Abolition Road co-founder, Marilyn Higgins discusses the inspiration for the annual Abolition Walk with podcast host Samantha Field and Madison County historian, Matt Urtz.
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Magical Musical Squad Returns for Third Annual Abolition Walk
The Magical Musical Squad from A Coalition of the Arts at St. David’s and Grace Episcopal Churches in Syracuse NY will be performing two songs during the 10:00 a.m. launch program. The sixteen children will sing a Civil Rights song "This Little Light of Mine", as they did at the 2023 Abolition Walk. The Squad will also sing an original song written by the members as a result of a poetry workshop. Annette Adams Brown, the creative director of the squad, cut the poems of the children into line by line pieces, placed them in a bag, mixed them together, poured them out on a table, and had the kids rearrange their lines to create this song, which they titled, "Love Is” and then gave the lyrics to the musical director, Marcia Hagan. who composed the music!
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Read the Oneida Dispatch story here.
Third Abolition Walk Starts with Song
The Sylvan Beach Singers will launch program of the Third Abolition Walk at 10:00 am Saturday, October 5, 2024 at 102 South Peterboro Street, Canastota NY 13032.
The Abolition Walk reenacts a portion of the walk from the “brink of the canal” to Peterboro that one hundred four abolitionists made October 21, 1835, to join three hundred other abolitionists to establish the New York State Antislavery Society. Those four hundred delegates had a vision of a world free of slavery. The Sylvan Singers empower this vision with the opening lines from A Million Dreams (Pasek and Paul); “I close my eyes and I can see a world that’s waiting up for me, that I call my own.” In the decades after that Peterboro meeting, Harriet Tubman brought her “passengers” and her mother to her friends in Peterboro. The Sylvan Beach Singers honor her with their second song titled Harriet Tubman. Along the Abolition Walk participants may sing as did the 104 abolitionists in 1835, who, according to James Caleb Jackson’s report, sang, shouted, laughed, and prayed.
Abolition Ale Joins Abolition Road
Erie Canal Brewing on Peterboro Street in Canastota responded to a request from Joe DiGiorgio, President of the Canastota Canal Town Museum, and Roseanne Warner, Mayor of the Village of Canastota, to brew something special for the Abolition Walk. Situated at the beginning of the Abolition Road to Peterboro, the brew business has created a craft beer named 1835 Abolition Ale. The Classic Lite N' E Zee Thirst Quenching Pale Ale is available at the Canastota taproom and at Seneca Street Brew Pub in Manlius.
Canastota and Abolition Road
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Underground Railroad Routes: Canastota, strategically located between Syracuse and Utica, was a significant stop on the Underground Railroad. The Gerrit Smith Estate in nearby Peterboro served as a refuge for escaped slaves seeking freedom on their way to Canada.
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Abolitionist Conventions: The town hosted several abolitionist conventions during the mid-19th century.
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Anti-Slavery Publications: Canastota residents published anti-slavery newspapers and pamphlets that spread awareness about the horrors of slavery and advocated for its abolition
Abolition freedom Walk 2022
The 2022 Inaugural ABOLITION WALK
History Underfoot