® Free Press Independent reporting on today’s Underground Railroad September, 2009 urrfreepress.com Volume 4, Issue 20

Luskin, Finch, Frost, SmithfieldurrFreePress.com Are 2009 Free Press Prize Winners The Prizes The Free Press Prize Panel of Judges The Underground Railroad Free Press Prizes are awarded each September by Under- Authors Karolyn Smardz Frost and Fergus ground Railroad Free Press in the fields of leadership, preservation and advancement Bordewich, journalists Lawrence Hall and of knowledge in the contemporary international Underground Railroad community. Wayne Young, and Professors Hortense Judging is conducted by an expertly qualified international panel of impartial judges Simmons and Judith Wellman comprise the from various disciplines. To submit a 2010 nomination, download a nomination form Panel of Judges. Canadians Frost and Hall from the Free Press web site, complete it and email it to [email protected]. make the panel international.

The 2009 Free Press Prize for The 2009 Free Press Prize for The 2009 Free Press Prize for Leadership Underground Railroad Preservation the Advancement of Knowledge in the Underground Railroad Community

Smithfield Community Association

For the example it has set over many Julie Finch, Fern Luskin and Karolyn Smardz Frost years in entrepreneurship, organizing, Hopper-Gibbons House (left) For her award-winning book, I’ve Got a managing and promoting the significant For their unflagging work heading the ef- Home In Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad and abolitionist fort to save Hopper-Gibbons House, a na- Underground Railroad, her archaeologi- sites and history around Peterboro, New tionally important Underground Railroad cal work on Canadian Underground Rail- York, the Smithfield Community Associa- safe-house and center of in road sites over the last 25 years, and her tion has been named the 2009 Free Press City, Fern Luskin and Julie public lecturing, the Free Press Panel of Prize for Leadership laureate. Finch have been awarded the 2009 Free Judges has named Karolyn Smardz Frost The Association’s achievements since its Press Prize for Preservation. as winner of the 2009 Free Press Prize for the Advancement of Knowledge. founding 17 years ago include launching In 2008 when Luskin and Finch, neighbors the National Abolition Hall of Fame, and active in the preservation of midtown I’ve Got a Home In Glory Land was preservation of historic properties in Pe- Manhattan’s historic Chelsea neighbor- awarded the 2007 Governor General's terboro, most notably the hood, began questioning the addition of Literary Award for Nonfiction, Canada’s Estate National Historic Landmark and another story to the nineteenth century highest book award and the equivalent the Smithfield Community Center. The home at 339 West 29th Street in Manhat- of a Pulitzer Prize in the United States. saved buildings are direct links to the tan, they learned that the new story was time when Peterboro played a major role Of her book the 2007 awarding jury said, going up in violation of building codes in the Underground Railroad and in the “I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land is a tri- and that the home had belonged to social and political changes that shaped umphant blend of archaeological and his- prominent Underground Railroad figures. the nation in the mid- and late 1800s. torical research with literary story- During the mid-nineteenth century, the telling. Karolyn Smardz Frost uses the This small upstate New York community 1847 home was owned by Isaac Hopper, flight of Thornton and Lucie Blackburn was at the forefront in fights for aboli- a Quaker from Philadelphia who had from slavery in Kentucky to freedom in tion of slavery, the equality of all people been an Underground Railroad organizer Toronto to bring the Underground Rail- regardless of race, and the equality of there earlier in the century. road and its passengers to life in re- women including the right to vote. markably rich detail. Moving and infor- Peterboro was a busy Underground Rail- Hopper's daughter, Abigail Gibbons, and mative in the best sense, the book will road destination for freedom seekers and her family engaged deeply in abolition- become an instant classic.” ism and other reform movements before the 1820 church in which the Association and after the Civil War. Hopper-Gibbons The book also won the Heritage Toronto is headquartered was the site of the first House became an intellectual center of Award of Merit, and honorable mention meeting of the New York State Anti- abolitionism as prominent abolitionists for the 2008 Albert Corey Prize awarded Slavery Society in 1835.

