Workshops - Session 1 (10am-11am)

1.1) The Underground Railroad Through a Slave Girl’s Eyes – Mayeesa Mitchell, student presenter (G)
Addy, a 9 year old freedom seeker, in the American Girl series, will come to life through a re-enactment by Mayeesa Mitchell. Addy will answer your questions about enslavement, freedom, the Civil War, and President Lincoln.

1.2) Slavery and Freedom on the World Wide Web: A Guided Tour - Amy Murrell Taylor, Assistant Professor of History, SUNYA (G)
Find reliable, quality, primary internet resources related to slavery, abolition, and the Underground Railroad. Learn about sources from letters to music and what can be learned from these different documents.

1.3) Calls to the Struggle - Don Papson, Vivian Papson, Rev. Fred Shaw, independent researchers and re-enactors (G)
Learn about New York Anti-Slavery Society agent T.B. Watson of Keeseville, Rev. Henry Highland Garnet, pastor of Troy’s Liberty Street Presbyterian Church, and Boston abolitionist/suffragist Sarah Parker Remond through this dramatic reading.

1.4) What the Underground Railroad Means to Me - Students from New Covenant Charter School (G)
Freedom - what did it mean to those who were enslaved? What did it mean to Freedom Seekers? What did it mean to abolitionists? What does it mean to me today? Join us as we share our responses to these and other related questions in story and visual images.

1.5) History as Fiction: Writing an Underground Railroad Novel - Dr. Elaine Hadley, Empire State College (A)
Deep River is set in 1852 New York State and brings together a Black man, Isaac, and a White woman, Maizie. They are forced to come to terms with who they are, the choices they must make, and what price they must pay for freedom and self-reliance. The insights and mysteries in creating a fictional, yet historically researched, novel will be discussed, along with a reading from the novel.

1.6) The Odyssey of Moses Viney - Neil B. Yetwin, independent researcher and educator (A)
Learn about the life of Moses Viney, who escaped from slavery in Maryland on the UGR and lived in Schenectady for more than 60 years. Methods of research will be discussed.

1.7) Photographic Documentation of Underground Railroad Sites - Stephen Marc, Prof. of Art, Arizona State Univ.(A)
Since 2000, Marc has photographically documented UGR sites in over 22 states and Ontario, Canada. He will share his work, which visually describes the remaining architectural structures and definitive landscapes. The use of digital cameras will be addressed, as well as how and why he uses digital imaging to construct composites that describe these historic places, inside and out.

1.8) The Great Generation: The UGR and the Invention of Black Leadership in America - Fergus Bordewich, author of Bound for Canaan: the Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America (A)
In the UGR, African Americans led racially mixed groups in which whites enjoyed no special privileges owing to their color. Discussion will focus on how the UGR, and larger abolitionist movement, contributed to this first generation of Black political leaders in American history. New Yorkers Jermaine Loguen, David Ruggles, Stephen Myers, and Frederick Douglass, and non-New Yorkers Lewis Hayden, George deBaptiste, William Lambert, and William Still will be highlighted.

1.9) Social Network Analysis of the Underground Railroad in the Capital Region - Binod Sundararajan, Doctoral Candidate, Literature and Communication, RPI (A)
Presentation will focus on a social network analysis that was done for some key figures active in the UGR in New York’s Capital Region. A pictorial representation will be provided of the nature of the networks employed by abolitionists and freedom seekers that was utilized to help fugitives escape from enslavement and attain freedom. Network graphs, or sociograms, will depict important connections that were established, maintained, and at times disrupted over a period of time and the entrepreneurial nature of the UGR and the implications for understanding the entrepreneurial networks, and how these networks can be fostered and managed to create entrepreneurial opportunities.

Workshops - Session 2 (11:10am-12:10pm)

2.1) Feel the Rhythm - Greg Mosley, Music artist, Operation Unite Education and Cultural Arts Center (G)
Introduction to African instruments—drum, bell, and shaker, in a drum circle format. Bring any instrument or share one of ours.

2.2) Revealing Freedom: Coding and Representation in the Material Culture of the Underground Railroad - Julia Killey, Meghan Vacca, Zippy Gilmore, Alexandra Ktenas, Regina Morgan, RSC Student presenters; Prof. Jennifer Ball, chair (G)
The presentations will focus on how material culture was embedded with special meaning to aid the enslaved in their attempts to escape slavery and on the historical representations of material culture after the Civil War up to the present day. Coding in spirituals, methods of transportation, quilts, and spirituality will be highlighted. Historical representations of a UGR house will be presented, along with how it changes over time and how American society responded to the artifacts of the Underground Railroad.

2.3) Drawing Strength from Our History by Sharing Our Stories – Vibetta Sanders, clinical social worker, school administrator, multi-cultural consultant, independent researcher (G)
Take a powerpoint journey through slave dwellings in different parts of the African Diaspora using narratives of captured Africans, slave narratives, and personal narratives of African Americans who returned to Africa. Participants will be able to draw strength from the triumphs of the ancestors, be inspired to find their own stories from history, and recognize the strength that lies beneath the struggles.

