programs in 2013, the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark will present programs during Emancipation Days featuring the Emancipation Proclamation and its prompting of the recruitment of the United States Colored Troops.
At 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 4, Tom Hogle PhD will present “The Sable Arm of the Republic: Black Troops in the Union Army 1861 – 1865” at the Smithfield Community Center, 5255 Pleasant Valley Road. The purpose of the presentation and discussion is to highlight the role of these brave Americans by referencing specific parts of the Academy award winning film Glory. The movie, portrays the creation, training and early combat of the 54th Massachusetts Voluntary Infantry Regiment in 1863.
The 54th was a regiment (approximately 1,000 men) of black soldiers lead by white officers, most prominently Col. Robert Gould Shaw, recruited by Governor John Andrew and aided by abolitionists including Frederick Douglass. The unit was one of many formed after President Abraham signed the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863. Rev. Samuel Harrison, the chaplain of the 54th Mass, attended Gerrit Smith’s Manual Labor School in Peterboro.
Dr. John Thomas Hogle, a Vietnam combat veteran, earned a B.A. at Oswego State (1975), a M.A. at Plattsburgh State (1979) and a Ph.D. in History at the University of Colorado at Boulder (1992). He has taught History and Government courses at Morrisville State College since 1999 and was recently promoted to Full Professor in the School of Liberal Arts.
Prior to joining Morrisville, professor Hogle, taught overseas in Europe, the Middle East, Korea and Japan in the University of Maryland Overseas Division. A former chair of the Social Science Department, Dr. Hogle presently serves as the elected chapter President of the United University Professions union and is the Alternate University Faculty Senator for Morrisville State College. He lives in his home town of Syracuse, New York near his surviving ten brothers and sisters. He also serves on the staff of his cat, Black Jack.
Films that will be discussed in the Sunday sessions will be shown at the Smithfield Community Center during two sessions for persons who may wish to review the films. There is no admission fee to the film sessions.
The Massachusetts 54th Colored Infantry is the first film in the movie sessions (6:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2 and 8 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 4). Morgan Freeman narrates the story of the unsung heroes of the “54th Mass.”
Weeks after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Governor Andrew of Massachusetts was authorized to raise the first northern black regiment. 100 African American men from Massachusetts joined the regiment with 1,000 others joining from other states. The 54th fought bravely at Fort Wagner. After two years the company took Charleston. In the fall of 1865 the victorious 54th Infantry returned to Boston. This WGBH American Experience film is 56 minutes long and in color. This DVD is also available at the Peterboro Mercantile at the Visitor Center, and online at mercantile.gerritsmith.org
Glory is the two hour film about the 54th Massachusetts’ organization in Boston, Mass. to the bravery at Battery Wagner in South Carolina that won three Academy Awards including Best Supporting Actor by Denzel Washington.
Washington is the runaway slave who embodies the indomitable spirit of the 54th Regiment of Massachusetts. Morgan Freeman is an inspirational sergeant who unites the troops. Matthew Broderick and Cary Elwes are the idealistic Bostonians who lead the regiment. Despised by the South, distrusted by the North, the 54th, the first black regiment to fight for the Union, overcame great odds in its fight to join the war for freedom. Underpaid and ill-equipped, facing certain death at the hands of the Confederacy, the 54th rose to every challenge from racism within the ranks to the harrowing battle at Fort Wagner. The courage, skill, and sacrifice of the 54th paved the way for the Union’s ultimate victory.
Weekend admission to events and sites for Peterboro Emancipation Days 2013 is $5 for adults. Students and stewards are free. Admission to afternoon programs for unregistered persons is $3 for adults and free for students and stewards.
This event is one of the 2013 Peterboro Heritage Programs hosted by the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark and the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum.
Both sites are open from May 18 to Sept. 22 on weekends from 1 to 5 p.m., for special events, and by appointment.
For more information and updates: www.gerritsmith.org, info@gerritsmith.org or 315-280-8828.