On Dec. 31, 1862, African Americans met in homes, meeting halls and churches in the north and secret locations in the south to await the new year, which brought the promise of freedom under the Emancipation Proclamation.
On Monday night, descendants of former slaves and area historians celebrated the 150th anniversary of the proclamation that decreed “that all persons held as slaves… shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”
The group gathered around a watchfire on the Peterboro village green, reading portions of the Emancipation Proclamation and singing spiritual hymns.
Peterboro was known as one of the first integrated communities, attracting freed slaves who settled there thanks in part to wealthy abolitionist Gerrit Smith.
On Sept. 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued a military order freeing the slaves in the states that had seceded from the Union unless the South surrendered and rejoined the Union within 100 days.
Peterboro resident Owen Corpin said the news spread across the country during the 100 days after Lincoln’s first announcement.
“Now, things can be around the world in 60 seconds,” he said. “Back then, they didn’t have the Internet. They couldn’t tweet.”
By New Year’s Eve, anticipation had reached a fever pitch, he said.
“It was a big event that everyone had hoped and prayed for, for years and generations,” Corpin said. “And all of a sudden it happened. This was a new era.”
Corpin and others organized the “Watch Night” event in Peterboro to commemorate the tiny hamlet’s connection to the abolition movement.
Corpin lives in the house that once belonged to his great-grandfather, Billy Smith, a freed slave who rode in the Union Cavalry. After the Civil War, he settled in Peterboro.
Corpin can also trace his ancestry to Harriet Russell, a slave whose freedom was purchased by Gerrit Smith in 1841. When she came to Peterboro with her husband and five children, Russell was charged with overseeing the laundry for the Smith estate. Her daughter, Malvina Russell, or “Viney,” was the last Peterboro resident to have been born a slave when she died in 1925.
Corpin said the coming year will focus on the contributions made by African American soldiers who served in Civil War. The Emancipation Proclamation enabled the enlistment of former slaves into the Union Army and Navy; by the end of the war, almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had fought for their freedom under the Union flag.
“People know about the important places of battles from the Revolutionary and Civil War,” Corpin said. “But they have no idea about Peterboro, which played such a role in abolition and the women’s movement.”