On October 21, 1835, six hundred abolitionists met in Utica, NY to form a state antislavery society. Twice the delegates were confronted by an angry mob and thrown out of the Bleeker Street Church. Witnessing the thwarting of First Amendment rights, Gerrit Smith invited the delegates to meet the next day in the safety of Peterboro NY.
Through the cold and rainy night, three hundred men made their way to Peterboro up over the hills through Vernon Center. One hundred four delegates rented an empty lumber barge in Utica and traveled the Erie Canal to Canastota. From Canastota they walked up the steep elevation to Peterboro.
The people of Peterboro fed the abolitionists and on October 22, 1835, the inaugural meeting of the New York State Antislavery Society was held in the building that is now the Town of Smithfield municipal building and the home of the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum (NAHOF)…