Please see safe-house, page 3, column 1 Please see Frost on page 3, column 2 Please see Smithfield, page 3, column 3

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREE PRESS Page 2

And the Winners Are . . . Freedom Center Leads In Underground Railroad Education In our last issue, we held a contest to Cincinnati’s National Underground Railroad is making the programs’ three nationwide name a creek which runs beside a Freedom Center has launched a dozen far- markets — students, teachers and the general subscriber’s Underground Railroad reaching educational initiatives at the rate of public — more aware of the Center’s educa- safe-house. The safe-house owners about one per quarter and is now pushing to tional resources. thank the many Free Press readers promote their availability. who submitted entries. Organized into educator resources, youth de- The winning entry, North Star Creek, States Freedom Center CEO Donald Murphy, velopment and public programs, offerings in- was separately submitted by sub- “We are now in hundreds of school districts clude video lessons at Apple’s online iTunes scribers Beverly Buckman and Alex- and thousands of schools with our e-learning University, several other online e-learning re- andra Stone. How fitting as the creek material. We conduct literally hundreds of sources, detailed downloadable lesson plans, flows into Freedom Creek, so again teacher workshops during the year. We now summer camps, an in-house lecture series, the North Star leads to Freedom. have a college-level course in conjunction the Teacher Resource Center and more. Honorable mention goes to Ron Ellis with the University of Cincinnati.” The Freedom Center has not only sprung into of Sacramento, California, for his six entries. Ernest Perry, Freedom Center Chief Innova- a lengthy lead as the Underground Railroad tion Officer, says that the current challenge Please see Freedom Center, page 3, column 3 How to Subscribe Ontario Inaugurates Emancipation Day Free Press subscriptions are free. To The Canadian province of Ontario has passed ery which became law July 9, 1793. Simcoe subscribe, send email addresses of those you would like to receive Free Press to legislation setting each August 1 as Emanci- was not able to get the outright abolition he [email protected]. pation Day. Passed December 4, 2008, the sought but the 1793 act did set the wheels in motion for abolition in Canada. Free Press Prize Nominations Emancipation Day official observance came after ten years of petitioning and advocacy, Visit urrfreepress.com to learn more In her prize-winning I’ve Got a Home In Glory about these top honors in the interna- and 175 years to the day after Great Britain’s Land, 2009 Free Press Prize laureate Karolyn tional Underground Railroad community Slavery Abolition Act of August 1, 1834, which and to download a nomination form. Frost points out that, even before outright abolished slavery in nearly all parts of the abolition, Canada was refusing to extradite Link Your Web Site or View Lynx British Commonwealth. Visit urrFreePress.com to view Lynx, freedom seekers to the United States. the central registry of Underground Canada began opposing slavery forty years For many years, August 1 has been an Eman- Railroad organizations. To add your earlier when Canadian Lieutenant Governor link, email its web address to cipation Day holiday in several Caribbean na- John Simcoe sponsored the Act Against Slav- [email protected]. tions and Guyana, former British colonies. View or Add to Datebook Underground Railroad Pioneer Gara Honored Email us your upcoming events and we will add them to Datebook. Click on At its May 10 commencement, Ohio’s Wil- Much of the work before Gara’s portrayed Datebook at urrFreePress.com to view mington College honored Professor of History the Underground Railroad through the eyes of a comprehensive