Presented by Deirdre Sinnott
Utica’s Hope Chapel is the oldest African American church in the Mohawk Valley. It roots started with the First Presbyterian Church and the Sabbath School movement in the 1810s when enslavement was still the law in New York State. Later Jermain Loguen was involved before 1848 when the church marks its founding year. 2023 is the 175th anniversary of Hope Chapel A. M. E. Zion as it is now known. Hope Chapel is one of the places designated as an UGRR site by the Ft. Stanwix Underground Railroad Project, headed by Dr. Judith Wellman.
Deirdre Sinnott is a novelist, filmmaker, historian and social change activist. Currently, she is researching the early history of the oldest African American church in the Mohawk Valley. She was a historical consultant and researcher for the Ft. Stanwix Underground Railroad History Project, funded by the National Parks Service and has spoken extensively about Utica’s abolition history. Her historical novel, “The Third Mrs. Galway” is set in 1835 in her native Utica, New York.
