NATIONAL ABOLITION HALL OF FAME & MUSEUM
INDUCTION WEEKEND
October 18 ~ 20, 2024
Inductees
Catharine White Coffin
Levi Coffin
Leonard Andrew Grimes
James McCune Smith
Registration
Friday
7 pm ~ North to Freedom
A documentary film presented by Brian Frey, WSKG Public Television
Examines the role that Upstate New York played in the Underground Railroad in the years leading up to the Civil War.
(Admission: Induction Registration or Donation)
Saturday
9 am ~ Tour of Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark
Guided by Norman K. Dann PhD, biographer of Gerrit Smith and family
(Admission: Induction Registration or Donation)
1~5 pm ~ Abolition Symposia
Peterboro Methodist Church (5240 Pleasant Valley Rd, Peterboro, NY 13134
(Admission: Induction Registration or Donation)
1 pm
Catharine Coffin: Able Partner in Justice
Presented by Joanna Hahn, Central Region Director,
Catharine and Levi Coffin State Historic Site in Fountain City Indiana.
2 pm
The Mysterious Road: Levi Coffin’s Underground Railroad Journey
Presented by Joanna Hahn, Central Region Director
Catharine and Levi Coffin State Historic Site in Fountain City Indiana
3 pm
Abolitionist Rev. Leonard A. Grimes & His Unrelenting Quest to Lead His People to the Morning of Emancipation and the Noonday of Equality.
Presented by Stephen Wyman, Falmouth, Maine
4 pm
Dr. James Mc Cune Smith, the First Black Doctor in America
Presented by Christopher Webber, San Francisco, California
5 pm ~ Antislavery Dinner
Menu inspired by Elizabeth Smith Miller’s 19th C. Cookbook In The Kitchen
Presented by Peterboro United Methodist Church
(Reservations Required)
7 pm ~ Induction Ceremonies and Presentation of the Inductee Banners
Catharine White Coffin
Levi Coffin
Rev. Leonard Andrew Grimes
Dr. James Mc Cune Smith
(Admission: Induction Registration or Donation)
Sunday
9 am ~ Cazenovia Convention and the Fugitive Slave Law
Presented by Tom Bennett
Location: 9 Sullivan Street Cazenovia NY 13035
(Admission: Induction Registration or Donation)
Catharine White Coffin (1803-1881)
Catharine Coffin focused her time and efforts on ending slavery and gaining rights for women. Raised an anti-slavery Quaker in North Carolina, and then moving to Ohio and Indiana, she and her husband Levi Coffin managed one of the most successful Underground Railroad depots in the United States. Coffin was one of the Underground Railroad persons honored on a forever stamp by the U.S. Postal Service in March 2024.
Levi Coffin (1798-1877)
Levi Coffin, an anti-slavery Quaker, committed his life to the eradication of slavery. With his wife Catharine Coffin, Levi assisted hundreds of freedom seekers in Indiana and Ohio as part of the Underground Railroad. Coffin was also a noted abolitionist in both states, with involvement in many anti-slavery activities and societies. Due to his tireless support, he gained the title of “President of the Underground Railroad.”
Leonard Andrew Grimes (Born between 1812 and 1815-Died in 1873)
Leonard Andrew Grimes assisted at least four hundred freedom seekers in escaping bondage. Grimes was imprisoned for helping an enslaved mother and her six children escape to freedom. He became a minister and his family restarted Underground Railroad activities at their new home in Boston. He played a leading role in a widely publicized case involving the capture of three members of his congregation following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850.
James McCune Smith (1813-1865)
James McCune Smith was born into slavery in 1813 in New York City where his mother emancipated herself at the time of his birth. Smith earned a medical degree in Scotland, returning to the USA in 1837 as the first black credentialed doctor. He challenged pseudoscientific justifications for the oppression of African Americans and false data presented by pro-slavery advocates. Smith was a prolific writer for the abolitionist movement, including being a regular columnist in "Frederick Douglass' Paper".
Download the Registration form.
Instructions to Print and Mail the Registration are included.
The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum is located at 5255 Pleasant Valley Road in Peterboro NY in the building of the inaugural meeting of the New York State Antislavery Society October 22, 1835. Stay tuned for more information and registration: www.PeterboroNY.org 315.308.1890 www.NationalAbolitionHallofFameandMuseum.org nahofm1835@gmail.com