I can say, without exaggeration, this is one of the most extraordinary stories that I’ve ever heard. and maybe one of the most important, so my guest today is Max Smith. He’s a historian, a storyteller, and a lifelong steward of the history of Peterborough New York. So this is a tiny village in Madison County that most people have never heard of, but that quietly shaped the course of American history.
So what you’re about to hear. Is the story of how the abolitionist movement functioned in many ways, like an early startup, so a small group of people that had an idea that was considered radical, dangerous, and disruptive, and the epicenters of that abolitionist movement. it wasn’t Boston or Washington.
it was right here in upstate New York. The story starts with the drunken mob shutting down an abolitionist meeting in Utica and how that meeting was reborn the next day in Peterborough. And hundreds of people walked miles overnight to continue that work, and those choices sent ripples across the country that still shape our politics today.
Now Max walks us through the life of Gerrit Smith, whom I’m sure you’ve probably never heard of. I’ve never heard of him, but he was one of the wealthiest men in America in the 18 hundreds. And after this event, he started giving away his fortune to fund abolition, women’s suffrage and civil rights. He was hosting Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, John Brown, and formerly enslaved people at his own dinner table, and his mansion in Peterborough became one of the stops on the Underground Railroad.
This is also a deeply personal story for Max. It’s one that connects his own family lineage directly to the Underground Railroad, the Civil War, and the long arc of freedom in this country. So if you care about how change actually happens and how movements are built, how courage, community, and conviction scale over time.
This is a conversation you are not going to forget. It’s not a startup story in the way we usually tell them, but it might be one of the most powerful ones we’ve ever shared.
Learn more about The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum and the Abolition Walk
