Upcoming Events 2026

June 6-7
​
National Abolition Hall of Fame & Museum
Opening Weekend 2026​

Open Saturday and Sunday
June 6 to October 25
12:00-4:00pm

Smithfield Community Center
​5255 Pleasant Valley Rd
​Peterboro, NY 13134

​June 16 ~  Singing a Journey of Freedom:
​Songs of Slavery and Emancipation Concert

Experience Songs of Slavery and Emancipation performed by Dr. Kathy Bullock,
Mat Callahan, Yvonne Moore and the Berea Singers, bringing history into the present.

​FREE and open to the public. Pre-registration suggested. Click here to register for this free event, or use the QR Code below.

Pre-registration suggested.
Please complete this form to reserve your place and confirm your support.

Please consider bringing a non-perishable food item donation for the Hope Chapel Food Program.

NAHOF is excited to bring this performance group to Hope Chapel in Utica, NY. 
Singing a Journey of Freedom: Songs of Slavery and Emancipation Tour is a multi-state concert tour and musical pilgrimage retracing the paths of the Underground Railroad through performance, scholarship, and song. Led by Dr. Kathy Bullock, the choir performs songs composed and sung by enslaved people and abolitionists—works long buried by history and now being restored to public consciousness through the “Songs of Slavery and Emancipation” Project founded by Mat Callahan.
This performance group is running a concert tour from June 12–22, 2026, traveling through six states and one country as part of America’s 250th anniversary, inviting audiences to reexamine the nation’s founding ideals through the authentic voices of those who fought for freedom.
The project brings together cultural and historical partners across the United States and Canada, including The John Brown Project and John Brown Lives!, along with Underground Railroad and abolitionist heritage sites throughout the tour route.
​

7:00 pm
Hope Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church​
751 South St, Utica, NY 13501

June 19 ~  A New History of Abolition and Emancipation
Presentation by author Manisha Sinha Commemorating Juneteenth

FREE and open to the public
​
Pre-registration suggested. Click here to register, or click QR Code below.
Book sales by Colgate Bookstore on site and author signing is available after the talk.

7:00 pm
​Catherine Cummings Theater
16 Lincklaen St, Cazenovia, NY 13035

June 20-21 ~ I Love NY Path Through History Weekend #1 ​

Visit NYS Museum and Heritage Sites

July 5​ ~ “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
Oration of Frederick Douglass, July 5, 1852

2:00
Presentation: Owen Corpin and Dr. Norm Dann
Book sales available

Featuring performances by the Lingo Family singers
​
Peterboro Methodist Church
5240 Pleasant Valley Road, Peterboro NY 13134
​
Co-sponsored by Gerrit Smith Estate NHL 
and National Abolition Hall of Fame & Museum

July 19 2pm ~ "Brothers in Spirit: Mutual Influence Between Frederick Douglass and  Gerrit Smith"

Norm Dann will present a program on his new book
​
2:00pm
Smithfield Community Center
​5255 Pleasant Valley Rd
​Peterboro, NY 13134

Book sales available

​Co-sponsored by Gerrit Smith Estate NHL 
and National Abolition Hall of Fame & Museum
​[email protected]

August 1 ~  16th Emancipation Day

Vanessa Johnson
Underground Railroad Storyteller

Gerrit Smith Estate NHL
5304 Oxbow Rd. Peterboro, NY 13134

Program details coming soon!

Co-sponsored by Gerrit Smith Estate NHL 
and National Abolition Hall of Fame & Museum
​[email protected]

August 23 ~ Fugitives, Friends and the Fight for Freedom 
​Multimedia presentation by ​Jeffrey M. Davis
​
The gripping true story of how Syracuse, NY became the front line of resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 — and what it means for us now.

Peterboro's own Gerrit Smith was a driving force in that resistance — a vital ally of Jermain Loguen and Rev. Samuel Joseph May in the fight against the Fugitive Slave Law and the network that defied it.
Join Jeffrey M. Davis—Boston writer and third great-grandson of Rev. May—for a gripping multimedia journey through stories of courage and defiance. From harrowing escapes on the Erie Canal to the dramatic "Jerry Rescue" in Syracuse, NY, you'll meet the women and men who refused to bow to injustice.

2:00 pm
Smithfield Community Center
​5255 Pleasant Valley Rd, Peterboro, NY 13134
[email protected]

October 9 ~ Oneida County Freedom Trail Walking Tour

​Mechanix Hall, Utica, NY

​Featuring the Lingo Singers, Jan DeAmicis
Save the date! ​Details coming soon

Co-sponsored by National Abolition Hall of Fame & Museum
and Oneida County Freedom Trail
​[email protected]

October 10-11 ~ I Love NY Path Through History Weekend #2 ​

Visit NYS Museum and Heritage Sites

October 10 ~ Fifth Annual Abolition Walk

Walk with us and trace a portion of the footsteps of 104 abolitionists who escaped an angry pro-slavery mob in Utica in October, 1835, embarked on an Erie Canal barge to Canastota, and climbed the hills to Peterboro where they formed the New York State Antislavery Society.

Registration and schedule coming  soon.

For details and registration visit
abolitionroad.org

Co-sponsored by
National Abolition Hall of Fame & Museum

October 24 ~ Hall of Fame Induction 2026

Save the date!
Inductees and details coming soon

National Abolition Hall of Fame & Museum
located in the
Smithfield Community Center
​5255 Pleasant Valley Rd
​Peterboro, NY 13134