calendar of events. Emeritus and acclaimed Underground Rail- safe-house operators and conductors. Gara’s Send News, Letters, Articles or Ads road author Larry Gara with an honorary doc- book was a major influence in the rekindling News, letters or articles: torate of humane letters. of the nation’s memory of the Underground [email protected] Railroad beginning in Advertising: [email protected] In honoring Gara, now 86, college president the 1960s. See our web site notice for rates, Daniel A. DiBiasio cited Gara’s lifelong work specifications and restrictions. in race relations, peace activism and social The Friends of the justice causes. Network to Freedom Underground Railroad Free Press® Association will also Independent Reporting On Gara’s landmark 1961 book The Liberty Line: Today’s Underground Railroad honor Gara at its an- The Legend of the Underground Railroad re- nual conference Sep- Peter H. Michael, Publisher cast the Underground Railroad story into the [email protected] tember 16 through 19 301.874.0235 perspective of the freedom seeker and did when he participates in much to promote use of documentation to Underground Railroad Free Press is a free news- a panel discussion. letter published by Underground Railroad Free authenticate Underground Railroad history. Press Publications. Back issues are available free at our web site. Underground Railroad Free Press is distributed by email. Send email ad- More Underground Railroad Cycling Routes dress changes and new subscriber email ad- Earlier in Free Press, we wrote of Adventure Center, numerous safe -houses, and Oberlin dresses to [email protected]. Cycling Association’s unprecedented 2000- College, the first to admit African-American Underground Railroad Free Press welcomes students. Along the way, the tour visits the news, articles and letters to the editor of 800 mile Underground Railroad bicycle route from words or less. All rights to submissions including Mobile, Alabama, to Owen Sound, Ontario. National Afro-American Museum and Cultural email and letters will be treated as uncondition- Center at Wilberforce University, one of the ally assigned to Free Press for publication and Now, Adventure Cycling offers three shorter copyright purposes, and subject to our unre- Underground Railroad cycling tours, some with first historically Black colleges. stricted right to edit and comment editorially camping and catered meals along the way. unless otherwise negotiated with authors. The Association’s month-long Freedom Trail Underground Railroad Free Press accepts taste- For the one-day cyclist, there are the three North Tour begins at the Freedom Center ful nonpolitical advertising and reserves the with stops at Harriet Beecher Stowe’s home, right to reject advertising which for any reason new Day Trips in and around Ripley, Ohio, in our sole judgment is not acceptable. Submit famed for the John Parker home and John and monuments, museums, safe houses, ceme- advertising in pdf, jpg, tiff, png or gif format or teries, heritage sites and other important text. Visit urrfreepress.com for rates and layout Jeanne Rankin home, both very active safe- specifications. houses. The loops are nine, ten and eighteen historic locations, and ends at Owen Sound. miles in length, and easy rides for nearly all. All contents of this and other issues of Under- As of this issue’s publication, space is still ground Railroad Free Press are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in whole The seven-day Heart of the Underground Rail- available on the 2009 Freedom Trail North or in part for any reason without prior written Tour and on the Day Trips. For more, visit approval of the publisher. Underground Railroad road Tour runs from the Freedom Center in Free Press is a registered trademark. Cincinnati to Oberlin, Ohio, with its Heritage adventurecycling.org/ugrr.

