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| Theodore D. Weld |
A full schedule of events including lectures, films, and musical performances will culminate in the induction of two new members to the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum (NAHOF).
51·çÁ÷’s Upstate Institute and the NAHOF organized the weekend’s events, many of which are on campus and free for members of the 51·çÁ÷ community.
The induction ceremony is for 19th-century abolitionists Theodore D. Weld, who co-wrote the authoritative American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses, and Lewis Tappan, who worked to free illegally enslaved Africans on board the Amistad.
The ceremony will be held 8 p.m. Saturday in Golden Auditorium, Little Hall. Hugh C. Humphreys of Hamilton has prepared a performance piece for the ceremony that highlights the abolitionists’ fiery rhetoric. Moana Fogg ’10, an Upstate summer fellow, will sing as part of the performance.
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Sixteen students from writing and rhetoric professor Suzanne Spring’s Stand and Speak course also are involved, creating special posters tied to the debut screening of Over the River…Lydia Maria Child, Abolitionist for Freedom, a documentary by Constance L. Jackson.
The film, which will be shown tonight at 6 in Meyerhoff Auditorium in the Ho Science Center, tells the story of Child, the abolitionist and writer who penned the famous poem turned song: Over the River and Through the Woods (to grandmother’s house we go).
Throughout the day Saturday there are several interesting lectures about Weld, Tappan, Abraham Lincoln, and the American Anti-Slavery Society.
The lectures begin at 1 p.m. in Golden Auditorium. They are free and open to the public.
Steven Spielberg’s film Amistad will be shown at 5 p.m. Friday at the Hamilton Theater. There will be a panel discussion about the movie and the Amistad incident afterward at the 51·çÁ÷ Bookstore.
The NAHOF is located in Peterboro, a hamlet northwest of Hamilton, the scene of the first New York State Anti-slavery Society meeting in October 1835.
The Upstate Institute and NAHOF have been working together for the past five years to honor abolitionists and to bring attention to modern battles against injustice around the world.