{"id":95805,"date":"2018-07-17T11:07:50","date_gmt":"2018-07-17T15:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=95805"},"modified":"2018-07-17T10:07:14","modified_gmt":"2018-07-17T14:07:14","slug":"ninth-annual-peterboro-emancipation-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=95805","title":{"rendered":"Ninth\u00a0annual Peterboro Emancipation Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A wreath is laid at the grave of abolitionist Gerrit Smith in 2017 after the annual Peterboro Emancipation Day Processional from the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark to the Peterboro Cemetery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ninth\u00a0annual Peterboro Emancipation Day<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark committee for the 9th\u00a0Annual Peterboro Emancipation Day has announced its programs for\u00a0Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. The annual Gathering begins at\u00a010 a.m.\u00a0on the grounds of the Gerrit Smith Estate. Co-chairs Jim Corpin, Carrie Martin, and Max Smith will welcome the public and lead the program.<\/p>\n

Following the Gathering, two wreaths will be\u00a0carried to the Peterboro Cemetery in a public procession. The wreaths are laid upon the humble grave of Gerrit Smith and on a grave of a person \u201cBorn in Slavery. Died a free (Wo)Man.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year wreaths will be laid on the graves of Maria Howard and Thomas Jefferson Potter. Prior to the event these graves were unmarked. Thanks to a generous benefactor two gravestones will be set for the Emancipation Day ceremony.<\/p>\n

Maria Howard died on Feb 17, 1869 at fifty years of age at the residence of Rev. William F. Bridge, who was the last minister at the Free Church of Peterboro and, at the same time, Principal of the Peterboro Evans Academy.\u00a0 Rev. Bridge conducted Howard\u2019s funeral. Maria was one of thirty-seven slaves who were owned by Elias Creswell of New Orleans LA and freed by Gerrit Smith in 1852. She was also one of the last of seventeen who came to Peterboro, and then apparently lived in other towns in the area \u2013 including with the Daniel Dorrance family in Vernon.<\/p>\n

Thomas Jefferson Potter was born a slave about 1816, in an unknown place.\u00a0 Potter\u2019s freedom was later purchased by NaahamGoodsell of Clinton NY who also paid for Potter\u2019s education.\u00a0 Potter later moved to Peterboro where he subscribed to the\u00a0Madison & Onondaga Abolitionist, a Cazenovia newspaper, in 1841.\u00a0 At an 1842 Cazenovia anti-slavery convention, a long letter from Potter was read in which the writer indicated:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI ask the whole American people, had I not rather die, or be put to death, than to be a slave to any tyrant who takes not only my own, but my wife and children\u2019s lives, by inches?\u201d\u00a0 On June 7, 1843, Thomas Potter died \u201cnear Peterboro,\u201d and his obituary confirms his attendance at Gerrit Smith\u2019s Manual Labor School. His funeral was conducted by Rev. Abel Schofield.<\/p>\n

The afternoon program\u00a0The Evolution of Slavery and the Heroes Who Fight It: Discussions of My Travels from Peterboro and the Home of Gerrit Smith to Montgomery AL and the Home of the Equal Justice Initiative\u00a0will be presented by Jacob Donovan-Colin. Donovan volunteered at the opening of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in April 2018. He will share his experience with pictures.<\/p>\n

The public is encouraged to participate in all or part of the Emancipation Day activities at the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark,\u00a05304 Oxbow Road, Peterboro NY 13134<\/a>. For more information\u00a0info@gerritsmith.org<\/a>\u00a0or 315- 657-8461.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ninth\u00a0annual Peterboro Emancipation Day The Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark committee for the 9th\u00a0Annual Peterboro Emancipation Day has announced its programs for\u00a0Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. The annual Gathering begins at\u00a010 a.m.\u00a0on the grounds of the Gerrit Smith Estate. Co-chairs Jim Corpin, Carrie Martin, and Max Smith will welcome the public and lead the program. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[22367,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-oVf","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/unnamed-1-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C740&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/95806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}