Smithfield Community Association Awarded 2009 Underground Railroad Free Press prize for Leadership

The Smithfield Community Association of Peterboro, New York, has been awarded the 2009 Underground Railroad Free Press Prize for Leadership in the Contemporary Underground Railroad Community, the highest honor bestowed in the international Underground Railroad community. Free Press Prize winners are chosen by an expertly qualified international panel of judges.

The Smithfield Community Association’s achievements since its founding 17 years ago include launching the National Abolition Hall of Fame, and preservation of many historic properties in Peterboro, most notably the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark and the Smithfield Community Center.

After incorporating in 1992, the Association raised funds to restore the church and the nearby Gerrit Smith estate, and then placed them both on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. The saved buildings are direct links to the time when Peterboro played a major role in the Underground Railroad and in the social and political changes that shaped the nation in the mid- and late 1800s.

Peterboro was a busy Underground Railroad destination for freedom seekers and the 1820 church in which the Association meets was the site of the first meeting of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society in 1835. This small upstate New York community was at the forefront in fights for abolition of slavery, the equality of all people regardless of race, and the equality of women including the right to vote.

One of America’s wealthiest men and leading abolitionists, Gerrit Smith was a financial backer of John Brown, a vocal advocate for women’s suffrage, three times the Liberty Party’s candidate for president and twice ran for governor of New York. In several cases, Smith used his own money to provide legal defense for freedom seekers.

In 2005, the Smithfield Community Association incorporated the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum. On October 22, 2005, 170 years to the day since the New York State Anti-Slavery Society first met in the old church where the Association meets, the National Abolition Hall of Fame inducted Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, Harriet Tubman and Gerrit Smith.

Underground Railroad Free Press is the world’s largest-circulation Underground Railroad news publication and annually awards prizes for contemporary Underground Railroad leadership, preservation and advancement of knowledge. Free Press operates Lynx, the central registry of Underground Railroad organizations, and Datebook, the international Underground Railroad community’s central calendar.

The 2009 Prize for Advancement of Knowledge was awarded to Karolyn Smardz Frost of Collingwood, Ontario, Canada for her award-winning book, I’ve Got a Home  In Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad. The 2008 Prize for Preservation was awarded to Julie Finch and Fern Luskin for their unflagging work in saving Hopper-Gibbons House, an important Underground Railroad safe-house and center of  abolitionism in New York City.

Smithfield Community Association Awarded 2009 Underground Railroad Free Press prize for Leadership

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