2.4) Truth Telling or Fiction? - Dr. Mary Nell Morgan-Brown, Associate Professor, Empire State College (A)
Using Toni Morrison’s Beloved as a tool, we will conduct a candid discussion of the Underground Railroad and the peculiar institution of human slavery in the USA. If you can’t read it before the session, you will want to read Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison’s book and see internationally renowned Oprah Winfrey’s movie, Beloved, after this session.

2.5) Runaway Slaves in Peterboro - Norman K. Dann, Prof. Emeritus of Social Sciences, Morrisville State College (A)
The connections that Gerrit Smith had within the UGR network aided hundreds of freedom seekers to find liberty in either New York State or Canada. We will survey those connections, then examine documentable cases of freedom seekers in Peterboro.

2.6) UGR Sites: How Do We Increase Public Awareness? - Maren Stein, Assoc. Prof. Emeritus, Russell Sage College (A)
Many urban UGR sites have been transformed to meet contemporary needs, thereby losing their historic integrity. This slide presentation of UGR sites in Troy will provide an opportunity to discuss ways to present information about such sites to the public.

2.7) Abolition, the UGR and African American Life, 1800-1870, Seneca County, NY - Billie Luisi-Potts, Executive Dir., National Women’s Hall of Fame; Walter Gable, Seneca County Historian; Dr. Judith Wellman, Historian and Director, Seneca County UGR Railroad Resources (A)
Presentation and discussion of interim findings of the NY Preservation League funded survey of sites, people and activities concerned with the UGR, abolition / anti-slavery activism, and African American life in Seneca County, 1800 - 1870.

2.8) Liberty’s Seedbed: A Cultural History of the Growth of North Star Country out of New York’s Old “Burned-Over District” - Dr. Milton Sernett, Professor Emeritus, Syracuse University (A)
New York State’s “Burner-over District” proved to be fertile ground for the growth of UGR activity. This workshop examines the formative phase of abolitionism in the 1820s and 1830s when religious revivals gave birth to a host of reform movements. In order to better understand the historical context of UGR activity in the upstate region, special attention will be given to how the controversy over slavery affected religious institutions.

2.9) Role of the US Colored Troops in the Resistance and Liberation of Enslaved Americans - Harry Bradshaw Matthews, Associate Dean and Director, US Pluralism Programs; Executive Director, USCT Institute (A)
Explore the emergence of an organized resistance to the slavery system in the United States and the chronology of events leading to the passage of the 13th amendment ending slavery in the US. Specific references by abolitionists calling for Black men to fight for the liberation of their 4 million darker brethren will be included.

Workshops - Session 3 (1:10pm-2:10pm)

3.1) Bring Our History to Life - Wanda Webster, Artistic Director, UGR Players (G)
History and techniques for creating staged presentations will be highlighted. A teacher guide will be available for classroom projects. Group participation will involve practicing various techniques for utilizing theatre in education and theatre as entertainment / education.

3.2) African Movement - Elena Mosley, Dance artist, Operation Unite Education and Cultural Arts Center (G)
Experience movement inspired by traditional African dances and African rhythms. Loose fitting clothing and bare feet are necessary.

3.3) The Great Cazenovia Fugitive Slave Law Convention of 1850 - Hugh C. Humphreys, retired Madison County judge and adjunct professor at Syracuse University (G)
This presentation will focus on a history of the anti-slavery movement in the Burned Over District from the opening of the Erie Canal to the gathering of fugitive slaves in a Cazenovia apple orchard in August, 1850. A famous daguerreotype, containing a story within a story, captures Douglass, Smith, and a number of other abolitionists at the convention. Told with numerous slides and quotes from some of the most eloquent speakers and writers of the period.

3.4) Jesse’s Story: Degrees of Freedom - Jane Williamson, Director, Rokeby Museum (A)
Jesse emancipated himself by escaping from New York City and making his way to a Vermont sheep farm. He worked and saved his wages so that he could buy his freedom legally. This slide presentation, based on historical documents, explores the degrees of freedom for African American in the 19th c.

3.5) Rev. Henry Highland Garnet of Troy: Black Revolutionary - Scott Christianson, researcher and author (A)
More than a century before Malcolm X and the Black Panthers, Rev. Henry Highland Garnet of Troy electrified the nation with his call for Black slaves to resist their oppressors, with force if necessary. This workshop will trace Garnet’s career, with an emphasis on his time at the Liberty Street Church, and explore some of his ideas.

3.6) Taking the Underground Railroad to Market - Histonomics - Kevin Cottrell & Jessica Thrope, co-owners, Mo Better Buffalo (A)
This workshop deals with the benefits of applying the “Mo Better” concept - meshing the UGR with the heritage tourism industry. We will also cover the application of tourism as a funding tool for communities that harbor UGR sites. The “Mo Better” concept has been successfully applied in Buffalo, NY.