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREE PRESS Page 3 Safe-house Frost Smithfield including Horace Greeley, William Lloyd jointly by the American Historical Asso- After incorporating in 1992, the Smith- Garrison and John Brown visited often, ciation and the Canadian Historical Asso- field Community Association raised funds exchanging ideas with the Hoppers, Gib- ciation for the best book on Canadian- to restore the church and the nearby bonses and each other around the dining American relations or on the history of Gerrit Smith estate, and then placed table. Greeley's relative, Samuel Sin- both countries. I’ve Got a Home In Glory them both on the National Register of clair, publisher of the New York Tribune, Land rose to number four on the Cana- Historic Places in 1994. lived a few doors down. dian best-seller list, was favorably re- viewed in The New York Times and has One of America’s wealthiest men and Because of the family’s abolitionist sold well in the United States. leading abolitionists, Gerrit Smith was a views, a mob plundered Hopper-Gibbons financial backer of John Brown, a vocal House during the New York Draft Riots of Karolyn Smardz Frost is a Toronto-born advocate for women’s suffrage, three July, 1863, involving the residence in a archaeologist and historian whose 1985 times the Liberty Party’s candidate for pivotal event that shaped both New York excavation of the Thornton and Lucie president and twice ran for governor of City’s and America’s history. Blackburn home site in Toronto made New York. In several cases, Smith used history. I've Got a Home in Glory Land is his own money to provide legal defense Though Hopper-Gibbons House’s prove- the fruit of more than twenty years of for freedom seekers. nance makes it hard to understate its historical detective work into this fugi- historical importance, New York City has tive slave couple’s dramatic escape from In 2005, the Smithfield Community Asso- been slow to protect it and other Under- Kentucky to Canada via the Underground ciation incorporated the National Aboli- ground Railroad sites in the city. One Railroad and Canada’s precedent-setting tion Hall of Fame and Museum. On Octo- historian states that no major city with refusals to extradite the two freedom ber 22, 2005, 170 years to the day since Underground Railroad sites has done less seekers to the United States. the New York State Anti-Slavery Society to protect them than New York City. first met in the old church where the As- Dr. Frost holds a doctorate in archeology sociation meets, the National Abolition In another case reported here (January, and has taught at Toronto’s York Univer- Hall of Fame inducted Frederick Doug- 2008), only relentless intervention by a sity and at Nova Scotia’s Dalhousie Uni- lass, William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Brooklyn community group and elected versity. While she wrote I’ve Got a Home Mott, and Gerrit Smith. officials in New York City halted destruc- In Glory Land, she served as Executive tion of the Harriet and Thomas Truesdell Director of the Ontario Historical Soci- Visit scaPeterboro.org for more. safe-house which a developer had cov- ety. With Adrienne Shadd and Afua Coo- eted as the site of a parking deck. per, Dr. Frost earlier wrote The Under- Freedom Center As in the Brooklyn group’s effort, Luskin ground Railroad: Next Stop, Toronto!, community’s foremost educator but con- and Finch’s work has run into Kafkaesque and with Frederick Armstrong, Hilary tinues to be its leading fundraiser. Perry bureaucratic obstacles and apparent dis- Bates Neary and Bryan Walls, Ontario's notes that several donors have worked dain from city government. Despite the African-Canadian Heritage: Collected closely with new Freedom Center educa- pair’s success in getting building permits Writings of Fred Landon, 1918-1967. tion programs. Apple assigned staff who assisted in developing software, hard- rescinded or revoked and stop-work or- She is current writing Steal Away Home: ware, programs, project management ders issued, the building’s owners have Letters to a Fugitive Slave, to be pub- and the Freedom Center presence on been able to mysteriously obtain re- lished by Harper Collins, an account of iTunes University. authorized permits, and construction has the correspondence between a slave’s continued off and on. mistress in Louisville and her runaway Other donors involved with the new edu- State Assemblyman Richard Gotfried in- maid in Toronto, “an amazing tale and cation programs include the Ford Foun- tervened on behalf of the preservation- all entirely true” in the author’s words. dation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Knowledge Works and the ists, and the city’s Landmark Preserva- Karolyn Frost resides with her family in General Mills Foundation. tion Commission plans to protect Hop- Toronto and on the Nova Scotia coast. per-Gibbons House with landmark status Visit FreedomCenter.org and click on the Visit HomeInGloryland.com for more. this Fall. In the meantime, construction, For Educators button for full details. legal or not, has progressed so far that ∆ ∆ ∆ the next challenge appears to be to re- quire its removal. Free Press will keep Editor’s Note: Dr. Frost is a member of Distribution of 625 Wellman Scale readers up to date on the evolving fight. the Free Press Panel of Judges. Free Underground Railroad Site Ratings In Two States Press prize procedures allow judges to Fern Luskin, Professor of Art History at be eligible for nomination for a Free New York

LaGuardia Community College, and her 67.4% Press prize but require judge nominees 65.3% neighbor Julie Finch, a chef, live a few Maryland to recuse themselves from all delibera- Combined doors down from Hopper-Gibbons House. tion on the awarding of that prize in the Visit MindfulWalker.com for more. year nominated. 45.0% Correction 26.7% 22.9% In the May, 2009, issue of Underground Railroad Free Press, a chart in the article enti- 22.5% tled “New Research: Most Site Claims Rely On Oral Tradition” was displayed incorrectly. 16.7%

Frequencies of Wellman Scale ratings in the chart were inadvertently shown in the re- 8.3% 4.1% 4.3% 4.0% 3.5% 3.3% 3.0% verse order by rating. This led to a few minor misinterpretations in the article. Free 3.0% Press regrets the error. The corrected issue now appears on our web site under Ar- 1 2 3 4 5 chives and the correct chart is provided here. Wellman Scale Rating