Join OHA Curator of History Robert Searing for a Lunchtime Lecture “Freedom Fighters: Civil Resistance and the Fight Against Slavery in Antebellum Syracuse” at noon on Friday, November 15, at Art in the Atrium.
This presentation examines the work of a small but dedicated group of abolitionists in Syracuse, N.Y., led by Rev. Samuel May and Rev. Jermain Loguen. Loguen, a man who escaped his own enslavement in Tennessee and settled in Syracuse in 1841, became one of the era’s most successful and well-known Station Masters on the UGRR. These men and their compatriots helped make Syracuse a center for abolitionist activity and organization and were primary participants in of the era’s most significant acts of civil disobedience, the Jerry Rescue, in October 1851. Additionally, the talk will place the efforts of local reformers in the larger national context of the growing sectional controversies over slavery, which ultimately resulted in the Civil War in 1861. It ends with a discussion of the National Convention of Colored Men, which met in Syracuse in October 1864.
This lecture is free and open to the public. It is part OHA’s programming around the current exhibit at Art in the Atrium, “Freedom for All: Syracuse’s Colored Men’s Convention of 1864,” opened in early November and running through the end of the year.
CNY Art’s Art in the Atrium is located in downtown Syracuse at 201 East Washington Street. Light refreshments will be served. Street and garage parking is available in the nearby area.
Email OHA Project Manager for Events and Programs Lorna Oppedisano at lorna.oppedisano@cnyhistory.org with any questions.