3.7) Researching Douglass & Melville in Albany & Troy - Robert K. Wallace, Regents Prof., Northern Kentucky Univ.(A)
After describing the aspiration that led to the writing of Douglass and Melville, attention will be given to the steps that led to discoveries about their physical and intellectual proximity concerning issues of freedom and slavery in Albany and Troy in 1845. Research questions will be posed involving Thurlow Weed, Charles VanLoon, Isaiah Rynders, and the Hutchinson family.

3.8) Education on the UGR in Central NY: the Genealogy of African American School Age Children in an Abolitionist Community - April L. Harris, Adjunct Faculty, Sonoma State Univ., Syracuse Univ. (A)
Explore recent findings on the African American community in Syracuse, NY in the years leading up to the Civil War, focusing on information about school age children living in Syracuse in 1850. Information will be shared on the method of collecting data and analyzing findings of the community’s educational environment.

Workshops - Session 4 (2:20pm-3:20pm)

4.1) Solomon Northup - a Re-enactment - Clifford Oliver, independent researcher, artistic photographer (G)
Solomon Northup, a native new Yorker, was kidnapped into slavery and returned home twelve years later. Years of research are combined with years of experience presenting the life of regional resident Solomon Northup. Discussion focusing on the process of creating a re-enactment will follow the re-enactment.

4.2) Flight to Freedom: an Underground Railroad Story - Nancy Marie Payne, storyteller (G)
Bringing people and events of the emancipation movement to life, a storyteller presents an account of the Underground Railroad as seen through the eyes of a Quaker farm wife from Easton, New York.

4.3) African Burial Grounds in the Capital Region - Lisa Anderson, Bioarcheologist; Corey McQuinn, archeologist; Cordell Reaves, Heritage NY; Paul Stewart, URHPCR (G)
Two African Burial Grounds have been located in New York’s capital city. Learn how the sites were located, how skeletal remains were excavated, what the skeletal remains can tell us, plans for preservation of the sites and honoring of those who were interred there, and what remains to be done.

4.4) The Train to Coffin Hill - Edward Shaughnessy, Prof. of Sociology and Law, John Jay College, CUNY (A)
The Underground Railroad passed through Dutchess County, NY. The Friends Meeting along the route were passage points at the Oblong, Moore’s Mills, The Nine Partners, and Bull’s Head. Sojourner Truth’s parallel passage west of the Hudson River was rivaled by the quiet efforts of the Quakers.

4.5) From their Voices: the Power of the Slave Narrative - Oscar Williams, Asst. Prof., Africana Studies, SUNYA (A)
This workshop addresses the role of the slave narrative in American society. Various issues of slavery will be discussed through examination of a select group of narratives, which will include Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Oloudah Equiano, Mary Prince, Elizabeth Keckley, and others.

4.6) National Park Service Network to Freedom Program - Sheri Jackson, Northeast Regional Coordinator, National Park Service Network to Freedom Program (A)
The National Park Service has spearheaded a national effort to coordinate and preserve the national Underground Railroad story. Learn about how this is being accomplished through the integration of local UGR sites, museums, and educational programs into a “mosaic of community, regional, and national stories.”

4.7) Connecting the Pathways to Liberty: the Harriet Tubman - Charles Nalle - Troy, New York Connection - Donald Hyman, educator, writer, actor, singer (A)
This workshop will focus on the connection between the pathways to liberty for freedom seekers in Troy, NY and the Capital Region area in 1860. An in-depth examination will be conducted of the connection between Tubman, Nalle, the 1850 Federal Fugitive Slave Act, the abolition movement in Troy, and the ‘incident’ which led to a riot in Troy, NY in 1860.

4.8) Liberty Street Presbyterian Church: Its Legacy - Steve Tyson, independent researcher (A)
The Liberty Street Presbyterian Church in Troy, NY has been recognized as a contributor to safe passage on the UGR and of being home to one of the staunchest advocates of abolition, the Rev. Henry Highland Garnet. What became of the church after the days of the Civil War and after the days of the Civil Rights movement? After Liberty Street Church was integrated into Oakwood Avenue Presbyterian Church in 1963, what was the relationship of Liberty Church to the surrounding community and to those advancing the cause of social justice? These little known aspects of the Church's legacy will be examined and discussed.

4.9) Paved With Good Intentions: An Unsentimental Look at Gerrit Smith’s Grand “Scheme” to Turn 3,000 Black New Yorkers into Adirondack Farmers - Amy Godine, independent scholar, curator, and author (A)
In 1846, the New York abolitionist reformer and wealthy land baron Gerrit Smith gave away 120,000 acres of Adirondack land to 3,000 Black New Yorkers. But radical philanthropy and land speculation made strange, uneasy bedfellows. Class trumps race in this talk about Smith’s well-intentioned but ill-conceived largess.

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