The public is invited to Peterboro, Madison County, on Wednesday for a New Year’s Eve event commemorating the issuance of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1862.
Events take place all afternoon in the settlement and are free.
At 11 o’clock National Abolition Hall of Fameat 5255 Pleasant Valley Road, will open with exhibits, social event, coffee and refreshments, followed by lunch refreshments at noon.
A facsimile of Lincoln’s “Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation,” a gift from the New York State Museum, will be on display.
On September 22, 1862, following the Union Army’s victory at Antietam, President Lincoln issued an order documenting that in 100 days the federal government would consider all slaves in those states still in rebellion against the United States to be “forever free.”
The “Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation” is the only surviving document of the Proclamation in Lincoln’s own hand.
In 1864, Lincoln donated it to the U.S. Sanitary Commission, which raffled it off at the Albany Relief Bazaar to help raise money for the Union war effort.
Abolitionist Gerrit Smith won the raffle after purchasing 1,000 tickets at $1 each. Smith then sold the document to the New York State Legislature and the funds went to the Sanitary Commission.
The Legislature, in turn, deposited the document in the New York State Library, where it remains today.
One hundred days later, on the night of December 31, 1862, enslaved and free African Americans gathered, often around campfires, to watch the news that the Emancipation Proclamation had gone into effect.
Since 2012, Peterboro has honored this tradition with “Watch Night” events.
At 1 p.m., Owen Corpin, an honor graduate of Morrisville-Eaton High School and Trident Scholar of the United States Naval Academy, will lead a program with historical announcements, military stories, a description of the first Watch Night of New Year’s Eve 1862 and a shared reading of the Emancipation Proclamation.
At 2:30, the event will move down the street to the grounds of the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark (at 5304 Oxbow Road) where a symbolic “fire for freedom” will be lit.
At 4 p.m., the Lingo Family Singers will perform rousing Civil War-era selections along with 19th-century favorites.Thursday century Hutchinson Family Singers ring in the New Year.
The Lingo Family Singers follow in the footsteps of the Hutchinsons.
The family’s musical tradition began on a singing farm.
Lowell Jr. began singing in local churches, community theater productions, and sang with the Syracuse Oratorio Society. His wife and children began to join him in singing special music at the Welsh Church in Nelson and at the Peterboro United Methodist Church.
This year, the family will present grandson Liam Noble on stage. Alex Bodenham will also join the Ling family.
The program will include classics such as “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”, “Tenting Tonight”, “The Spider and the Fly”, “Kind Words Can Never Die” and of course “Auld Lang Syne”.
This special concert will be held at the Peterboro United Methodist Church, 5240 Pleasant Valley Road.
More information can be found at PeterboroNY.orgemail NAHOFm1835@gmail.com or call (315) 308-1890.
Leave a Reply