At 4 pm on Friday, October 10th Jan DeAmicis and Mary Hayes Gordon, Co-Chairs of the Oneida County Freedom Trail, will provide a one hour, one mile tour of Underground Railroad and abolition sites in Utica – including the history of the Utica mob that forced the 600 abolitionists to leave Utica.

Interested persons meet with DeAmicis and Gordon at 120 Bleeker Street (Legal Aid Office) across the street from the Utica Resource Center for Refugees and next to the Centro Bus facility where there are restrooms. There are several places to eat or snack at the final stop on the tour and several restaurants nearby.

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On October 21, 1835, six hundred New York State abolitionists convened in Utica NY to form the New York State Antislavery Society. However, the delegates were threatened by a mob led by Congressman Samuel Beardsley. Gerrit Smith invited the abolitionists to Peterboro to hold the meeting safely. Through the night 400 of the men traveled to Peterboro to form the New York State Antislavery Society on October 22.