Christopher Densmore
ugrr news archive July 14, 2006

events and news

URR NEWS: CONFERENCES AND EVENTS IN PENNSYLVANIA, DELAWARE, NEW YORK STATE AND ONTARIO, JULY – SEPTEMBER 2006

BLAIRSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA, MUSEUM DEDICATION, JULY 15, 2006

The Blairsville Passport to Freedom Underground Railroad Experience will dedicate the old Second Baptist Church (African American), 214 East Lane, Blairsville, Pennsylvania, as their new Underground Railroad and Transportation Museum, on Saturday, July 15, 2006. 

Program begins at 12 noon, featuring the 2nd Baptist Children's Choir.

Walking Tours of Blairsville's UGRR and Civil War Era History between 1 and 2 PM.

The former Second Baptist Church (1917) will become home to the UGRR and related Blairsville area history as part of a grant through the Blairsville Improvement Group and the Historical Society of the Blairsville Area.

For more info contact Chris Catalfamo at
[email protected]

DELAWARE URR COALITION MEETING, TUESDAY, JULY 18, 2006

The next meeting of the Delaware Underground Railroad Coalition will be on Tuesday, July 18, 2006, at Mt. Zion Holy Church, 325 Front Street, Milton, Delaware. All interested persons are invited to attend.

LOCATION:
Two blocks from the Fire hall between the Wilmington Trust Bank Building and the Milton Police Station, which is in the Milton Town Office Building

TIMES:
5:30 PM to 6:00 PM Networking and Fellowship
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM Coalition Business Meeting
8:00 PM to 9:00 PM Optional Tour of the nearby Milton Historical Society

No refreshments will be served. No RSVP is necessary. Please feel free to bring an interested friend or two.

Kay Wood Bailey, Corresponding Secretary, UGRR Coalition of Delaware, [email protected] 

SARATOGA, NEW YORK: SOLOMON NORTHRUP DAY, JULY 15, 2006

Saturday, July 15, at the Saratoga Visitor Center, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., celebrates the 8th annual Solomon Northrup Day – A Celebration of Freedom. This event, honored by Congress in May 2000, is a historical and educational event that focuses on American History vital to the region and brings together its citizens around a common history. This year’s keynote speaker is writer and historian Enid Mastrianni.

Cordell Reaves, Coordinator for the Underground Railroad Heritage Trail of Heritage, New York will speak on the African Burial Grounds. The Underground Railroad Players, Wanda Webster, Artistic Director, will perform “Hear my Voice, Feel My Tears" at the Saratoga Arts Council.  African Storyteller Kim Green will tell uplifting and delightful children’s stories. There will be music by a Caribbean Steel Pan Orchestra and belly dancing. The event opens with an art exhibition, July 10, featuring local artists at the Saratoga Arts Council. Governor Pataki’s office is sending a representative, New York State Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, and Commissioner John Franck, City of Saratoga Springs, will also attend. The Underground Railroad History Project of the Capital Region and The North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association, Plattsburgh, will make presentations relevant to regional history. A Panel Discussion on the current issue: "Immigration: Where to Next?," will be moderated by Professor T. Harper and will include business leaders and officials. Author Lloyd Stewart will speak on his new book, titled, A Far Cry from Freedom: Gradual Abolition (1799-1827). Northrup descendants are expected to attend. Event founder Renee Moore, in conjunction with NCUGRHA, is undertaking the Mintus Northrup Gravesite Restoration Project. FREE ADMISSION. FREE PARKING

For information call 518-587-8978 or e-mail, [email protected]

CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA MANUMISSION RECORDS

A summary of Chester County, Pennsylvania slave manumissions has been added to the Chester County Archives website at http://www.chesco.org/archives. These 65 records were filed in the Recorder of Deed's Office; they were identified by a survey of the Miscellaneous Deed Index. The 65 entries cover the years 1758-1858. While these manumissions were filed in Chester County, many were for slaves whose masters resided in Maryland or Delaware.

Laurie Rofini [email protected]

BUXTON, ONTARIO: HOMECOMING AND CONFERENCE, SEPTEMBER 1, 2006

The annual Homecoming at Buxton, Ontario, is being held Friday, September 1 through Monday, September 4, 2006.

On Friday, September 1, the Ninth Annual U.S.-Canadian History and Genealogy Conference is being held with the theme of “Faith, Slavery and Freedom.”

Speakers at the Conference include Ken Turner, president of the Essex County Historical Cemeteries Preservation Society and a director of the Ontario Historical Society, speaking on abandoned Black Cemeteries; Bamidele Agbasegbe Demerson, Director of Charles H. Wright African American Museum in Detroit on "Bags, Brooms, Bottles and Bedcovers: Hoodoo folk beliefs in African American Fine Arts" ; Christopher Densmore, Curator of Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College, on Quakers and the UGRR; Chris Shires and Richard Cooper from National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, on "From Faith to Freedom: Religion as Resistance during the American Slavery Period" ; Allen Stouffer, retired history professor from St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia and author of "The Light of Nature and the Law of God: Anti-slavery in Ontario, 1833-1877," speaking on "The Role of the Church in the Canadian Anti-slavery Movement."

For more details and information on registration, see the Buxton webpage at:
http://www.buxtonmuseum.com/index.html

Christopher Densmore
Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
July 14, 2006

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